Chapter 19

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 inquirers 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 serve a purpose which cannot be overlooked. Only in proportion as he is more a producer 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? To 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 service 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. In all probability the color of the darker races is due more largely to some sort of skin disease, than to other causes, 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 co-operation 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 1898-1899, 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, considerate, and faithful.

FOURTH PAPER.

IS IT TIME FOR THE NEGRO COLLEGES IN THE SOUTH TO BE PUT INTO THE HANDS OF NEGRO TEACHERS?

BY MRS. PAUL L. DUNBAR.

MRS. PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR.

Mrs. Paul Laurence Dunbar (Alice Ruth Moore) was born in New Orleans, La., 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 Teachers' College. Was appointed a teacher in the public schools of Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1897, and taught there until her marriage to Mr. Paul Laurence 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. Rocque," published by Dodd, Mead & Co., 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 McClures, 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 helpmeet for her husband.

It seems a rather incongruous fact that so many of our Negro colleges in the South, whose purpose is avowedly 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 reverencing his own people. For so long have the whites been held up to the young people as the only ones whom it is worth while taking as models; for so long have the ignorant of the race been taught that their best efforts after all, are hardly worth while, 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 a moment's notice tell you the leading writers of the Elizabethan period, or the minor Italian poets of the fifteenth 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 in contradistinction to the accepted course of study as laid down by the text books. 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 Crispus Attucks and the fifty-fourth and fifty-fifth Massachusetts? How many students of literature are taught of the first woman writer in America to earn distinction, Margaret Hutchinson, but how few are reminded of her contemporary, Phyllis Wheatley? How many students remember the lachrymose career of Byron and how few know of his contemporary, Poushkin? The student of natural science is taught about Franklin, but not of Benjamin Banneker; the elocution classes remember Booth and Macready, and even how excellent an actor was Shakespeare, but they seldom hear of Ira Aldridge. How many of the mathematical students remember that Euclid was a black man? And the elementary classes in 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 could do that!" Fortunately, there are few of these now, but how much it is to be regretted that such an expression could ever have been made--at least within the last thirty 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 successful 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, servile admiration for his Caucasian rivals. Let the boy or girl whose inclinations tend to a profession get their instruction from some one 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 question 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 bred 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 corporation, the wealthier it is. The tighter 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, 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 in our own schools.

By all means let us have Negro teachers in Negro colleges.

TOPIC IX.

WILL THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO SOLVE THE RACE PROBLEM?

BY BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.

PROF. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, A. M.

Prof. B. T. Washington, the founder and principal of the Tuskegee, Alabama, Normal Industrial Institute, was born at Hale's Ford Postoffice, Franklin County, Virginia, about 1856 or 1857. At the age of nine he went with his mother and the rest of the family to Malden, Kanawha County, West Virginia. Here he attended the common schools until 1872. In the Fall of that year he left Malden 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 some. The two remaining years he worked out his entire expenses as janitor. Graduating in 1875, he taught school several years at Malden, 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 passed an act establishing a Normal School at Tuskegee, Alabama. The State Commissioners applied to Gen. S. C. Armstrong, principal of Hampton Institute, to recommend some one for principal. He recommended Mr. Washington, who went at once to Alabama, and organized the school July 4th, 1881. The buildings then occupied were a church and a small dwelling house, with thirty pupils and one teacher. Since that time it has made such wonderful progress that, to-day, 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, and so, 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 ten to fifteen thousand of the cream of the educational workers of the nation listen to his addresses with rapt attention. Without question he is the great leader of his race, 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 Roach Straton, 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 Straton'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 through 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, very much as a house is 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 thirty-five years in this country, with respect to the change of four million and a half of slaves into four million and a half of freemen (now nearly ten million). When all the conditions of the past are considered, and compared with the present, I think the White South, 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 of freedom 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. Any one 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 settling down to a hard, common sense view of 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 giving 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 twenty 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 Straton 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 two hundred and fifty years of slavery, an 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 thirty-five 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 the Negro'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. It requires 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 file of the Negro race, because the masses have not been educated.