Chapter X: Introduction (1)

Education is the highest test of a people’s capacity and the best measure of their progress. The ability of the Negro to become educated according to the highest standards of the times is one of the great marvels of the last half century. Never in the history of the world has any people met with such overwhelming opposition against acquiring such training as will fit them for the full duties of citizen, as have the Freedmen in the United States; never before has a people struggled as nobly and succeeded so well in mastering every branch of learning, as this people, practically all of whom were illiterate at the close of the Civil War; but of whom only thirty per cent were illiterate in 1910.

The influences through which the colored people have passed in their quest for learning constitutes one of the most interesting pages of American history. No historian can chronicle the heart throbs, the ambitions and the untiring energy that they have spent, and are still expending, in their education.

The various education processes to which the Negroes of America have been subjected is interwoven with the history of the United States from the year 1619, when the first slaves were landed, to the present moment. The story of the development of the African slave, to the present condition of the American Negro is full of interest and instruction and worthy of much more extended scientific treatment than this chapter can possibly comprehend.

With all the mistakes that have been made by a loose-jointed American democracy in its treatment of the Negroes, both as slaves and as free men, the general movement of the Negro people has been decidedly forward. Even under slavery these people benefited by a contact with civilization that no corresponding groups have had in any other part of the world. They were quick to perceive that the mastery of the white man over them lay in his education. Though crushed to the lowest level, they never lost hope or opportunity to learn the meaning of books and figures. Sometimes through sympathy of a master’s child, sometimes by a kindly stranger from the North, a slave learned the alphabet and a little arithmetic. When the Emancipation Proclamation was sounded the eagerness and determination of the Negro to obtain an education opened into full blossom, and the colored people consecrated themselves to the one great task of educating their children, so that these coming men and women might be able to live happier and better lives. It was here that systematic efforts were undertaken to build schools for the colored and by the colored people. How wonderful has been the result of their effort is revealed by facts which have just been published by the United States Bureau of Education. These figures show:

1. That $5,860,876 is spent annually by the public authorities of Southern States in the wages of teachers in public schools for Negroes.

2. That the Federal State and land-grant schools have an annual income of $963,611, and a total property valuation of $5,727,609.

3. That the private schools have an annual income of $3,026,460, and a property valuation of $28,496,946.

4. That eight educational funds are devoting part or all of their income for the improvement of Negro schools.

5. That the Negroes themselves are contributing an increasing share to the support of their schools.

6. That Negro illiteracy is now only thirty per cent.

7. That Negro farm laborers and Negro farmers cultivate at least a hundred million acres of land, of which forty-two and a half millions are in farms owned or rented by Negroes.

8. That Negroes own twenty million acres of land, an area equal to that of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.

These facts are indisputable evidences of progress in the past and afford great promise for the future.

HISTORY OF NEGRO EDUCATION.

Into the struggling life of the pioneers of America came the first Negroes landed in this country; brought out of African savagery and sold in Virginia as slaves; set down side by side with indentured bondmen from England, whose lot was little better, to be taught civilization. How soon they learned to talk the English language; to copy the kindlier manners of their new neighbors; to fulfill the duties laid on them; to put their mind upon their tasks; and to lose their native traits in the happier faith of Christianity. It was all as unlike the valley of the Congo from which they came as one could well imagine. People were clothed instead of going naked; they could not live on uncultivated fruits; but had to dig that they might enjoy the harvest; there were better enterprises to undertake than to hunt for men and to fight with other tribes on the chance of catching slaves from them or being caught themselves; it was a condition of order and of law, of homes and housekeeping, or community life and neighborly usages, with prizes of a hundred kinds for good behavior and the habit of fidelity. Of course, there was a great deal that was rough and hard; sometimes there were cuffs and blows, curses and the driver’s lash for any lagging in the work required; often injustice and cruelty; but in contrast with Africa, it was a land of golden opportunity.

In the two hundred years and more that preceded the great emancipation, the number of people of African descent grew to be about 4,000,000. The processes of these 200 years are profoundly significant as a preparation for the responsibilities of freedom that came so suddenly at the close of the war. The training of the Negro during this period, and the attitude of the thoughtful people of the country toward his training, are deserving of treatment separate from that given to the development of the school system as it is known today. The difference in attitude brought on by the fear of so-called slave uprising and by the pre-Civil War debates, divides this period rather clearly into two parts.

The first extends from the landing of the slaves in 1619, to about 1830; the second, the pre-Civil War period, extending from about 1830 to 1860.

THE EARLY TEACHING OF SLAVES.

There is striking proof of the high estimate which the more enlightened people of the country put upon the Negro’s character and capabilities in the enterprises for African colonization which were made so much of in the first half of the last century. An interesting feature of this movement was the union of benevolent people in the South with those of like mind in the North, and the harmony of spirit which long prevailed. With the teachings of the Declaration of Independence dominant everywhere, thinking people felt that slavery could not be countenanced forever in a free country; and the practical way to deal with the Negroes seemed to be to set them off in colonies by themselves. Jefferson suggested that there might be such a colony in some part of the region northwest of the Ohio or that a retreat be found for them in the West Indies; and, later, in 1811, after the colony of Sierra Leone had been planted by the British Government, he wrote that nothing was more to be wished than that the United States should undertake to make such an establishment on the coast of Africa. In 1816, the Legislature of Virginia took action to the same end, and a year later, the American Colonization Society was organized at the Capital of the Nation, with Justice Bushrod Washington as president and distinguished men from all parts of the land in the list of vice presidents. During the following 15 years, until 1832, vigorous efforts were made for the support of this society in all the different States. State societies, county societies, church societies and local bands, auxiliary to the national organization, were started; in 1832, a list was printed of 231 such auxiliaries, of which 127 were in the slave States and 104 elsewhere. In the lists of their presidents, secretaries, and treasurers are found the names of John Marshall and James Madison, of Virginia; Charles Carroll, of Maryland; Charles C. Pinckney, of South Carolina; Theodore Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey; Edward Everett, of Massachusetts; Gerrit Smith and Arthur Tappan, of New York; Jeremiah Day and Leonard Bacon, of Connecticut, with others of similar standing in the North and South alike, governors, judges, ministers of the gospel, and prominent business men. The purpose on which the country was thus united was the building up of Liberia, the establishment in Africa of a Republic upon the pattern of the United States, to be made up of freed slaves from America. That shows what was thought of the Negroes at that time; how the ablest men believed in them as equal to grave civil responsibilities. However wild the project looks today, the very launching of it was a significant tribute to these people.

Prior to 1830 the thoughtful people of the South were not opposed to the education of their slaves. There was a special recognition of the need of teaching reading as a means of becoming familiar with the Bible and the doctrines of Christianity. It was necessary for practical reasons that some of the slaves on a large estate should know how to read. Some of the house servants who were depended on for the care of the masters children, aided them in their lessons, and for this reason needed to have some knowledge of reading, writing, and simple arithmetic. The history of the South in early times tells of men and women, here and there, who interested themselves particularly in the welfare of the slaves and in teaching them to read as a prerequisite for religious training and membership in the church. In 1695 the minister of Goose Creek Parish, near Charleston, gathered a class of Negroes and gave them a course of systematic instruction in Christian truth. Before 1700 the Friends of North Carolina were especially active in similar efforts. In 1744 two young colored men, who had received a special education for the purpose, were set over a school in Charleston which opened with some sixty pupils and was continued for a number of years. Later the free colored people of Charleston, who were prosperous and had ample means, maintained their own schools; and in the early part of the nineteenth century, when the law forbade Negroes to teach, white teachers were employed in their schools. Particularly interesting is the story of the Mood brothers, the eldest of whom began to teach Negro children in 1638, and was followed by his three brothers and a brother-in-law, one after another, till they had together given instruction to some 1,200 pupils.

Carter Goodwin Woodson’s book, The Education of the Negro, gives an impressive array of historical illustrations. Dr. Woodson relates briefly how more than fifty Negroes of some distinction severally received in slavery days the beginnings of their education, usually by the favor of some one who was personally interested in their improvement. He estimates that in 1863 some ten per cent. of the adult Negroes in the United States had the rudiments of education, to which he adds the opinion that the number was much less than it had been about 1825.

It seems open to question whether there were more educated Negroes in 1825 than in 1863. Undoubtedly there were more in some cities where the harsh measures used against them led to a flight to more favorable abodes. But the removal, for example, of Frederick Douglass, from Baltimore to New York, or of Daniel A. Payne from Charleston to Gettysburg, or of the Quakers in North Carolina to a freer air in Ohio, did not by any means eliminate them from the Negro ranks; but rather set them in positions where their own education could go on by leaps and bounds, and their inspiring personality become a ten-fold greater force in promoting the educational ambition of their comrades. In 1825 education for the Negro was undoubtedly more in honor among the white people than afterwards. The advertisements of the time show that it was sometimes regarded as adding to the market value of a slave, so as to be put forward to help the sale. By the middle of the century all this was changed; the schools of free Negroes were frowned upon and teaching slaves was under the ban; an intelligent Negro became an object of suspicion, and it was not politic for one to be known as able to read and write. On this account the estimate of their number was likely to be much below what is actually was.

PRE-CIVIL-WAR PERIOD.

Although some of the early State legislatures passed laws providing for the supervision of meetings of slaves by white men, the more stringent laws prohibiting the assembling and teaching of Negroes were not passed until the period between 1830 and 1935. The immediate cause of the passage of these laws was a series of uprisings of slaves. The laws were enacted to prevent the slaves from reading the literature of the French and Haitian Revolutions and the writings of the abolitionists.

While these laws were a natural expression of the highly wrought emotional excitement that prevailed after the disturbance headed by Denmark Vesey and the more serious affair of Nat Turner, it is probable that such laws were not rigidly enforced. It is more likely that the effect of the law was to make the slaves value the ability to read all the more, and to incline them in quiet ways to impart the precious gift to their friends.

It seems likely, too, that the more liberal-minded masters and mistresses, out in the open country over the vast regions of the South, thought nothing whatever of such a law and paid no attention to it, in any instructions they wished to impart to favorite servants in their houses. As bearing on this point, some weight may be given to words uttered about 1840, by the Hon. J. B. O’Neil, a distinguished jurist of South Carolina, at one time Speaker of the House of Representatives, and in his later years the chief justice of the State:

“It is in vain to say there is danger in it. The best slaves of the State are those who can and do read the Scriptures. Again, who is it that teaches your slaves to read? It is generally done by the children of the owners. Who would tolerate an indictment against his son or daughter for teaching a slave to read? Such laws look to me rather cowardly.”

Perhaps it is not a bold conclusion that this kindly and reasonable usage in a great many homes was one of the things that bound the slaves so closely to their master’s families as to hold them fast in all the vicissitudes of the war.

It may safely be concluded, therefore, that a great many more Negroes were able to read and write in the period just preceding the Civil War than was generally thought to be the case, either in the South or the North. Nor is it unreasonable to suppose that the intellectual enlightenment which was beginning to have so many expressions in the earlier years of the century grew on and steadily became wider in its quiet pervasiveness, notwithstanding the many adverse conditions with which it had to contend.

If the estimate is correct that some ten per cent. of the adult Negroes at the time of the war had the rudiments of education, or if even only five per cent. of the Freedmen had this knowledge, the task of the hour for the teachers was quite different from what has usually been supposed. To bring the chance for an education to a people of whom five out of every hundred have the habit of learning is another thing from dealing with those who have none of them taken even the first steps. It is all the difference between taking them at the lowest stage and meeting them after they have mastered the earlier lessons. It must have meant very much to the teachers if there were a few of their pupils who were above the primary grade. This goes far to explain the demand that came so soon for secondary schools and those of a more advanced grade. There were some of the pupils whose education had begun long before these teachers saw them; had begun in their old slave environment and with their own parents or some fellow slave, or perhaps their master’s children, for teachers, and so they were the more ready for new privileges.

It may well be supposed that these men and women of greater intelligence, as soon as opportunities began to open, were especially ambitious for the superior education of their children and that the pupils of most promise in all the schools were largely drawn from their ranks. This is the ready explanation of the swift development of these schools and of the necessity for classes above the primary grade. Here, too, is the explanation of certain unlooked for manifestations of a scholarly spirit and intellectual aptitude that early surprised the teachers. Actually their pupils, many of them, had a good deal more back of them than they ever imagined. They were of parentage that was by no means to be despised. They had been tenderly watched over from infancy and received a careful training in manners and behavior. As servants in their master’s house they had been daily observers of the life going on there; breathing its atmosphere of elevation; seeing the able men and cultivated women that were entertained at its table; listening often to superior conversation, and catching many a strong impression to stay with them.

The colored men who escaped into the Union lines were of a different type. They were hungry, ragged, ignorant, confused by their wretched plight and begging for protection. The first necessity was food, shelter, clothing; in some cases immediate medical attendance; and the pitiable creatures were to be counted by hundreds and thousands. The appeal that went up to the people of the North, was not altogether unlike that which has come from the stricken and homeless sufferers in the European war. And the response at that time was similar to the generous relief provided for the people of Belgium, Serbia and Poland.

But in one respect the need of the these Negroes was peculiar. They were escaped slaves, and it was decided that they were not to be returned to slavery; so it was a question, not merely of present relief; but of how they could be provided for permanently. Something had to be done that they might be prepared to take care of themselves eventually and make an honest living. In the new life of independence they were entering they had everything to learn; therefore they had to be taught. In a word, those who were dealing with them had about the same problem to handle that the old Virginia settlers had when the first cargo of Negroes was landed there from Africa. These sorry creatures must be taught to behave; to mind what they were about; to work and do their work well; to use good English and to play the part of men. It was the teacher’s job and a hard job for any who were bold enough to try it.

But the teachers were forthcoming; hundreds of them; cultivated, and high-minded. They could see no way to make these fugitive slaves into decent, law-abiding, industrious people, but to give them a new character, a changed life. They must be led into an intelligent religion that should govern the whole round of their conduct. And for this they must be brought to the Bible. Therefore they must learn how to read it at the very start. And so they went to teaching grown up men and women their letters. Perhaps it looks odd to us; but there was good sense in it. This was the way of opening the Bible to these groping men; the way of leading them to an intelligent acquaintance with Jesus Christ, the hope of lost men always and everywhere.

It was a noble service. There were aspects of sublimity about it; and any who are disposed to belittle it or to speak lightly of the results that flowed from it show that they do not understand the tremendous interests at stake in that critical hour of the Nation’s life; that hour of destiny, too, for these many thousand Negroes “scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd” and faint-hearted for a friendly voice and some word of encouragement.

While such efforts were made to teach the Negroes to read, those engaged in this work did not by any means stop here; they set about every sort of teaching that might be of practical use. They did their best to improve the habits of the people; influencing them to be cleanly and orderly; calling them to promptness and regularity in their attendance on appointed exercises; giving the men work to do of various kinds and looking out to see that it was done properly; showing the women how to cook their food so as not to spoil it, how to mend and make garments and to be good housekeepers. The Boston Educational Commission in 1862 laid it down as a foremost object to bring about the “industrial improvement” of the Negroes, and it was in the very make-up of these thrifty New England men and women, and those from other parts of the North, to be a vital force in behalf of general efficiency wherever they took up a work like this.

EDUCATION AS A SOLDIER.

The training which the Negroes received during the Civil War as soldiers should not be overlooked. It represents his first opportunity for real manhood training in an effective way. The training of the military camp is no less important than the training of the school-room in the development of good habits and manners.

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.

───────────────┬────────────┬───────┬───────────┬─────────┬────────────
│ │ Years │ │ High │
STATE AND NAME │ Location. │ in │ │ School │ Value of
OF SCHOOL. │City or Town│Course.│Attendance.│Teachers.│ Plant.
───────────────┼────────────┼───────┼───────────┼─────────┼────────────
_United States,│ │ │ │ │
total_ │ │ │ _8,707_│ _484_│_$3,172,250_
_Alabama, │ │ │ │ │
total_ │ │ │ _541_│ _19_│ _21,500_
Birmingham │ │ │ │ │
Colored │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Birmingham │ 4│ 387│ 9│ 2,000
Huntsville │ │ │ │ │
Colored │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Huntsville │ 4│ 36│ 2│ 4,500
Owen Academy│Mobile │ 3│ 86│ 5│ 10,000
Tuscambia │ │ │ │ │
Colored │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Tuscambia │ 3│ 32│ 3│ 5,000
_Arkansas, │ │ │ │ │
total_ │ │ │ _253_│ _22_│ _105,000_
Langston │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Hot Springs │ 4│ 39│ 4│ 20,000
Merrill High│ │ │ │ │
School │Pine Bluff │ 4│ 25│ 3│ 18,000
Helena │ │ │ │ │
Colored │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Helena │ 3│ 29│ 3│ 7,000
Gibbs High │ │ │ │ │
School │Little Rock │ 4│ 100│ 8│ 40,000
Lincoln │ │ │ │ │
Colored │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Fort Smith │ 3│ 60│ 4│ 20,000
_Delaware, │ │ │ │ │
total_ │ │ │ _60_│ _11_│ _33,800_
Howard High │ │ │ │ │
School │Wilmington │ 4│ 60│ 11│ 33,800
_District of │ │ │ │ │
Columbia, │ │ │ │ │
total_ │ │ │ _1,375_│ _96_│ _985,000_
Armstrong │ │ │ │ │
Manual │ │ │ │ │
Training │ │ │ │ │
School │Washington │ 4│ 259│ 33│ 240,000
Dunbar High │ │ │ │ │
School │ „ │ 4│ 731│ 48│ 500,000
Myrtilla │ │ │ │ │
Minor │ │ │ │ │
Normal │ │ │ │ │
School │ „ │ [1]2│ 115│ 15│ 245,000
_Florida, │ │ │ │ │
total_ │ │ │ _78_│ _6_│ _190,000_
Stanton High│ │ │ │ │
School │Jacksonville│ 4│ 44│ 3│ 175,000
Lincoln High│ │ │ │ │
and Graded│ │ │ │ │
School │Tallahassee │ 3│ 34│ 3│ 15,000
_Georgia, │ │ │ │ │
total_ │ │ │ _40_│ _5_│ _15,000_
Athens High │ │ │ │ │
and │ │ │ │ │
Industrial│ │ │ │ │
School │Athens │ 3│ 40│ 5│ 15,000
_Kentucky, │ │ │ │ │
total_ │ │ │ _779_│ _44_│ _209,000_
Louisville │ │ │ │ │
Colored │ │ │ │ │
Normal │ │ │ │ │
School │Louisville │ [1]2│ 27│ 2│ 10,000
State Street│ │ │ │ │
High │Bowling │ │ │ │
School │ Green │ 4│ 42│ 4│ 10,000
Lincoln High│ │ │ │ │
School │Paducah │ 4│ 39│ 4│ 22,000
Central High│ │ │ │ │
School │Louisville │ 4│ 402│ 16│ 41,000
Earlington │ │ │ │ │
Colored │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Earlington │ 3│ 10│ 1│ 15,000
Douglass │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Henderson │ 4│ 25│ 3│ 40,000
Clinton │ │ │ │ │
Street │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Frankfort │ 4│ 24│ 3│ 15,000
Russell High│ │ │ │ │
School │Lexington │ 4│ 93│ 4│ 18,000
Western High│ │ │ │ │
School │Owensboro │ 4│ 77│ 4│ 23,000
„ „ „ │Paris │ 4│ 40│ 3│ 15,000
_Maryland, │ │ │ │ │
total_ │ │ │ _781_│ _42_│ _80,000_
Baltimore │ │ │ │ │
Colored │ │ │ │ │
Normal │ │ │ │ │
School │Baltimore │ [1]2│ 112│ 8│ 15,000
Baltimore │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │ „ │ 4│ 669│ 34│ 65,000
_Mississippi, │ │ │ │ │
total_ │ │ │ _49_│ _3_│ _14,000_
Colored High│ │ │ │ │
School │Yazoo │ 3│ 49│ 3│ 14,000
_Missouri, │ │ │ │ │
total_ │ │ │ _910_│ _49_│ _430,500_
Sumner High │ │ │ │ │
School │St. Louis │ 4│ 595│ 34│ 330,500
Lincoln High│ │ │ │ │
School │Kansas City │ 4│ 315│ 15│ 100,000
_Oklahoma, │ │ │ │ │
total_ │ │ │ _368_│ _27_│ _166,750_
Dunbar High │ │ │ │ │
School │Tulsa │ 4│ 40│ 5│ 6,000
Douglass │ │ │ │ │
High │Oklahoma │ │ │ │
School │ City │ 4│ 80│ 7│ 63,750
Boley City │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Boley │ 4│ 25│ 2│ 15,000
Manual │ │ │ │ │
Training │ │ │ │ │
School │Muskogee │ 4│ 138│ 8│ 70,000
Faver High │ │ │ │ │
School │Guthrie │ 4│ 85│ 5│ 12,000
_South │ │ │ │ │
Carolina, │ │ │ │ │
total_ │ │ │ _138_│ _6_│ _15,000_
Howard High │ │ │ │ │
School │Columbia │ 3│ 138│ 6│ 15,300
_Texas, total_ │ │ │ _1,212_│ _63_│ _370,300_
Anderson │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Austin │ 4│ 82│ 5│ 28,000
Colored High│ │ │ │ │
School │Fort Worth │ 4│ 133│ 6│ 68,000
A. J. Moore │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Waco │ 4│ 69│ 5│ 14,800
Gibbons High│ │ │ │ │
School │Paris │ 4│ 100│ 3│ 27,500
Charlton │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Beaumont │ 3│ 108│ 3│ 10,000
Central High│ │ │ │ │
School │Marshall │ 4│ 142│ 6│ 10,000
Anderson │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Dennison │ 3│ 28│ 2│ 14,000
Lincoln High│ │ │ │ │
School │Palestine │ 4│ 69│ 2│ 8,000
Dallas │ │ │ │ │
Colored │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Dallas │ 4│ 243│ 12│ 60,000
Douglass │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │San Antonio │ 4│ 85│ 9│ 49,500
Central High│ │ │ │ │
School │Galveston │ 4│ 89│ 6│ 54,000
Temple │ │ │ │ │
Colored │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Temple │ 4│ 38│ 2│ 15,000
Frederick │ │ │ │ │
Douglass │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Sherman │ 3│ 26│ 2│ 11,500
_Tennessee, │ │ │ │ │
total_ │ │ │ _650_│ _25_│ _117,000_
Austin High │ │ │ │ │
School │Knoxville │ 3│ 116│ 7│ 12,000
Kortrecht │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Memphis │ 3│ 232│ 5│ 35,000
Howard High │ │ │ │ │
School │Chattanooga │ 4│ 80│ 5│ 30,000
Rural High │ │ │ │ │
School │Hyde Park │ 3│ 26│ 2│ 20,000
Pearl High │ │ │ │ │
School │Nashville │ 3│ 196│ 6│ 20,000
_Virginia, │ │ │ │ │
total_ │ │ │ _1,070_│ _38_│ _163,500_
Armstrong │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Richmond │ 4│ 439│ 17│ 40,000
Jackson High│ │ │ │ │
School │Lynchburg │ 3│ 110│ 4│ 14,000
Peabody High│ │ │ │ │
School │Petersburg │ 3│ 147│ 4│ 30,000
Colored │ │ │ │ │
Public │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Norfolk │ 4│ 257│ 8│ 41,500
Mount Herman│ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Portsmouth │ 4│ 57│ 2│ 13,000
Danville │ │ │ │ │
Colored │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Danville │ 2│ 60│ 3│ 25,000
_West Virginia,│ │ │ │ │
total_ │ │ │ _150_│ _16_│ _265,600_
Water Street│ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Clarksburg │ 4│ 20│ 2│ 26,750
Douglass │ │ │ │ │
High │ │ │ │ │
School │Huntingdon │ 4│ 35│ 4│ 62,700
Sumner High │ │ │ │ │
School │Parkersburg │ 4│ 28│ 4│ 88,000
Lincoln High│ │ │ │ │
School │Wheeling │ 4│ 21│ 2│ 45,850
Garnett High│ │ │ │ │
School │Charleston │ 4│ 46│ 4│ 42,300
_Northern │ │ │ │ │
States │ │ │ │ │
(separate │ │ │ │ │
schools), │ │ │ │ │
total_ │ │ │ _253_│ _12_│ _70,000_
Sumner High │ │ │ │ │
School │ │ │ │ │
(Missouri)│Kansas City │ 4│ 253│ 12│ 70,000
───────────────┴────────────┴───────┴───────────┴─────────┴────────────

Footnote 1:

Above High School grade.

_County Training Schools._—The organization of the “county training school,” is a comparatively new but promising movement. There are 27 schools of this type in the various Southern States. These schools have in most cases done work through the ninth grade, and in some cases through the tenth grade, including in the last two years some elementary teacher training. In addition much industrial work has been included in the curriculum, the aim being to make these schools articulate as nearly as possible with the life of the people in the rural communities and the type of work their graduates will be called upon to do.

They are supported partly by private funds and partly by public funds. The State Fund provides about $15,000 a year for these schools, while about $35,000 is provided by the Counties. The following table presents the more important facts for these schools:

COUNTY TRAINING SCHOOLS.

─────────────┬──────────────┬───────────┬─────────┬─────────┬──────────
Counties │ │ │ │ │
Maintaining │ │ │ │ │
Training │ │ │ │ │ Value of
Schools. │City or Town. │Attendance.│Teachers.│ Income. │ Plant.
─────────────┼──────────────┼───────────┼─────────┼─────────┼──────────
_United │ │ │ │ │
States, │ │ │ │ │
total_ │ │ _5,906_│ _139_│_$51,501_│_$145,570_
_Alabama_ │ │ _694_│ _19_│ _6,650_│ _20,900_
Coosa │Cottage Grove │ 189│ 4│ 1,650│ 11,000
Lowndes │Charity │ 150│ 5│ 1,250│ 4,700
Mobile │Plateau │ 241│ 6│ 2,500│ 1,500
Pickens │Carrollton │ 114│ 4│ 1,250│ 3,700
_Arkansas_ │ │ _1,242_│ _25_│ _10,957_│ _27,500_
Chicot │Dermott │ 245│ 4│ 1,804│ 5,000
Hempstead │Hope │ 300│ 8│ 2,662│ 9,000
Lee │Marianna │ 350│ 6│ 3,740│ 10,000
Ouachita │Camden │ 347│ 7│ 2,751│ 3,500
_Georgia_ │ │ _365_│ _9_│ _3,725_│ _10,500_
Ben Hill │Queensland │ 185│ 4│ 1,725│ 3,000
Washington│Sandersville │ 180│ 5│ 2,000│ 7,500
_Kentucky_ │ │ _70_│ _3_│ _2,000_│ _3,500_
Bourbon │Little Rock │ 70│ 3│ 2,000│ 3,500
_Louisiana_ │ │ _254_│ _7_│ _3,030_│ _8,600_
Calcasieu │West Lake │ 118│ 4│ 1,680│ 4,600
Morehouse │Bastrop │ 136│ 3│ 1,350│ 4,000
_North │ │ │ │ │
Carolina_ │ │ _995_│ _26_│ _8,690_│ _36,650_
Johnson │Smithfield │ 308│ 7│ 1,690│ 6,500
Martin │Parmelee │ 150│ 4│ 1,500│ 6,500
Pamlico │Stonewall │ 135│ 5│ 1,580│ 5,000
Sampson │Clinton │ 242│ 5│ 1,870│ 4,500
Wake │Method │ 160│ 5│ 2,050│ 14,150
_South │ │ │ │ │
Carolina_ │ │ _291_│ _6_│ _1,998_│ _5,500_
Clarendon │Manning │ 291│ 6│ 1,998│ 5,500
_Tennessee_ │ │ _1,173_│ _20_│ _6,025_│ _14,040_
Fayette │Somerville │ 275│ 5│ 1,340│ 4,540
Haywood │Brownsville │ 423│ 8│ 2,405│ 2,500
Shelby │Lucy, R. F. D.│ 475│ 7│ 2,280│ 7,000
_Texas_ │ │ _208_│ _6_│ _2,511_│ _4,080_
Travis │Manor │ 208│ 6│ 2,511│ 4,080
_Virginia_ │ │ _614_│ _18_│ _5,915_│ _14,300_
Albemarle │Charlottsville│ 75│ 4│ 1,100│ 3,500
Caroline │Bowling Green │ 212│ 4│ 2,080│ 4,300
Nottaway │Blackstone │ 166│ 6│ 1,455│ 3,500
York │Lackey │ 161│ 4│ 1,280│ 3,000
─────────────┴──────────────┴───────────┴─────────┴─────────┴──────────

AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE, BATON ROUGE, LA.

The land-grant school for Louisiana. Formerly Southern University at
New Orleans. Several large brick buildings have been erected. The
school now has 23 teachers, 300 pupils and property valued at nearly
$100,000.
]

AGRICULTURAL BUILDING, A. AND M. COLLEGE, TALLAHASSEE, FLA.

One of the best buildings in colored schools devoted entirely to
teaching agriculture. The school has 35 teachers, about 350 pupils
and property valued at $135,000.
]

_Land-Grant Schools_:—The third type of schools supported by public funds is the Land-Grant Schools. The purpose for which the land-grant institutions receive Federal appropriations are clearly outlined in the following extracts from the various congressional acts granting public lands and making appropriations for their support:

Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862.—An act donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts.—The leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the State may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life.

Morrill Act of 1890.—An act to apply a portion of the proceeds of the public lands to the more complete endowment and support of the colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts. To be applied only to instruction in agriculture, the mechanic arts, the English language, and the various branches of mathematical, physical, natural, and economic science, with special reference to their applications in the industries of life, and to the facilities for such instruction. _Provided_, That in any State in which there has been one college established in pursuance of the act of July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and also in which an educational institution of like character has been established, or may be hereafter established, and is now aided by such State from its own revenue, for the education of colored students in agriculture and the mechanic arts, however named or styled, or whether or not it has received money heretofore under the act to which this act is an amendment, the legislature of such State may propose and report to the Secretary of the Interior a just and adequate division of the fund to be received under this act between one college for white students and one institution for colored students established as aforesaid which shall be divided into two parts and paid accordingly, and thereupon such institution for colored students shall be entitled to the benefits of this act and subject to its provisions, as much as it would have been if it had been included under the act of eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and the fulfillment of the foregoing provisions shall be taken as a compliance with the provision in reference to separate colleges for white and colored students.

ADMINISTRATION BUILDING. MECHANICAL BUILDING.
]

FARM BUILDINGS. EXPERIMENTAL PLOTS.

AGRICULTURAL AND TECHNICAL COLLEGE, GREENSBORO, N. C.