 Topic 8. Third Paper of 20th Century Negro Literature. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Phyllis Vincelli. 20th Century Negro Literature. Topic 8. Third Paper by Professor George A. Goodwin. Is it time for the Negro colleges in the south to be put into the hands of Negro teachers? George Augustus Goodwin was born at Augusta, Georgia, February 20th, 1861, being the eldest son of Mr. George and Mrs. Catherine Goodwin. His parents taught him until he was old enough to enter the public schools taught by Yankee teachers. Having lost his father at an early age, he subsequently experienced some difficulty in remaining in school. However, his now-sainted mother, by the assistance of his uncle, Mr. Charles Goodwin, kept him in school. For two consecutive years it was necessary for him to walk twelve miles daily in order to secure proper school advantages. While yet a lad, he attracted the attention of both races and was several times offered good positions as a public school teacher. He, however, taught a private school four miles from the city and was thereby able to attend the Augusta Institute, now the Atlanta Baptist College. In the spring of 1879 he united with the historic Springfield Baptist Church, Augusta, Georgia, where, for three generations, his parents and paternal grandparents had worshipped. May 29th, 1884, he graduated from the Atlanta Baptist College as salutatorian. On leaving school he took up teaching as a profession, in which he has been eminently successful in developing hundreds of young people. He has filled with credit and satisfaction the Principalship of Eddie High School at Millageville, Georgia, Union Academy, Gainesville, Florida, Preparatory Department, Livingstone College, Salisbury, North Carolina, also Atlanta Baptist College, and Waller Baptist Institute, Augusta, Georgia. He was the prime factor in the movement which resulted in the organization of the present Georgia State Teachers Association, of which he was secretary for a number of years. In the organization of the Florida Teachers Association, he was one of the original members. As an institute lecturer he is helpful in many ways. Having received a call to the pastorate of the Second Baptist Church at Gainesville, Florida, his church at Augusta, Georgia ordained him to the ministry, January 6th, 1889. He was very successful in this work in connection with his school duties. In July 1895 he was happily married to the talented Miss Anna Laura Gardner of Augusta, Georgia. In attempting to answer this question, I do so fully cognizant of the widely differing opinions which are super induced by the present restive state of society. It is a delicate task. In this brief article, it is not possible to be very extensive. Condensation is a necessity. Taking observations from ancient and modern civilizations as external evidence, and corroborating the experiences of the present age as internal evidence, my conclusion is reached. If my judgment is faulty, let us remember that trite aphorism, to err is human, to forgive divine. If this be the question of the fawning element among us, then let us beware of the leaven of the separatists. If the liberal philanthropist makes the inquiry, let us demonstrate the wisdom of his investment by our exhibitions of gratitude and common sense. It cannot be a serious question with the learned sociologist, for he is too conversant with the philosophy of history and the laws of psychology. Of the popular idea of the over ardent lovers of the race, it may be more comforting to an impressed people, but truth is better than fiction, facts than theories. Therefore, with a conscience void of offense to all, and with the sincere hope that rite will ultimately triumph before all is lost in the mad rush of the enthusiasts, I venture to express some of my convictions regarding this question. The proposition categorically stated would be, It is time for the Negro colleges of the South to be put in the hands of Negro teachers. Such an affirmation would imply, at least, that these colleges are elsewhere than in the South. That the colleges in the South are not holy nor partially taught by Negro teachers. That those who teach in them, for some cause real or imaginary, are not equal to the demands of the times. That the Negro exclusively is superior for educating the Negro in the South. That a crisis is upon us, making it imperative to man Negro colleges with Negro teachers. These inferences might be indefinitely multiplied, but they are harsh and fallacious. Implications worthy of the best thought interested in an issue involving the destiny of a race and this great republic. The facts in the case are so potent that I shall not attempt a critical refutation of the inferences deduced. But we'll consider the subject more freely on another line, in this way avoiding what might be a fearful indictment of those least prepared for it. Critically considering every contingency, I see no valid reason for such a course as the question suggests. In answer thereto, wisdom replies, it is not time for the Negro colleges in the South to be put in the hands of Negro teachers. This is an intensely practical age. In many respects, it is utilitarian. The survival of the fittest is the most universal creed of the age. The American civilization is distinctly Anglo-Saxon. Whatever does not attain to that standard is out of harmony with real conditions. The Negro is here to stay. Two radically different civilizations cannot thrive in one country at the same time. One advances, the other retrogrades. Every chapter in history verifies the assertion. It is providential that the American Negro is brought into close touch with the highest ideals of American life through his most enlightened Anglo-Saxon brother. Only in this way can the Negro meet the rigid requirements of the ever advancing standard of the proud progressive Anglo-Saxon. The dominant race is naturally the criterion. Any other alternative would be abnormal and destructive in its far-reaching results. The ruling people in this country have the prestige of centuries of culture. Had the Negro's days of enslavement been years of culture and refinement equal to that of the best people about him, present conditions would be greatly changed. However desirable it may be to elevate the Negro to places of dignity, it should be borne in mind that his color is not a qualification. These institutions will, in time, be more generally under the management of Negro teachers, if the future proves the work of the present regime non-productive of the highest results. Such a change will greatly depend upon the ability of the Negro to appreciate his real condition and to utilize to the best advantage the means and opportunities now afforded him. Error now will prove abortive and, perhaps, postpone indefinitely what might otherwise sooner come in the natural course of events. Such a transition must not be revolutionary, but evolutionary, if come it must, and come it will. It were better to hope that all schools in the south were as they are in the north for the most part. That the Negro himself should so soon contemplate this as practical is an anomaly. That some evils exist I do not deny. But would separation and exclusion be a remedy? No. It is praiseworthy in the Negro that he, in a measure, has kept abreast with the march of this civilization. He has been responsive to the magic touch and the benign influences of those who came to rescue him from intellectual and moral darkness. The northern teachers and a few southern heroes began the work of educating the Negro at a time when teaching the Negro was an extremely delicate innovation, nay, dangerous experiment. Through what perils, privations, ridicule, and ostracism they passed, only such pioneers as doctors H. M. Tupper, D. W. Phillips, C. H. Corey, J. T. Robert, E. A. Ware, E. M. Cravath, General Armstrong, Miss S. B. Packard, and others of the immortal galaxy are permitted to speak from their high citadel of triumph. Shall these of blessed memory, together with their associates and workers of less prominence be forgotten? Shall they be revered, or shall they be culminated? Dumb be the lip and palsied the hand that would, in any wise, dishonor them and their efforts to uplift humanity. It will not be remiss on my part to ask for their successors in spirit and labor, and for their constituency, that consideration which a superior statesmanship and a practical Christianity dictate. These institutions, under their present management, have met the exigencies of the times. Granting that no human effort is perfect, the fact remains that these institutions have lived up to the high purpose for which they were founded, and are still being liberally supported and endowed. What more could be required by rational beings? This couplet may be suggestive. He who does as best his circumstances will allow, does well, acts nobly, angels can do no more. That others could have done better, or equally as well, remains to be seen. The history of the country from 161920 to 1865 is valid testimony. It was the influence of the northern teachers, for the most part, that the best educated men among us were matriculated at the great northern universities. It was by them that Negro schools were first operated in the south. The needs and magnitude of Negro education in the south have greatly intensified the philanthropic spirit of the northern missionary societies and workers, each year resulting in a vast expenditure of money and energy. Shall those who believe culture is colorless be affronted, and shall their representatives be exiled by the beneficiaries? Is the wounded dying traveler under the healing ministrations of the Good Samaritan competent to protest against the merciful steward? Is such the subsequent of all human action? Let justice and reason answer. Formerly, for the Negro literary culture was sort of a forbidden fruit in the Edenic south. For more than two centuries the cherubim of social pollution and moral degradation stood at the schoolhouse gate with sword-like lash in hand under governmental authority to defy the return of the Negro to his pristine eminence in literary culture and moral probity held many years prior to the rise and supremacy of his now dominant kinsmen. It was the northern missionaries, for such they are, who threw open the wick-a-gate of opportunity unto the despairing Negro, causing him to reach forth his hand unto the tree of life, manifesting itself in the development of the higher faculties of a being with God's image. The Negro colleges in the south, with scarcely an exception, were built up by northern philanthropy. They are the best institutions available to a great majority of those seeking the fullest possible development of their intellectual powers. As a rule, they are superior in equipment in both standards of scholarship and discipline at least. This is true by virtue of the power vouchsafed to their management and teaching force through superior years of splendid environment. Under such circumstances, the northern missionary teachers are in their normal condition and prosecuting the work of Negro education. They are usually dispensers of exact scholarship, consecrated service, and broad culture. It is scarcely possible that the Negro, in less than forty years, a creature of misfortune many years prior to his enslavement, should now be the equal of his more favored brother in the acquisition of knowledge or his overmatch in teaching ability. Physiologists are quite unanimous in making the Negro a member of the human race. He therefore has the same faculties and susceptibilities as other members of the human family. He is governed by the same laws of thought. In what then is the Negro constitutionally a better educator of the Negro? There is absolutely nothing in his skin nor sympathies that makes him a superior teacher of the Negro. Other things being equal preparation is the only synonym for superiority in teaching. If now the race has idiosyncrasies entirely different from the rest of the human family, as some wise-acres would imply by their persistency and making this demand for a change in the colleges, then maybe it were better to gratify their wish. These colleges are more than so much material and apparatus. Through them the white brother is best prepared to represent the Negro to those who are to help in his uplift. The peculiar customs in the South weaken the authority of the Negro teacher in comparison with the fiat of the Anglo-Saxon teacher. The Negro teacher in the public schools and in the schools distinctly his own is not more successful to be charitable than the Northern teacher in securing and holding pupils. Nor has it been shown that the Negro teacher develops the powers of the child any faster or in better ways of thinking and acting than does the Northern teacher. Coming to us as they do their ability is rarely questioned. They are never anxious to advertise their fitness for the place by resorting to that unique process in promotions which seems so often the naivete of many another in similar spheres without hereditary influences as his legacy. At some time in some way I have been closely connected with the schools of all grades in the South for the Negro schools owned by the Negro taught by the Negro exclusively schools taught by the Negro and the Anglo-Saxon. I have been the pupil of Northern and Southern white teachers for a brief while a pupil of the Negro teacher at one time janitor of a leading white academy in which help was mutually given by the janitor tutor. I confess that I have yet to see the slightest difference in the general character of receiving and imparting knowledge or in developing character on the principle of color versus culture to accept any such doctrine would be pernicious. These colleges are too important to be used as experimental stations even to gratify the caprice of the most cautious. Such a change in the work of these colleges as the question suggests should be looked upon with some degree of suspicion and as inimical to the best interests of the Negro without undervaluing the great importance of the public schools it were better to try the experiment with them and the few secondary schools for Negro education connected with the several southern states and managed by white trustees exclusively. What has been the history of the local academies and schools transferred to the Negro trustees and teachers not many years after the Civil War? What of those operated in later years as a monument to the creative genius of the Negro? For the most part they remind us that they have seen better days. They speak a mighty truth which should be borne in mind by every class of inquiries on this subject. Self-help and worthy ambitions are commendable but should be rational. The Negro needs the help of the Anglo-Saxon without regard to sections of country. He can advance more safely and rapidly as he walks arm in arm with his brother north and south. Far be it from me that I should in any way underestimate the heroic efforts of institutions wholly run by the Negro. Many of them are striking illustrations of what united effort can do. They can serve a purpose which cannot be overlooked only in proportion as he is more a product than a consumer and as wealth and intelligence become common factors in his social life will the Negro be able to assume entire control of these great institutions founded for him by the northern societies? As to the ability of some members of the race to adorn any position in the gift of these colleges no one denies. There are men of superior scholarship, broad culture, sound character, tact and executive ability even to grace similar places in white institutions. They are exceptions. And yet I do not hesitate to say that were their services in demand they could do so with comparatively more ease and satisfaction than if at the head of a strictly Negro institution. The reason is apparent to those experienced in such matters. Ability and adaptability are not the only requisites for this work. If the Negro has not been able to acquire similar institutions by his own efforts aided by friends north and south is there any guarantee that he would properly appreciate them if thus thrust upon him? I would ask such a concession would be an admission of the point at issue. The south commercially believes in free trade. Assuming it is right it then would not be right to close the intellectual ports of the Negro against the cultured wares of his time honored benefactors in literary commerce. The Negro least of all should not ask it. In southern courts where life and great interests are involved the most intelligent Negro finds it to his advantage to employ legal talent of the opposite race because he is conditioned by the peculiar circumstances of a white judge and jury who in most cases seem to interpret law and weigh evidence in accordance with the prevailing opinions of the dominant class. In the work of Negro education vital interests are involved. The Anglo-Saxon teachers have the culture and the means at their command. They are actual competitors with the Negro and every other people in this particular missionary endeavor. They have given the world its highest civilization. Through them as instrumentalities the torch light of civilization progresses. Christianity brightens every prospect in every land. Why should they be discriminated against in educating the Negro in the south? Should this serve and philanthropy be directed to founding and supporting similar institutions for the more unfortunate class of the stronger race there would be no question about the color of teachers though they be Indian or Japanese. The means used in maintaining these institutions is not obtained from the Negro nor by his influence. Would a change in the policy of the teaching force help or hinder in securing this aid? This change would establish more rigidly the color line so objectionable to the Negro himself. It would be a backward movement. And all probability the color of the darker races is due more largely to some sort of skin disease than to other courses transmitted through the ages since the flood. That is a very charitable Negro who wishes isolation to prevent inoculating the Anglo-Saxon if permitted to teach the Negro. The Negro has ample opportunity for his individuality in his societies and churches. He has gained absolutely nothing by completely divorcing himself from the fostering care of the Anglo-Saxon. Observe the contrast between those Negro churches wholly separated from the Anglo-Saxon and those partially controlled by the dominant race. Those who have been somewhat under the guardianship of the stronger race are usually the highest types of intelligent Christianity. Both races have suffered by the separation, but it is needless to say how much greater the Negro has suffered. The Negro has more to gain by cooperation with his Anglo-Saxon neighbors. Intelligence must be handed down from generation to generation, from race to race by contact, from individual to individual. In the schools of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, for the year 1898 to 1899, the annual report shows that out of 321 teachers employed, 124 were Negroes. It will be borne out by the report of each succeeding year. In a large measure, the other missionary societies north and south are about as liberal in recognizing the Negro teacher. Therefore, to mix the faculties and boards of trustees of all these schools would be ideal in most respects. This would be a happy golden mean. Let us be patient, consider it, and faithful. End of Topic 8, Third Paper. Topic number 8, Fourth Paper of 20th Century Negro Literature. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Tivia Linnell. 20th Century Negro Literature. Topic number 8, Fourth Paper by Mrs. Paul Lawrence Dunbar. Is it time for the Negro colleges in the south to be put into the hands of Negro teachers? By Mrs. Paul Lawrence Dunbar. Mrs. Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Alice Ruth Moore, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, July 19, 1875. Attended public schools there and straight university and was graduated from the latter institution in 1892. Taught in the public schools of New Orleans until 1896 when she went to Boston and New York for study, taking a course in manual training at the Teacher's College. Was appointed a teacher in the public schools of Brooklyn, New York in 1897 and taught there until her marriage to Mr. Paul Lawrence Dunbar in March, 1898. In 1895, Mrs. Dunbar's first book, Violets and Other Tales, was published by the Monthly Review Publishing Company, Boston. The next book, The Goodness of St. Wilk, published by Dodd, Mead & Company, New York in 1899 was favorably received by some of the best critics. Mrs. Dunbar has written a number of short stories for some of the leading magazines and newspapers in the country, among them, McCleards, The Smart Set, Ladies' Home Journal, The Southern Workman, Leslie's Weekly, The New York Sun, Boston Transcript, and for over a year did regular work on the Chicago News. While teaching in Brooklyn, Mrs. Dunbar was actively interested in mission work on the east side of New York, conducting classes in manual training and kindergarten after the regular hours of public school work was over. Since her marriage, Mrs. Dunbar has resided in Washington and has done some of her best work in short story writing, as well as acting as secretary and general help-meet for her husband. It seems a rather incongruous fact that so many of our Negro colleges in the South, whose purpose is aboundly, the insistence of higher education of Negro youth, should deny that youth not only the privilege of teaching in the very institutions which have taught him, but also deny him the privilege of looking up to and reverting his own people, for so long have the whites been held up to the young people as the only ones whom it is worthwhile taking as models, for so long have the ignorant of the race been taught that their best efforts after all are hardly worthwhile, that wherever possible it behooves us to place over the masses those of their own race who have themselves attained to that dignity to which the education of the schools tend. It has been my good or ill fortune to number among my acquaintances a number of young boys and girls who could rattle off with fluency the names of Greek philosophers of ancient days who could at moments notice tell you the leading writers of the Elizabethan period or the minor Italian poets of the 15th century, but who were hopelessly ignorant of what members of their own race had done. They had, perhaps, a vague idea of an occasional name here and there, but what the owner of that name had done was a mystery. Happily these instances are decreasing in proportion as our schools are filled with teachers of our own race who can teach a proper appreciation of and pride in the deeds of that race. It is unreasonable to suppose that any teacher of another race, no matter how conscientious and scrupulous is going to take the same interest in putting before his pupils the achievements of that people and contradistinction to the accepted course of study as laid down by the textbooks. How many young students of history in the white taught schools remember being drilled to revere the glorious memory of Lincoln and Sumner and Garrison and Wendell Phillips and how few remember being drilled to remember Crispos Attics and the 54th and the 55th Massachusetts. How many students of literature are taught of the first woman writer in America to earn distinction, Margaret Hutchison, but how few are reminded of her contemporary, Phyllis Wheatley. How many students remember the lacrimose career of Byron and how few know of his contemporary, Pushkin. The student of natural sciences talked about Franklin but not of Benjamin Banneker. The Elocution classes remember Booth and McCready and even how excellent an actor was Shakespeare, but they seldom hear of Ira Aldrich. How many of the mathematical students remember that Euclid was a black man and the elementary classes and art, how glibly they can discuss Turner and Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites and the style of Gibson, but they are likely not to know the name of the picture that the Paris Salon hung for Henry Tanner. It is unreasonable, of course, to expect any Caucasian to remember these things or if remembering them to be able to point them out with the same amount of pride and persistence that a Negro in the same position would and therein lies the secret of the foundation of a family, a government, a nation, pride, pride in what has been done, in what may be done, in the ability to reach the very highest point that may be reached with that quality instilled in the young from the very first. The foundation for individual achievement is firmly laid and what more can we ask of any education? It has been said that Negro boys and girls hearing of the deeds of some great man or woman have exclaimed, oh, well no colored person can do that. Fortunately, there are few of these now, but how much is it to be regretted that such an expression could ever have been made? At least within the last 30 years. By all means, let us have Negro teachers in our Negro schools and colleges. Let the boy who wants to be a farmer carry with him the memory of success for Negro farmers and of a Negro who knew enough about scientific agriculture to teach him to compete with the best white farmers in the country. It will be easier for him to reach his goal and he will have more respect for his own ability and less cringing, severe admiration for his Caucasian rivals. Let the boy or girl whose inclinations tend to a profession get their instruction from someone whose complexion is akin to their own. It is a spur to ambition, a goal to be reached. The what man has done man may do is so much easier from a successful brother than from a successful though supercilious neighbor. Of course, the good effect of Negro teachers upon the youthful minds is the only point thus far touched upon. The other side of the equation is obvious. What is the use of training teachers of spending time and money acquiring college training if there is no place to use such training? There is room and plenty of it for the college bread man and woman and for every place filled by our own teachers there is so much more money saved to our own race. The closer the cooperation, the wealthier it is. The tie to the lines drawn about distributing money outside our own great family, the more affluent our family becomes. Every cent is an important item. More money for ourselves, a better opinion of our own achievements and ability to do more, a higher regard for the raising of Negro ideals and a deeper sense of the responsibility imposed on each individual to do his part towards leavening the lump. These things are dependent upon our teachers and our own schools. By all means, let us have Negro teachers in Negro colleges. End of topic number eight, fourth paper, recording by Tivia Lonell. Topic nine, first paper of 20th century Negro literature. This is a LiberVox recording. All LiberVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LiberVox.org. Recording by D. Rando. 20th century Negro literature. Topic nine, first paper by Booker T. Washington. Will the education of the Negro solve the race problem by Booker T. Washington? Professor B. T. Washington, the founder and principal of the Tuskegee Alabama Normal Industrial Institute, was born at Hills Ford Post Office, Franklin County, Virginia, about 1856 or 1857. At the age of nine, he went with his mother and the rest of the family to Maldon-Conowa County, West Virginia. Here he attended the common schools until 1872. In the fall of that year, he left Maldon and proceeded to Hampton Institute at Hampton, Virginia. His means were scanty, but he thought he had money enough to reach that place. Upon his arrival at Richmond, he found himself minus enough to pay for a night's lodging. He took the next best, shelter under a sidewalk. Next morning, he got employment in helping to unload a vessel, thus earning a sufficient sum with which to continue his journey to Hampton. At this institution, the first year he paid his expenses by working with a brother helping him sum. The two remaining years, he worked out his entire expenses as janitor. Graduating in 1875, he taught school several years at Maldon, the place of his birth. In 1878, he entered Wayland Seminary and took a course of studies there. After leaving there, he was given a position in Hampton Institute, which position he held two years, the last year having charge of the Indian boys. Meanwhile, the legislature of Alabama established an act establishing a normal school at Tuskegee, Alabama. The state commissioners applied to General S. C. Armstrong, principal of Hampton Institute, to recommend someone for principal. He recommended Mr. Washington, who went at once to Alabama and organized the school on July 4, 1881. The buildings then occupied were a church and a small dwelling house with 30 pupils and one teacher. Since that time, it has made such wonderful progress that today the site of the institution is a city within itself. Mr. Carnegie recently donated to the institution $20,000, with which to build and equip a library. It is aided by friends both north and south. Mr. Washington is a splendid example of grit and determination, and the history of his life is worthy the study of every colored youth in our land. Professor Washington, in speaking of his experiences at Hampton, says, while at Hampton I resolved, if God permitted me to finish the course of study, I would enter the far south, the black belt of the Gulf states, and give my life in providing as best I could the same kind of chance for self-help for the youth of my race that I found ready for me when I went to Hampton. In 1881, I left Hampton and went to Tuskegee and started the Normal and Industrial Institute. Professor Washington is in great demand as a speaker in all educational gatherings. For several consecutive years, he has addressed the National Educational Association where from 10 to 15,000 of the cream of the educational workers of the nation listen to his addresses with rapid attention. Without question, he is the great leader of the United States and one of the great men of this age. Will education solve the race problem? Is the title of an interesting article in the June number of the North American Review by Professor John Rote Strotton of Macon, Georgia. My own belief is that education will finally solve the race problem. In giving some reasons for this faith, I wish to express my appreciation of the sincere and kindly spirit in which Professor Strotton's article is written. I grant that much that he emphasizes as to present conditions is true. When we recall the past, these conditions could not be expected to be otherwise, but I see no reason for discouragement or loss of faith. When I speak of education as a solution for the race problem, I do not mean education in the narrow sense, but education which begins in the home and includes training in industry and in habits of thrift, as well as mental, moral and religious discipline and the broader education which comes from contact with the public sentiment of the community in which one lives. Nor do I confine myself to the education of the Negro. Many persons in discussing the effect that education will have in working out the Negro question overlook the helpful influence that will ultimately come from the broader and more generous education of all the race elements of the South. As all classes of whites in the South become more generally educated in the broader sense, race prejudice will be tempered and they will assist in lifting up the black man. In our desire to see a better condition of affairs, we are too often inclined to grow impatient because a whole race is not elevated in a short time, and it is not built. In all the history of mankind, there have been few such radical, social and economic changes in the policy of a nation as have been effected within 35 years in this country with respect to the change of 4 million and a half of slaves into 4 million and a half of free men, now nearly 10 million. When all the conditions of the past are considered and compared with the present, the North and the Negro are to be congratulated on the fact that conditions are no worse but are as encouraging as they are. The sudden change from slavery to freedom from restraint to liberty was a tremendous one and the wonder is not that the Negro has not done better but that he has done as well as he has. Every thoughtful student of the subject expected that the first two or three generations from would lead to excesses and mistakes on the part of the Negro which would in many cases cause moral and physical degeneration such as would seem to the superficial observer to indicate conditions that could not be overcome. It was to be anticipated that in the first generation at least the tendency would be among a large number to seek the shadow instead of the substance to grasp after the mere signs of the highest civilization instead of the reality to be led into the temptation of believing that they could secure in a few years that which it has taken other races thousands of years to obtain. Anyone who has the daily opportunity of studying the Negro at first hand cannot but gain the impression that there are indisputable evidences that the Negro throughout the country is selling down to a hard life. That he is fast learning that a race, like an individual must pay for everything it gets the price of beginning at the bottom of the social scale and gradually working up by natural processes to the highest civilization. The exaggerated impressions that the first years of freedom naturally brought are given way to an earnest, practical view of life and its responsibilities. Let us take a broad generous survey of the Negro race as it came into the country represented by 20 savages in 1619 and trace its progress through slavery through the Civil War period and through freedom to the present moment. Who will be brave enough to say that the colored race as a whole has not increased in numbers and grown stronger mentally, morally, religiously, industrially and in the accumulation of property? In a word has not the Negro at every stage shown a tendency to grow into harmony with the best type of American civilization? Professor Strotton lays special stress upon the moral weakness of the race. Perhaps the worst feature of slavery was that it prevented the development of a family life with all of its far-reaching significance. Except in rare cases the uncertainties of domicile made family life during 250 years of slavery and impossibility. There is no institution so conducive to right and high habits of physical and moral life as the home. No race starting in absolute poverty could be expected in the brief period of 35 years to purchase homes and build up a family life and influence that would have a very marked impression upon the life of the masses. The Negro has not had time enough to collect the broken and scattered members of his family. For the sake of illustration and to employ a personal reference I do not know who my own father was. I have no idea who my grandmother was. I have or had uncles, aunts and cousins, but I have no knowledge as to where most of them now are. My case will illustrate that of hundreds of thousands of black people in every part of our country. Perhaps those who direct attention to a girl's moral weakness and compare his moral progress with that of the whites do not consider the influence of the memories which cling about the old family homestead upon the character and aspirations of individuals. The very fact that the white boy is conscious that if he fails in life he will disgrace the whole family record extending back through many generations is of tremendous value in helping him to resist temptations. On the other hand, the fact that the individual has behind him and surrounding him, proud family history and connections serves as a stimulus to make him overcome obstacles when striving for success. All this should be taken into consideration to say nothing of the physical mental and moral training which individuals of the white race receive in their homes. We must not pass judgment on the Negro too soon. There are centuries for the influence of home, school, church and public contact to permeate the mass of millions of people so that the upward tendency may be apparent to the casual observer. It is too soon to decide what effect general education will have upon the rank and foul of the Negro race because the masses have not been educated. Throughout the south especially in the Gulf states the great bulk of the black population lives in the country districts. In these districts the schools are rarely in session more than three months of the year. When this is considered in connection with poor teachers, poor school houses and an almost entire lack of apparatus it is obvious that we must wait longer before we can judge even approximately of the effect that general education will have upon the whole population. Most writers and speakers upon the subject Negro's non-progressiveness base their arguments upon alleged facts and statistics of the life of Negroes in the large cities. This is hardly fair. Before the Civil War the Negro was not to any considerable extent a denizen of the large cities. Most of them live on the plantations. The Negro living in the cities has undergone two marked changes. One, the change from slavery to freedom. Two, the change from country life to city life. At first the tendency of both these changes was naturally to unsettle, to intoxicate and to lead the Negro to wrong ideas of life. The change from country life to city life in the case of the white man is about as marked as in the case of the Negro. The average Negro in the city with all of his excitements and has not lived there more than half a generation. It is therefore too soon to reach a definite conclusion as to what the permanent effect of this life upon him will be. This I think explains the difference between the moral condition of the Negro to which Professor Stroughton refers in the states where there has been little change in the old plantation life as compared with that in the more northern of the Atlantic states where the change from country to city life is more marked. Judging from close observation my belief is that after the Negro has overcome the false idea which city life emphasizes two or three generations will bring about an earnestness and steadiness of purpose which do not now generally obtain. As the Negro secures a home in the city learns the lessons of industry and thrift and becomes the taxpayer his moral life improves. The influence of home surroundings of the school, the church and public sentiment will be more marked and have a more potent effect in causing him to withstand temptations. But notwithstanding the shortness of the time which the Negro has had in which to get schooled to his new life anyone who has visited the large cities of Europe will readily testify that the visible signs of immorality in those cities are far greater than among the colored people of America. Prostitution for gain is far more prevalent in the cities of Europe than among the colored people of our cities. Professor Stroughton says that the Negro has degenerated in morals since he became free. In other words that his condition in this respect is not as hopeful as it was during the early period of slavery. I do not think it wise to place too much reliance on such a view of the matter because there are too few facts upon which to base a comparison. The ball statement that the Negro was not given to crime during slavery proves little. Slavery represented an unnatural condition of life in which certain physical checks were kept constantly upon the individual. To say that the Negro was at his best morally during the period of slavery is about the same as to say that the innocent prisoners in the state prison and the city penal institutions in the city of Boston are the most righteous 2,000 people in Boston. I question whether one can find 2,000 persons in Boston who will equal these 2,000 imprisoned criminals in the mere negative virtues. During the days of slavery the Negro was rarely brought into the court to be tried for crime. Hence there was almost no public record of crime permitted by him. Each master in most cases punished his slave as he thought best and as little as possible was said about it outside of his little plantation world. The improper relations between the sexes with which the black races now frequently charged in most sections of the south were encouraged or winked at under the slavery system because of the financial value of the slaves a custom that was fostered for three centuries cannot be blotted out in one generation. In estimating the progress of a race we should not consider alone the degree of success which has been actually attained but also the obstacles which have been overcome in reaching that success. Judged by the obstacles overcome few races if any in history have made progress commiserate with that of the colored people in the same length of time. It may be conceited that the present generation of colored people does not compare favorably with the present generation of the white race because of the reasons I have already given and the further reason that on account of the black man's poverty of means to employ lawyers to have his case properly appealed to the higher courts and his inability to furnish bonds his criminal record is much worse than that of the white race both in the northern and southern states. The southern states as a whole have not yet reached a point where they are able to provide reformatories for juvenile offenders and consequently most of these are sent to the state prison where the regates show that the same individuals are often committed over and over again because in the first instance the child prisoner instead of being reformed becomes simply heartened to prison life. In the north it is true the negro has the benefit of the reformatories but the unreasonable prejudice which prevents him from securing employment in the shops and the factories more than offsets this advantage. Hundreds of negroes in the north become criminals who would become strong and useful men if they were not discriminated against as breadwinners. In the matter of assault upon white women the negro is placed in a peculiar attitude while this vile crime is always to be condemned in the strongest language and it should be followed by the severest legal punishment yet the custom of lynching a negro when he is accused of committing such a crime calls the attention of the whole country to it in such a way as is not always true in the case of a white man north or south. Anyone who reads the daily papers knows that such assaults are constantly charged against white men in the north and in the south but because the white man in most cases is punished by the regular machinery of the courts attention is seldom attracted to his crime outside of the immediate neighborhood where the offense is committed. This to say nothing of the cases where the victim of lynch law could prove his innocence if he were given a hearing before a cool level headed set of jurors in open court makes the apparent contrast unfavorable to the black man it is hardly proper in summing up the value of any race to dwell almost continually upon its weaker element as other men are judged so should the negro be judged by the best that the race can produce rather than by the worst keep the searchlight constantly focused upon the criminal and workless element of any people and few among all the races and nations of the world can be accounted successful more attention should be directed to individuals who have succeeded and less to those who have failed and negroes who have succeeded grandly can be found in every corner of the south I doubt that much reliance can safely be placed upon mere ability to read and write a little as a means of saving any race education should go further one of the weaknesses in the negroes present condition grows out of failure in the early years of his freedom to teach him in connection with thorough academic and religious branches the dignity and beauty of labor and to give him a working knowledge of the industries by which he must earn a subsistence but the main question is what is the present tendency of the race where it has been given a fair opportunity and where there has been thorough education of hand, head and heart this question I answer from my own experience of 19 years in the heart of the south and from my daily contact with whites and blacks in the first place the social barrier prevents most white people from coming into real contact with the higher and better side of the negroes social life the negro loafer, drunkard and gambler can be seen without social contact the higher life cannot be seen without social contact as I write these lines I am in the home of a negro friend where in the matter of cleanliness sweetness attractiveness modern conveniences and other evidences of intelligence morality and culture the home would compare favorably with that of any white family in the neighborhood this negro home is unknown outside of the little town where it exists to really know the life of this family one would have to become a part of it for days as I have been one of the most encouraging changes that have taken place in the life of the negro race in the past 30 years is the creation of a growing public sentiment which draws a line between the good and bad the clean and unclean this change is fast taking place in every part of the country it is one that cannot be accurately measured by any table of statistics to be able to appreciate it fully one must himself be a part of the social life of the race as to the effect of industrial education in the solution of the race problem we should not expect too much from it in a short time to the late general sc armstrong of Hampton institute in Virginia should be given the credit mainly for inaugurating this system of education when the Hampton institute began the systematic industrial training of the negro such training was unpopular among a large class of colored people later when the same system was started by me at the Tuskegee normal and industrial institute in Alabama it was still unpopular especially in that part of the south but the feeling against it has now almost disappeared in all parts of the country so much so that I do not consider the opposition of a few people here and there as of material consequence where there is one who opposes it there are thousands who endorse it so far as the colored people are concerned I consider that the battle for this principle has been fought in the victory one what the colored people are anxious about is that education they shall have floral mental and religious training and in this they are right for bringing about this change in the attitude of the colored people much credit should be given to the John F. Slater fund under the wise guidance of such men as Mr. Morris K. Jessup and Dr. J. L. M. Currie as well as to Dr. H. B. Frizzle of the Hampton institute that such institutions for industrial training as the Hampton institute and the Tuskegee institute are always crowded with the best class of Negro students from nearly every state in the union and that every year they are compelled to refuse admission to hundreds of others for lack of room and means are sufficient evidence that the black race has come to appreciate the value of industrial education the almost pathetic demand of the colored people for the industrial education in every corner of the south is added evidence of the growing intelligence of the race in saying what I do in regard to industrial education I do not wish to be understood as meaning that the education of the Negro should be confined to that kind alone because we need men and women well educated in other directions but for the masses industrial education is the supreme need I repeat that we must not expect too much from this training in the redemption of a race in the space of a few years there are few institutions in the south where industrial training is given upon a large and systematic scale and the graduates from these institutions have not had time to make themselves felt to any very large extent upon the life of the rank and foul of the people but what are the indications as I write I have before me a record of graduates which is carefully compiled each year of the hundreds who have been trained at the Tuskegee Institute less than five percent have failed because of the any moral weakness these graduates as well as hundreds of other students who could not remain to finish the course are now at work in the school room in the field in the shop in the home or as teachers of industry or in some way they are making their education felt in the lifting up of the colored people wherever these graduates go they not only help their own race but in nearly every case they win the respect and confidence of the white people not long ago I sent a number of letters to white men in all of the southern states asking among others this question judged by actual observation in your community what is the effect of education upon the Negro in asking this question I was careful to explain that by education I did not mean a mere smattering but a thorough education of the head, heart, and hand I received about 300 replies and there is only one who said that education did not help the Negro most of the others were emphatic in stating that education made the Negro a better citizen in all the record of crime in the south there are very few instances where a black man who has been thoroughly educated in the respects I have mentioned has been ever charged with the crime of assaulting a woman in fact I do not know of a single instance of this kind whether the man was educated or in a college the following extracts from a letter written by a southern white man to the daily advertiser of Montgomery, Alabama contain most valuable testimony the letter refers to convicts in Alabama most of whom are colored I was conversing not long ago with the Wharton of one of our mining prisons containing about 500 convicts the Wharton is a practical man who has been in charge of the prisoners for more than 15 years and has no theories of any kind to support I remarked to him that I wanted some information as to the effect of manual training in preventing criminality and asked him to state what percent of the prisoners under his charge had received any manual training besides the acquaintance with the prudest agricultural labor he replied perhaps about one percent no much less than that we have here at present only one mechanic that is there is one man who claims to be a house painter have you any shoemakers never have had a shoemaker have you any tailors never have had a tailor any printers never have had a printer any carpenters never have had a carpenter there is not a man in this prison that could solve to a straight line now these facts seem to show that manual training is almost as good a preventative for criminality as vaccination is for smallpox we can best judge further of the value of industrial and academic education by using a few statistics bearing upon the state of Virginia where graduates from the Hampton Institute and other schools have gone in large numbers and have had an opportunity in point of time to make their influence apparent upon the Negro population these statistics based on census reports were compiled mainly by persons connected with the Hampton Negro Conference taking taxation as a basis the colored people of the state of Virginia contributed in 1898 directly to the expenses of the state government $9,576.76 and for schools $3,239.41 from their personal property a total of $12,816.17 while from their real estate for the purpose of a commonwealth there was paid by them $34,303.53 and for schools $11,457.22 or a total of $45,760.75 a grand total of $58,576.92 the report for the same year shows them to own 987,118 acres of land valued at $3,800,459 improved by buildings valued at $2,056,490 a total of $5,856,949 in the towns and cities they own lots assessed at $2,154,331 improved by buildings valued at $3,400,636 a total of $5,554,976 for town property and a grand total of $11,411,916 of their property of all kinds in the commonwealth a comparative statement of different years would doubtless show a general upward tendency the counties of Aquamac, Essex, King and Queen Middlesex, Matthews, Northampton Northumberland, Richmond Restmoreland, Gloucester Princess Anne and Lancaster all agricultural show an aggregate of 114,197 acres held by Negroes in 1897 the last year accounted for in official reports against 108,824 held the previous year an increase of 5,379 or nearly 5% the total valuation of land owned by Negroes in the same counties for 1897 is $547,800 against $496,385 for the year next preceding a gain of $51,150 or more than 10% their present property as assessed in 1897 was $517,560 in 1896 $527,688 a loss of $10,128 combining the real and personal property for 1897 we have $1,409,059 against $1,320,504 for 1896 a net gain of $88,555 an increase of 6.5% the records of Gloucester Lancaster Middle Sex Princess Anne Northumberland Northampton King and Queen Essex and Westmoreland where the colored population exceeds the white show that the criminal expense for 1896 was $14,313 but for 1897 it was only $8,538.12 a saving of $5,774.17 to the state or a falling off of 40% this does not tell the whole story in the first named year 26 persons were convicted of felonies with sentences in the penitentiary while in the year succeeding only 9 or 1 third as many were convicted of the graver offenses of the law according to these returns in 1892 when the colored people formed 41% of the population they owned 2.75% of the total number of acres assessed for taxation and 3.40% of the buildings in 1898 although not constituting more than 37% of the population by reason of white immigration they owned 3.23% of the acreage assessed and 4.64% of the buildings a gain of nearly 1 third in 6 years according to statistics gathered by a graduate of the Hampton Institute in 12 counties in Virginia there has been in the part of the state covered by the investigation an increase of 5,379 acres in the holdings of colored people and an increase of 51,150 dollars in the value of their land in 9 counties there has been a decrease in the number of persons charged with felonies and sent to the penitentiary from 26 in 1896 to 9 in 1897 I do not believe that the Negro will grow weaker in morals and less strong in numbers because of his immediate contact with the white race the first class life insurance companies are considered excellent authorities as to the longevity of individuals and races and the fact that most of them now seek to ensure the educated class of blacks is a good test of what these companies think of the effect of education upon the mortality of the race the case of Jamaica in the West Indies presents a good example by which to judge the future of the Negro of the United States so far as mortality is concerned the argument drawn from Jamaica is valuable chiefly because the race there has been free for 62 years instead of 35 as in our own country during the years of freedom the blacks of Jamaica have been in constant contact with the white man slavery was abolished in Jamaica in 1838 the census of 1844 showed that there were 364,000 Negroes on the island in 1871 there were 493,000 and in 1891 there were 610,597 in a history of Jamaica written by Mr. W.P. Livingston who spent 10 years studying the conditions of the island we find that immediately after emancipation on the island there was something of the reaction that has taken place in some parts of our country but that recently there has been a settling down to real earnest life on the part of a large proportion of the race after calling attention to certain weak and unsatisfactory phases in the life of the Jamaica Negro Mr. Livingston says this then is the race as it exists today a product of 60 years of freedom on the whole a plain, honest anglicized people with no peculiarities except a harmless ignorance and superstition looking at it in contrast with what it was at the beginning of the period one cannot but be impressed with the wonderful progress it has made and where there has been steady progress in the past there is infinite hope for the future the impact of Roman power and culture on the northern barbarians of the United Kingdom did not make itself felt for 300 years instead of dying off before civilization he, the Negro, grows stronger as he comes within its best influences in comparing the black race of Jamaica with that of the United States it should be borne in mind that the Negro in America enjoys advantages and encouragement which the race in Jamaica does not possess what I have said I repeat is based largely upon my own experience and observation rather than upon statistics I do not wish to convey the impression that the problem before our country is not a large and serious one but I do believe that in a judicious system of industrial, mental and religious training we have found the method of solving it what we most need is the money necessary to make the system effective the indications are hopeful not discouraging and not the least encouraging is the fact that in addition to the munificence of northern philanthropists and the appropriations of the southern state governments from common taxation with the efforts of the Negro himself we reached a point at which the solution of this problem is drawing to its aid some of the most thoughtful and cultured white men and women of the South as is indicated by the article to which I have already referred from the pen of Professor John Roach Strotton End of Topic 9, First Paper Topic 9 Second Paper of 20th Century Negro Literature This is a liverbox recording all liverbox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liverbox.org Recording by D. Rando 20th Century Negro Literature Topic 9 Second Paper by Professor John Russell Hawkins Will the education of the Negro solve the race problem by Professor J. R. Hawkins John Russell Hawkins John Russell Hawkins the oldest son of ASEAN and Kristiana Hawkins was born in the town of Warrington Warn County, North Carolina on May 31, 1862 at the age of six years he began attending the public school of his native town and made rapid progress in his studies when old enough to help his father work he had to stop attending school regularly and apply himself to work on his father's farm in the meantime he kept up studies by attending night school and employing private tutors at the age of 15 he went with four members of the highest class in the regular graded school to take the public examination for school teacher of the five examined he made the highest grades and received an appointment as assistant teacher in the same school where he had received his first training in 1881 he left home and went to Hampton Institute, Hampton, Virginia where he spent one year in special study preparatory for business in 1882 he left Hampton and accepted a position in the government service as railway postal clerk on the line between Raleigh, North Carolina and Norfolk, Virginia here he soon made a record that classed him among the best clerks in the service in 1885 Mr. Hawkins returned to his native town and was elected as principal of the graded school here he spent two years teaching and reading law under private tutors in 1887 he was asked to go to Kittreal, North Carolina to fill the position as business manager and treasurer of Kittreal College then known as Kittreal Normal and Industrial Institute so acceptably did Mr. Hawkins fill this position that in 1890 he was elected to the presidency of Kittreal College which position he has filled with credit during the first eight years of his work at Kittreal he developed that work so rapidly that the trustees deemed it wise to accept his recommendations and broaden the work so as to cover a regular college course Mr. Hawkins has always been an ardent advocate of higher education for the Negro and worked hard to fit himself for giving such advantages to his students for five years he spent his summers in the North where he could get the best school advantages and keep himself in touch with his school methods Mr. Hawkins has been one of the most successful educators of the South and has raised large sums of money by public canvas among the philanthropists of the country in his native state North Carolina he is a recognized leader among his people and by his ability and standing has won the confidence and respect of all classes a great scholar a deep thinker a ready writer and a polish orator his services are almost constantly in demand indeed it has been said of him that he is one of the finest public speakers on the stage he speaks with such power of conviction as to touch the heart of his audiences and at once lead them into the subject under consideration in 1896 he was elected by the general conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church as commissioner of education and filled that office so acceptably that at the end of his first term in 1900 he was re-elected by acclamation he is regarded as among the strongest laymen in his church and one of the best financiers of the race one of the finest qualities of Mr. Hawkins is his devotion to his family and his high ideals in home life in 1892 he married Miss Lillian M. Kennedy of Sioux Falls South Dakota whose companionship and devotion has been a most important factor in contributing to her husband's success they are the happy parents of two children a girl and a boy and are pleasantly located at Kittreal North Carolina in a very beautiful home every nation of recognized merit and ability chronicled in the world's history is proud to revert to some special feature of its life and point with pride to some one thing that has given character to its institutions and added to its national glory as far back as history runs we find nations classes and races pointing out different things as the stronghold the groundwork the pillars on which their fame rests the thing to which the Negro can point with most pride is the activity and progress made in the development of an ideal home life and the providing of a liberal education for his people indeed it is worthy of note that in both church and state there is a growing interest in behalf of extending to all classes the privileges and benefits of at least a limited education nations that once thought of nothing but war and conquest are throwing their influence in the skill of popular education countries that have long wielded the scepter of power and held thousands subject to the will and opinion of one man or said of man are being aroused to the importance of individual thought and individual responsibility churches and organizations that necessarily began their work with one or two as leaders who had to do the thinking for hundreds of others are now turning their attention to the work of training and developing the faculties and character of each one so as to enable him to think and act intelligently for himself and the spirit of the present age in this lies the hope and destiny of all classes and all races hence if there be any particular problem as connected with the Negro race in my opinion the solution of that problem will come only by following the rule of action applied to the uplifting and development of others the Negro is no new species of nature nor a warrior of life no new element in the citizenship of this country and needs no special prescription to suit his needs his case is one common to a people whose surroundings and environments have placed or cause them to be placed in a dependent attitude and his only hope for rising above the common level of a menial slave is to sow husband his resources and change these environments and become the master of rather than the helpless creature of circumstances the faithful Paraneers who carried the torch of knowledge into darkened regions and cheered the lives of thousands with rays of hope and promise opened the way for the liberation of great forces that had long laying dormant and smothered knowledge has been the torch and caring this still we can find treasures still unearthed and truths still unlearned the glories already achieved in the field of science art and literature have but aroused us to seek for still greater honors the ray of light that has fallen across our pathway giving hope and promise of better and brighter things further on has but fired the zeal within us and there is no way of satisfying this burning zeal save the feasting on the coveted goal the riches and beauties of wisdom one writer says as long as one's mind is shrouded in ignorance he is but the tool of others and the victim of foolishness and gross absurdities he will never experience those pleasures which come from a well directed train of thought which can to the dignity of a high nature on the other hand the person whose mind is illumined with the light of knowledge and whose soul is lit up is introduced as it were into a new world he can trace back the stream of time to his commencement and gliding along its downward course can survey the most memorable events and see the dawnings of divine mercy and the manifestations of the Son of God in our nature tis not enough to know that we have faculties tis not sufficient to say that there lives in us the power to see, to hear, to feel to reason to think and to act we must develop these powers until we can feel the benefit of the blessings that come from their use we will never be able to reason for ourselves unless we learn to think for ourselves the thinking mind is the act of mind and the act of mind is the growing mind the growing mind moves the man and the man that moves helps to move the world he moves step by step from the common level of events to things of greater height he rises from pinnacle to pinnacle never ceasing never towering never stopping ever growing ever moving ever rising till he finds the fountain head of all truth and all virtue we are now face to face with a new order of things under this new regime we witness the foreshadowing of a higher sense of civilization a higher standard of morals a broader field of culture and a pure realm of thought indeed, we are only in the shadow of this great light tis not the promise alone that brightens our sky the dawn has appeared the music of the mourn has already been heard and nations are awakening and rushing to crowd around the altar as worshippers at the shrine of learning what lover of letters would doubt for a moment that if Thomas Carlisle could read his letters and dignify the profession with the fertility of his brain instead of captivating the world with his beautiful outline of heroes and hero worship he would summon all his powers as an agency to do reverence as a worshipper at the shrine not of things material not of men but of ideas this is the school to which we are crowding in the development of the educational system we are enabled to find the highest ideals and center our thoughts on the highest and pure standard of life only those who think or those who seek to know the virtues of intelligence and to enjoy the beauties of a pure and ideal life can enter into the spirit of rejoicing over the approach of the time when each person will be measured by what is represented in his ability to exert a potent influence in shaping the destiny of things and helping to mold public sentiment the mind can no more be allowed to remain dormant or inactive than the turf of the field or the muscles of the body it must be stirred up it must be awakened from his stupor and quickened into a newness of life the opportunity for this general awakening was denied our parents who were the victims of slavery and they suffered the loss of the prestige and influence that naturally followed but what was lost to our ancestry must be redeemed to posterity we must center our work in the youth of our land and give them the broadest deepest and highest training the most liberal education should be provided for all an education free from bias free from prescription free from any label that will mark them as Negro laborers as Negro mechanics as Negro scholars but an education that will mark them as artisans as skilled mechanics as scholars thinkers as men and women with masterminds and noble souls in this will we find the reward for our labors in the hope of the race I agree with the writer who says there is nothing to be compared with the beauty of an excellent character and the usefulness of a noble life to the unlimited unfettered spirit of man's mind that can rise above the mountain peak and sweep across the ocean bounds to that unequal beauty of a pure and spotless soul the whole earth with all its beauties of art and skill are counted as not in the sight of God as compared with a living creature that represents in his body the image of his creator and in his mind and soul the divine principles of the mystery the power and glory of his son tis not enough to know that schools and colleges exist and to boast of the advantages and opportunities afforded us we must lay hold upon them and become a part of them we must buy our own efforts out of our own means build own and control our own institutions for the training of our youth and then establish enterprises of business for the practical display and use of the training received the great trouble about our system of education is that the masses have not yet felt the real good of it to some it is no good because they have simply gotten enough to misuse you cannot satisfy a man's appetite by stopping him at the door of your dining room where he can get only a smell of the dinner while he sees others eating of course he would turn away and discuss and call it all a farce you cannot teach a man to swim by stopping him at the water's edge you cannot convince a man that he is at the top of the mountain when you stop him at the base where he can look up and see others above him and you cannot show a man the virtue of education when you stop him at the schoolhouse door and deny him entrance while others crowd by and pass through let him in open the doors wide and let all come in and sit down to the intellectual feast into the deep water where they can be born up by the strong tide of intellect and follow the current of popular ideas we must take them up and away from the foot of the mountain place them on top where they can bask in the sunlight of intelligence where the atmosphere is pure and the virtue of education beams in every eye God made man in his own image and made him a body arranged for his food and raiment stretched nature before him and then commissioned him to go forth and subdue replenish and have dominion over all yea more than this he endowed man with reasoning faculties and for these faculties fixed no bounds but left them to work out their own destiny I do not believe God intended for man's mind to remain undeveloped he did not intend that his creatures should forever remain ignorant and shrouded in ignorance wherever he places talent there he expects to find evidence of growth and increase hence it is our duty to educate and prepare all for the intelligent use of what God has given them if we expect to have a part in shaping events in this life if we expect to be numbered among the learned the strong the molders of public sentiment the masters of things material free from abject menial servitude we must educate the people let this idea run all through our schools until it permeates the life of every boy every girl every man making its influence felt in every home every climb and among all nations end of topic 9 second paper topic 9 third paper of 20th century negro literature this is a liverbox recording all liverbox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liverbox.org Matsuri recording by D. Randal 20th century negro literature topic 9 3rd paper by Professor Kelly Miller will the education of the negro solve the race problem by Professor Kelly Miller it is a hopeful sign when those who are vitally concerned in the outcome of the negro problem are guided in their discussion by the light of evidence and argument and are not impelled to foregone conclusions by transmitted prejudice and traditional bias. The article of Professor John Roach Stratton in the North American Review for June 1900 is notable for its calm, dispassionate argument of treatment and for its freedom from ranker and venom. His conclusions therefore, if erroneous, are all the more damaging because of the evident sincerity and helpful intention of the author. With much erudition and argumentative skill, Professor Stratton sets forth the proposition that education has failed to check the needle's degenerating tendencies or to fit him for his strange and abnormal environment. There are two leading divisions of the race problem. One, the development of a backward race. Two, the adjustment of two races with widely divergent ethnic characteristics. These two factors are, in the mind of many, antagonistic to each other. The more backward and undeveloped the Negro, the easier is the process of his adjustment to the white race. But when you give him Greek and Latin and eyeglasses, frictional problems inevitably arise. Under slavery, this adjustment was complete. But the bond of adjustment was quickly burst asunder when the Negro was made a free man and clothed with full political and civil privilege. The one great question which so far remains unanswerable is, can the two be readjusted on terms of equality? The solution of social problems belongs to the realm of statesmanship, philanthropy, and religion. The function of education is to develop latent faculties. It was a shallow philosophy which prophesied that a few years of schooling on the part of the Negro would solve the race question. If the education of the colored man has not worked out the fulfillment which its propounders prophesied, it simply proves them to be poor profits. The Negro, too, believed that if he could only learn to read and write, and especially if he could go to college, that he would be relieved of every incumbrance that beset him. Education was looked upon as an end and not as an agency. As his friends were destined to disappointment, the Negro himself was doomed to humiliation and chagrin. Education creates as many problems as it solves. It is both static and dynamical. When Professor Stratton says, therefore, that education has not solved the race problem, he utters a truism. But if he means to imply that it has not had a wholesome effect upon the life of the Negro, his conclusion verges upon the absurd. We are apt to be misled by the statistics showing the decline of illiteracy among Negroes. All those who can read and write are set apart as educated persons, as if this mere mechanical information had worked some great transformation in their nature. The fact is a very small percent of the race is educated in any practical or efficient sense. The simple ability to read and write is of the least possible benefit to a backward race. What advantage would it be to the red Indians to be able to trace the letters of the English alphabet with the pen or to vocalize the printed characters into syllables and sentences? Unless the moral nature is touched and the vital energies arouse, there will be no improvement in conduct or increase in practical efficiency. Education has a larger function for a backward than for a forward race. To the latter it merely furnishes a key to an existing lock, while to the former it must supply both lock and key. The pupil who is already acquainted with the nature and conditions of a problem may need only a suggestion as to a skillful or lucky combination of parts in order to lead to its solution, whereas to one ignorant of the underlying facts and factors such suggestion would be worse than useless. Even much of the so-called higher education of the Negro has been only a process of artificially forcing a mass of refined information into a system which had no digestive or assimilate of apparatus. Such education produces no more nourishment or growth than would result from forcing sweet meats down the throat of an alligator. Of education in its true sense, the Negro has had very little. The great defect of the Negro's nature is his lack of individual initiative, growing out of his feeble energy of will. To overcome this difficulty, his training should be judiciously adapted and sensibly applied to his needs. Industrial training will supply the method and the higher culture the motive. Professor Stratton tells us that one hundred million dollars have already been expended upon the education of this race. Prince Lee, as this sum seems to be, it is nevertheless utterly insignificant when compared with the magnitude of the task to which it has been applied. The city of New York alone spends fifteen million dollars annually for educational purposes, and yet if we are to believe the rumors of corruption and the low state of municipal morality, it will be seen that education has not yet done its perfect work in our great metropolis. Then why should we rave at the heart and froth at the mouth because a sum of money, scarcely equal to a third of the educational expenditure of a single American city, though distributed over a period of thirty years and scattered over a territory of a million square miles, has not completely civilized a race of eight million degraded souls? The whites maintain that they impose taxes upon themselves for the education of the blacks. This is only one of the many false notions of political economy which have done so much to blight the prosperity of the South. Labor pays every tax in the world, and although the laborer may not enjoy the privilege of passing the tribute to the tax taker, he is nevertheless entitled to share in all of the privileges which his toll makes possible. And besides children are not educated because their parents are taxpayers, but in order that they may become more helpful and efficient members of the community. It would be wisdom on the part of the South to place the future generations under bonded debt, if necessary, for the education of its ignorant population, white and black. This would be far more statesmanlike than to transmit to them a legacy of ignorance, degradation, and crime. Pride in a political theory should no longer prevent the appeal to national aid to remove the threatening curse. Professor Stroughton underestimates the effect of culture upon a backward race when he minimizes the value of individual emergence. The individual is the proof of the race. The conception of progress has always found lodgement in the mind of some select individuals, whence it has trickled down to the masses below. May it not be that the races which have withered before the breath of civilization have faded because they failed to produce individuals with sufficient intelligence, courage, and good sense to wisely guide and direct their path. What names can the Red Indian present to match Benjamin Banneker or Bookatee Washington, Frederick Douglass, or Paul Lawrence Dunbar? The Negro has contributed 400 patented inventions to the mechanical genius of his country. How many has the aborigine contributed? The Congressional Library has collected 1,400 books and pamphlets by Negro authors. These works are, of course, in the main commonplace or indifferent, but a people who have the ambition to write poor books will soon gain the ability to make good ones. Have any of the vanished races shown such aptitude for civilization? But these are exceptions. So are the imminent men of any race. When the exceptions become too numerous, it is rather poor logic to urge them in proof of the rule. It is also a mistake to suppose that these picked individuals are without wholesome influence upon the communal life. They are diffusive centers of light scattered throughout the whole race. These grains of leaven will actually leaven the whole lump. We take these savages from their simple life in their low plain of evolution and attempt to give them an enlightenment for which the stronger races have prepared themselves by ages of growth. There is in this utterance a tinge of the feeling which actuated the labors who had borne the heat and burden of the day when they objected to the eleventh hour intruders being received on equal terms with themselves. One answer suffices for both. Other men have labored and ye are entered into their labors. It is true that the Negro misses evolution and his adjustment to his environment is made the more difficult on that account. Education therefore is all the more essential and vital. The chasm between civilization and savagery must be bridged by education. The boy learns in a few years what it took the race ages to acquire. A repetition of the slow steps and stages by which progress has been secured is impossible. Attachment to civilization must take place at its highest point. Just as we set a graft upon the most vigorous and healthy limb of a tree and not upon a decadent stem, must the Negro dwell for generations upon Anglo-Saxon stems and cancerian diction before he is introduced to modern forms of English speech. The child of the African slave is under the same linguistic necessity as the offspring of Dupu in Gladstone. He must leap in stanter from primitive mode of local motion to the steamboat, the electric car, and the automobile. Of course many will be lost in the endeavor to sustain the stress and strain. Civilization is a saver of life into life and death into death. Japan is the best living illustration of the rapid acquisition of civilization. England can utilize no process of art or invention that is not equally invaluable to the Oriental Islanders. This has been accomplished by this young and vigorous people, mainly through the education of picked youth. Herein lies the only salvation of the Negro race. In the meantime, the dual nature of the solution and its relative importance to both races is clearly indicated by Voltaire, the great French savant. It is more meritorious and more difficult to wing men from their prejudices than to civilize the barbarian. End of topic 9, Third Paper.