Part 17

With the beginning of 1863, immediately after the Emancipation Proclamation, a call was made for Negroes to enlist in the United States Army, to which there came a ready response. Before the end of that year there were 100,000 former slaves in the military service, about half of whom bore arms in the ranks; and by the close of the war the number of Negro troops had risen to 186,000.

It has been usual to speak of this enlistment in its bearings on the progress of the war. General Grant set a high estimate upon his Negro troops, as some of his dispatches show, and President Lincoln said:

“By arming them we have added a powerful ally. They will make good soldiers, and taking them from the enemy weakens him in the same proportion as they strengthen us.”

But there is another point of view, the influence of this military life on the men who enlisted. Taken as they were at that time, especially those who were in the camps or floating about the country, without settled abodes or regular occupation, what could have happened more to their advantage than to be summoned to the orderly habits and rigid discipline of a soldier’s life. It put the Freedmen into a far more effective school than it was possible to provide for them in the former way.

In some of the regiments there were commanding officers of so fine a mold that is was an inspiration to noble manhood to be under their orders. When Governor Andrews of Massachusetts was choosing officers for the two colored regiments that went from that State, he set it before him to find men “of acknowledged military ability and experience, of the highest social position if possible, and who believed in the capacity of colored men to make good soldiers.” Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, of the first colored regiment mustered into service, was a man of this order, as his illustrious life has amply shown. Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, of the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth, not only proved his own greatness, but his aptitude in making heroes of the men who charged with him to their death in the storming of Fort Wagner. Another of these commanders of Negro soldiers was General Samuel Chapman Armstrong, who went from his honorable military service to the still larger civil service of building up the famous industrial school at Hampton. And yet another was Major Horace Bumstead, who was afterward president of Atlanta University. The colonels, majors, captains and lieutenants of the colored troops as a whole were men of no ordinary character. They were of the sort who do not flinch from taking their stand on the side of an unpopular cause, so it be right, and they put their best endeavor into the training of the troops over whom they were in command. It was an educational opportunity of no trifling significance. Two years or more of daily drill in such a school had in it the making of manhood.

Soon after the Civil War began, several societies were formed to aid in the care and education of the Freedmen. With the progress of the war the operations of the societies were constantly changing to meet new demands. They began at Fortress Monroe and Hilton Head in 1861, and took up work in other places, as one by one they were opened, and necessity appeared for the service they might render. As the field widened, supplies in larger quantity were required; more money had to be raised and a greater number of agents and teachers sent down to the several centers of activity. The teachers at the beginning were mostly men, as was befitting the rough duties undertaken; but it was not long before conditions were such as to invite the ministries of women and the force was largely made up of them. The work of looking after the refugees yielded in time to efforts of many kinds in behalf of the communities. Attention was turned to the young people and children, and schools were opened and maintained particularly for their benefit. Preaching and Sunday school work were also made very prominent. Thus a certain stability and promise of continuance began to be seen.

While the war lasted, these movements were carried on and maintained by voluntary organizations in the North, though uniformly with the approval and cooperation of the military forces. But on March 3, 1865, about a month before the surrender of General Lee, the United States Congress passed an act establishing the Freedmen’s Bureau in the War Department: “A bureau of refugees, freedmen, and abandoned lands, to which should be committed the supervision and management of all abandoned lands and the control of all subjects relating to refugees and freedmen.” This brought the Government into formal participation in these endeavors, with the certainty of adequate financial resources. The bureau was organized with a general superintendent, a general inspector, and a superintendent of schools in each district. “In entering on the work a few schools were found in charge of tax commissioners, a few maintained by the Negroes themselves; but by far the greater number were under the care of the Northern societies. General supervision was at once instituted over all schools; reports were made at stated intervals; unused Government buildings were thrown open for schools houses, and transportation and subsistence for a time were furnished to the teachers.” This cooperation was definitely approved by Congress in the following year, July 16, 1866, and provision for maintenance extended to two years from that date. Half a million dollars was set aside for school expenses. Then grading and systematizing followed, and the societies were stimulated to greater endeavor. The efficiency of the bureau continued to 1870, when the last congressional appropriations for this object were expended and its influence became little more than nominal.

At first, and for some years after the close of the war, the teaching in colored schools was mostly elementary. It was so from the nature of the situation. There was no call for any other than the simplest lessons; and after the Negroes had all been made free it was most essential that a chance should be given them everywhere to acquire some education as a qualification for citizenship. So the task of the Freedmen’s Bureau, joining with the other agencies already in the field, was to set up these elementary schools in all places where there were Freedmen to attend them. These schools were made public in the largest sense and free to all who cared to attend them. And out of them grew the present public school system for Negroes in the South. It was at this point that denominationalism entered into the education of the Negro. In discussing this phase of Negro Education, it is noteworthy that one of the first denominational schools established, was by the colored people themselves in the founding of Wilberforce University.

CHURCH SCHOOLS AFTER THE WAR.

_White church boards._—With these developments under the leadership of the bureau, the people who had maintained the previous operations began to turn their minds to schools of a higher grade; and at this point appear indications of denominational purpose. During the war, considerations of patriotism and humanity were dominant, and churches of every name united in the efforts undertaken; but, with the return of peace, missionary enterprise took into view the churches that were to grow up among the Freedmen, and shaped itself more or less in their behalf. This was most natural in those churches whose affiliations in the South had been strongest before the war—the Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian churches. For the sake of these churches that were to be, they took measures to build up schools of higher learning at carefully chosen centers, which they hoped might become favorite resorts for scholars, rallying points for religious organization and institutions of Christian culture and enlightenment for all the region around.

The Baptists instituted Shaw University at Raleigh, in 1865, Roger Williams at Nashville and Morehouse at Atlanta, in 1867, Leland at New Orleans, in 1869, and Benedict at Columbia, in 1871; and the Free Baptists established Storer at Harper’s Ferry in 1867. The Methodist Episcopal Church instituted Walden at Nashville, in 1865, Rust at Holly Springs, in 1866, Morgan at Baltimore, in 1867, Haven Academy at Waynesboro, in 1868, Claflin at Orangeburg, in 1869, and Clark at Atlanta, in 1870. The Presbyterians already had their important school in Pennsylvania, called Ashmun Institute, now Lincoln University, founded in 1854; to which was added Biddle University, in 1867. The Episcopal Church instituted St. Augustine’s at Raleigh, in 1867. The Congregational Church, through the American Missionary was one of the earliest denominations to enter the field of Negro education systematically. In 1865, it had Avery Institute at Charleston, Ballard Normal at Macon, and Washburn at Beaufort, N. C.; in 1866, Trinity at Athens, Ala., Gregory at Wilmington, N. C., and Fisk University at Nashville; in 1867, Talladega College in Alabama, Emerson at Mobile, Storrs at Atlanta, and Beach at Savannah; in 1868, Hampton Institute in Virginia, Knox at Athens, Ga., Burwell at Selma, Ala., since removed to Florence, and the Ely Normal, now a public school in Louisville; in 1869, Straight University at New Orleans, Tougaloo in Mississippi, Le Moyne at Memphis, and Lincoln at Marion, Ala.; in 1870, Dorchester Academy at McIntosh, and the Albany Normal in Georgia.

The United States Government in 1867 chartered Howard University “for the education of youth in the liberal arts and sciences,” with special provision for the higher education of negroes, but designed for all who might wish to study there, with no race discriminations.

Several notable schools were started in this early period by representatives of the Society of Friends; in 1862 Miss Towne and Miss Murray opened the Penn School on Helena Island, in the neighborhood of Hilton Head; in 1865 Cornelia Hancock, of Philadelphia, opened the Laing School at Mount Pleasant, in the vicinity of Charleston, and carried it on until 1869, when it passed into the charge of Abby D. Munro, of Bristol, R. I., who continued it for upwards of forty years; in 1868 Martha Schofield, of Pennsylvania, founded the industrial school at Aiken, which bears her name and was under her management till very recently, when she resigned on account of the infirmities of age. In 1864, Calvin and Alida Clark, with the support of the Society of Friends in Indiana, started a work for colored orphans in Helena; and then, in 1869, the education want having become paramount, removed some ten miles to a farm in the country and established there the Southland College.

The growth of educational forces throughout the field is shown by the continual establishment of new schools as well as by the increasing effectiveness of the older ones. Several churches that have not been referred to have had an important share in the movement. The Reformed Presbyterians had their workers among the Negro refugees at Beaufort, Fernandina, Washington, and Natchez during the war, and between 1864 and 1866 they maintained a school at Natchez with an enrollment of some 300 pupils; but in 1874 they undertook a more permanent work in Selma, Ala., with the planting of Knox Academy, which has kept to high educational standards and exerted a most important influence. The United Presbyterians, likewise, had a school in Nashville in 1863, which was carried on in a quiet way till 1875, when Knoxville College was started to do normal work, and forthwith took its position as a central station from which a whole group of schools was directed, several in east Tennessee, others in North Carolina and Virginia, and a number of rural schools in Wilcox County, Ala. In 1878 a school was opened at Franklinton, N. C., which was maintained by the “American Christian Convention” and in 1890 was chartered as the Franklinton Christian College. The Southern Presbyterians, in 1876, established Stillman Institute at Tuscaloosa for the education of Negroes for the Christian ministry. The Southern Methodist Episcopal Church in 1884 founded Paine College at Augusta, Ga. Thus the several bodies of Christian people each had its own organized activities in behalf of the colored people.

_Negro church boards._—Meanwhile, as these people became better educated, their churches grew in numbers and strength, and the conviction began to find expression that they ought to have schools under their own management. The African Methodist Church had already had Wilberforce in Ohio, founded in 1817, and Western in Kansas, founded in 1864; but they felt that the time had come for other institutions, which should be planted at important centers of power in the South. So, in 1880, this church secured ground in Columbia, S. C., began to build as soon as they were able, and in 1881 opened Allen University; then steps were taken to establish another school in Atlanta, and in 1885 Morris Brown was opened to students; now they have schools at Waco, Tex.; Jackson, Miss.; Selma, Ala., and elsewhere. At about the same time the Zion Methodist Church moved for the establishment of Livingstone College, which was incorporated in 1879, and began work on its present site at Salisbury in 1882; this church now has other smaller schools also. The Colored Methodist Church which is closely affiliated with the Southern Methodist Church, projected Lane College, at Jackson, Tennessee, in 1878 and in 1882, a building was erected and the school opened; this body now has other schools at Birmingham, Ala.; Holly Springs, Miss.; and Tyler, Tex. The Colored Baptists have shown similar enterprise, often in cooperation with the Home Mission Society of the Northern Baptists, but particularly through their own conventions.

PUBLIC PROVISION FOR NEGRO EDUCATION.

_Public Elementary Schools_:—The existence of the large number of private schools for colored people is largely explained by the inadequacy of the public schools. The inequality in the public schools for white and colored children is apparent to every one who visits the South. The Report on Negro Education recently published by the Bureau of Education, presents these inequalities in terms of salaries spent. The report shows that in fifteen Southern States and the District of Columbia, $42,510,703 is spent annually in teachers’ salaries. Of this sum $36,649,827 was for teaching 3,552,431 white children and only $5,860,876 for teaching 1,852,181 colored children. In other words the number of white children is less than twice the number of colored children, but the amount of money spent for their education is over six times that spent for the colored children. The average or per capita annual expenditure for the education of the white child is $10.32, while that for the colored child is only $2.89.

In addition to the sums appropriated for the maintenance of the common schools the South in 1912–13 appropriated $6,429,991 for higher schools for white people and only $336,970 for similar schools for colored people.

The amount expended in teachers’ salaries in the Southern States and the average for each child of school age are shown in the following table:

───────────────┬───────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────── STATE │ AMOUNT OF TEACHERS’ │ AVERAGE PER CHILD │ SALARIES │ ───────────────┼─────────────┬─────────────┼─────────────┬───────────── │ WHITE │ COLORED │ WHITE │ COLORED ───────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┼───────────── Alabama │ $2,523,550│ $372,177│ $9.41│ $1.78 Arkansas │ 2,587,462│ 455,938│ 12.95│ 4.59 Delaware │ 357,071│ 47,415│ 12.61│ 7.68 Florida │ 1,022,745│ 167,381│ 11.50│ 2.64 Georgia │ 2,884,580│ 483,622│ 9.58│ 1.76 Kentucky │ 3,389,354│ 401,208│ 8.13│ 8.53 Louisiana │ 2,807,103│ 211,376│ 13.73│ 1.31 Maryland │ 2,567,021│ 282,519│ 13.79│ 6.88 Mississippi │ 1,284,910│ 340,459│ 10.60│ 2.26 North Carolina │ 1,715,994│ 340,856│ 5.27│ 2.02 Oklahoma │ 3,232,706│ 283,385│ 14.21│ 9.96 South Carolina │ 1,454,098│ 305,080│ 10.00│ 1.44 Tennessee │ 1,938,487│ 298,772│ 8.27│ 4.83 Texas │ 4,892,836│ 904,335│ 10.08│ 5.74 Virginia │ 2,767,365│ 421,381│ 9.64│ 2.74 ───────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────

These figures explain the efforts of the colored people to enlist the sympathy and support of the North and their willingness to contribute out of their poverty to the establishment of schools.

_Public High Schools._—There are only 65 public high schools for negroes in the Southern States. Of these, 47 maintain four-year courses and 18 have three-year courses. In addition, there are about 200 public schools which enroll a few pupils above the elementary grades. Practically all the four-year high schools are in the large cities of the border States. Over half are in Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia; 16 are in Oklahoma, Tennessee and Virginia. South Carolina and Florida have only 2 each; North Carolina and Louisiana have no public high schools for negroes. North Carolina, however, provides three well-managed State normal schools offering secondary work. The city high schools of Washington, D. C., and St. Louis, Mo., are unusual in extent of plant, ranging in value from $200,000 to $450,000.

The following table presents the more important facts for the Public High Schools:

PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS AND NORMAL SCHOOLS.