Chapter XXXVIII: How to Help the Negro to Help Himself 468 (4)

I agree that there is such a thing as "State rights," but such rights must be local and subsidiary and must in no case conflict with, or counteract, the rights of a citizen growing out of a common Constitution whose jurisdiction holds the sisterhood of states together. To sustain and maintain such a sisterhood the compilers of the Constitution gave the general government the right to summons such states to protect her in the discharge of her duty. So that it is seen that the government is exercising a power that was given it by the sovereign people, acknowledging equal rights to all and special privileges to none. Among these are life, liberty and the peaceful pursuit of happiness. These are the rights which are guaranteed by the Constitution.

Now, an agreement entered into by the people of any part of these United States which does not conform to the stipulated rights mentioned above, is not a contract and can not be considered binding under the law. Therefore, a relationship based upon privileges of one and the denied rights of the other, cannot be friendly and must, sooner or later, be dissolved. I, for one, cannot concede that the relationship between the races in the South is friendly. It is, for the most part, peaceful, but that peace grows out of a fear of the law in the hands of an unfriendly and prejudiced people who feel that the Negro race has no rights which they are bound to respect. Accepting this position, the Negro quietly moves on, trying to make for himself and family a living, but he feels keenly the class legislation which proscribes him to the "Jim Crow" cars, to the rear seats in street cars, behind the doors in public restaurants, and a hundred other indignities heaped upon him. He is also denied the right to vote, which is the greatest evil done him and the only protection that the Constitution gives him.

Now, I ask, "Can there be friendly relations with such environments, and, if they are friendly, can they be sustained and maintained?" I assert that the infringement of any right is an unfriendly act, whether the one whose rights are infringed upon is conscious of the unfriendly act or not. If he is unconscious of it, it is all the more unfriendly. I assert further, that whenever existing conditions make it necessary for one race to suppress another, the suppression affects both races alike. The stronger race ceases to develop that strength which is necessary for the growth of a nation, and to prepare it to meet the great problems which are indispensable in the fostering of a government such as ours. And the weaker race is deprived of the opportunities which are necessary to cultivate those innate powers which are intended by God to be developed in the rounding out of good citizenship. In fact, the denial of freedom to any race, along any of the walks of life, has a tendency to teach that race irresponsibility; for responsibility must rest with the volition of the human family.

"The Nashville American," in a recent issue, admits that the Southern white people have made no progress in the great world of thought, because they had everything their way. The solid South practically destroyed its opportunities to develop thinkers in the political world, and the prejudice they entertain and foster by mere sentiment was not conducive to the production of strong men, or the development of great thinkers or leaders of distinguished constructive ability. In some sense the South has for some time lived in an eddy. There has not been that broad sweep of the current of thought which once made it strong and powerful. And the reason for this is assigned in their surroundings, their highest ambition being to suppress the Negro in the civil walks of life.

Now, we are confronted with a condition--call it a relation, if you please--in which the interest of the entire Southland is involved, and we, as the Negro race, are called upon to express ourselves as to the basis of this relationship and the perpetuity of the same. The facts above stated make it extremely difficult for one to conscientiously concede, first that the relations are friendly; and, second, that they can be sustained and maintained. As a matter of fact, the subject assigned me can be easily answered by saying that the friendly relations which now exist can be sustained and maintained by destroying the system of public instruction; by making no protest against the encroachments upon our liberty; by destroying the medium of the Christian religion, pulling down our altars, demolishing our churches and hanging crape on the door-knobs of all places of public instruction. This we are unwilling to do, and, as God gives us strength and light to see our plain duty, we shall work, watch and wait for that surrounding which shall be congenial to a healthful development of a Christian manhood, when the sphinx of this age shall have passed into the oblivious past; and mankind, transformed from brutish prejudice to that lordly prince, divested of all racial prejudice, shall stand upon that plain of reason where all are equals. We must see that our rights under the Constitution are one thing and the enjoyment of those rights quite another thing.

Now, then, shall we, because these rights are denied us, fail to teach our children that these rights are ours? And can it not be seen that for us to concede that the relationship, now existing between the two races in the South, is friendly, is an admission of the righteousness upon which such relation is based? And even this very book will be brought in evidence against us.

A friendly relation grows out of real friendship, so that it is necessary here to explain friendship. Mr. Webster gives the meaning of friendship as a state of being friends; a friendly relation or attachment, to a person, or between persons; affection arising from mutual esteem and good will; friendliness; amity; good will.

"There is little friendship in the world," says Bacon. There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.

Dryden says, "Aptness to unite; conformity; affinity; harmony and correspondence are the signs of friendship." These grow out of that soil and are the forerunners of that friendship out of which a relation must be had to be called friendly.

Now let us analyze this term "friendship." "Amity"--from the Latin, amare to love, or friendship in a general way between individuals, societies or nations. "Goodwill"--I wish you well, peace and prosperity. "Integrity"--moral soundness; completeness; honesty; rectitude.

We have given some of the terms which Mr. Webster used in the explanation of the word friendship. Our purpose for so doing is to see if it is possible to base the relationship which now exists between the two races in the South, upon all the synonyms or any one of them. I confess with candor that I cannot see (nor can any lover of liberty who holds sacred the rights of the human family, regardless of race, color or previous condition of servitude) even a semblance of amity in the treatment which the Negro gets at the hands of the dominant race, in fact, it is just the opposite, the relationship is forced and also one sided.

The seemingly friendly relation is forced from the Negro; that is, he must show up friendly or be lynched by the first angry mob who becomes thirsty for Negro blood.

If we sustain a friendly relation based upon the integrity of the Southern whites, there could be no lynching; the friendship of the white man would cause it to cease at once.

Would to God that they would interpret our actions in the light in which they are rendered and not make us suffer for what somebody else has done, simply because we are weak and unable to protect ourselves against the insanity of the prejudice.

The Southern white people, in their haste, are making an unenviable history at which they will blush in the years to come.

Three innocent people in the State of Mississippi have just been taken from the officers and lynched, two of whom were women. Can a race of people said to be friendly towards another race reach such hasty conclusions? Would not friendship suggest an investigation in order that the facts in the case may be had? But we are living in the midst of a people whose civilization is christianized, thus having in it that friendship which characterised Christ in taking the sins of mankind upon himself. "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you" (Bible). This text makes friendship conditional and reciprocal; that is, there can be no friendship without mutuality; so that the relation which now exists is not based upon friendship, for the relation which is made to exist is not in accordance with that moral rule given for the government of man, therefore things are not what they seem to be in the Southland.

I tell you that the Negro is not satisfied with his condition and the more he learns of the common rights of the human family, the more he sees the great wrongs "perpetrated" upon him and the reasons for the same. You cannot educate a people and crush them, history does not narrate an instance.

THIRD PAPER.

HOW CAN THE FRIENDLY RELATIONS NOW EXISTING BETWEEN THE TWO RACES IN THE SOUTH BE STRENGTHENED AND MAINTAINED?

BY REV. S. N. BROWN.

REV. STERLING N. BROWN, A. M., B. D.

Rev. Sterling N. Brown was born in Roane County, East
Tennessee, November 21, 1857. He attended the first free
school ever taught in his county. He entered Fisk University
(Nashville, Tenn.) in 1875, and for some years, during his
terms of vacation, taught school to provide the means with
which to pursue his studies. He was converted when quite a
boy and has been able since, almost continuously, to lead
men to Christ. He began to preach early after his
conversion, and many revivals have followed his ministry.
The first great awakening where, under God, he was the
instrument, was at Kingston, Tenn., where every child in
school, of over one hundred in number, became Christians,
and when the whole town was stirred as never before. Many
hardened sinners were brought to Christ in the meeting.
Several of the converts are now actively engaged in the
ministry. Mr. Brown's acceptance as a preacher made it
possible for him to spend the entire vacations of his last
years at college in supplying the pulpits of his
denomination in different parts of the South.

He graduated from the college course of Fisk University in
1885, and took the degree of A. M. in 1891. He is also a
graduate from the Oberlin Theological Seminary with the
degree of B. D. He was called, June 1, 1885, to the Mount
Zion Congregational Church, Cleveland, Ohio, and was by that
Church ordained to the gospel ministry. This church was
composed of a few faithful but discouraged members. They
worshipped in a small frame chapel without either attraction
or convenience.

Soon the membership was increased, the church took new
courage and a great ingathering came, the old building was
torn away and in its place a beautiful and convenient house
of worship was erected. Mr. Brown served Mt. Zion for nearly
four years when he accepted a call from the Plymouth
Congregational Church, Washington, D. C., April 1, 1889.
This church, under his pastorate for eight years, had a
steady and most healthful growth. In January, 1897, he
gathered about him a few leading men and women of the race
and organized a church in Northwest Washington, in the midst
of a large unchurched population. Park Temple, the name of
the new church, at once took an important place in the
community and its influence for good was felt far and near.
For five years the work grew and throbbed with life. Its
lines of work, so practical and successful, awakened such
interest in an older sister church nearby that overtures
were made for a union, and so, October 1, 1901, the Lincoln
Church and Park Temple were merged into a new organization
to be known as Lincoln Temple, with the Rev. Mr. Brown as
pastor. The new Institutional Church with a large main
building and a branch work gives promise of an unusual
church movement. The pastor of this church is one of the
hardest worked men in the city. He was for three years a
most active and influential member of the Washington Board
of Education, and has been for seven years and is yet
Professor in the Theological Department of Howard
University. He is an able minister, a good pastor, and a
practical man of affairs. His long public life in the city
has added to his influence and in every best sense, he is
still a growing man. He is full of sympathy and helpfulness,
and so is continually drawn upon by all classes and
conditions of people. He is regarded highly by public men of
both races for his conservative views, good judgment and
genuine public spirit.

Mr. Brown is a tireless worker, and one who looks always
upon the bright side of things. He has an ear to hear man,
but keeps also an ear attentive to the voice from the
clouds. When he has settled upon a plan no discouragement
can change him. Once convinced of the righteousness of his
course he pushes ahead with no wavering. Many a time in his
works he seemed headed for a stone wall, insurmountable and
impassable, but he went up to the wall with as much courage
and faith, as if there lay before him a beautiful green
sward, inviting to his sandal. Thus through the years of
school life and the years of his active ministry he has gone
forward.

Any superficial or narrow view of the present conditions existing between the Blacks and Whites of this country will surely be discouraging. It is a time for an unbiased, comprehensive, and discriminate study of the situation. This, I think, will point to a basis of a coming final adjustment.

No people have ever achieved lasting distinction or greatness without hardships. God's way of development seems to be through trial. The Negro has not been, and will not be, excepted in this regard. The tests of life have been well borne by him and he has clearly demonstrated certain essential elementary characteristics. From slavery is learned his amiability, vitality and patient endurance, and from freedom, the spirit of hope, forgiveness, and his ability for the highest improvement.

At this time, when the race problem is demanding renewed consideration, we note with interest the extreme as well as conservative views. The unfriendly discuss the Negro in the light of his savagery, his bondage and his mistakes. They read history "with their prejudices and not with their eyes."

Just as white men candidly and otherwise hold their individual viewpoint of the subject, so do colored men differ as to their opinions. We, too, have extremists and conservatives among ourselves and friends. This is what ought to be expected. Why should an intelligent colored man be different in his thoughts and conclusions from his white brother of equal intelligence? What the American school and spirit do for the one may be expected for the other. There are certainly strong grounds for extreme views and for even more extreme measures. But who can rationally deny the wisdom of moderation and sensible counsel? Personally I cannot bring myself to accord with either one of these views. The extremist spits fire, swears vengeance and talks loudly. He might offer his life as a sacrifice, and yet he reckons without his host. The conservative builds without hope, is easily cast down, and thoroughly pessimistic. There is a middle ground that can and must be taken.

Were it not that we have unshaken faith in the great heart of our American government, we might, like the captive Jews, hang our harps upon the willows, and, as if in a strange land, find no song to sing.

The fact that the very warp and woof of American institutions are the eternal principles of right and justice encourages the hope that the incident of color, race or previous condition can not always be a bar to preferment. An equal chance and fair play to all the citizens are absolute essentials to the continued life of a republic such as ours is to be. It is in this self-evident truth that is found a sure ground of confidence. Upon this bed-rock of America's boasted pride for interest in her humblest citizen may be built the superstructure of the future of the race.

I do not share in any disparaging view of the ultimate outcome of conditions. The white man's attitude North and South towards the Negro is now well defined. There is to be no more special legislation in his direct interest; he will be expected more than ever "to weed his own row," and by self-endeavor continue to prove his right to be.

It would be amusing, if it were not so serious, to find the varied, strange theories for the black man's future well-being. Deportation, colonization, and a voluntary political self-effacement have all been advocated.

There is much said and written that would imply the need of some special kind of training suited alone for the Negro. If he has any special need whatsoever above his brother in white it is due to mistreatment and not to natural conditions. His phenomenal development along all lines indicates what is in him and what may be possible for him.

The race numbers from eight to ten millions, pays taxes upon property to the amount of nearly $300,000,000. They have graduated from universities, colleges, high, normal and professional schools about forty thousand. There are in all grades from the common school up about one and a half million pupils.

Men of the race own and control about three hundred newspapers, journals and periodicals. This is substantial progress for only thirty-six years, and yet this is no day for boasting or fine-spun flattery. As long as the great bulk of the race are in abject poverty and ignorance, and while more than a million of colored children of school age are not attending school for want of accommodation, and the number increasing more rapidly than facilities for education, and so long as the unsettled race question seriously agitates the American mind we do well to be deeply concerned. But it is unreasonable and not helpful to be over alarmed. It is time for the race to be sober and thoughtful, and if present conditions bring this about a sure blessing will result.

Among the mistakes of our years of freedom have been the surface view of life, and an ever present dependence upon politics and by-gone friends. The present shock from eliminating certain manhood rights in the Southland necessarily creates a sensation, but is also sure to quicken for us new life, purpose and hope.

The Negro question is only one aspect of America's larger problem. Can it be truthfully said that every worthy citizen shall have an equally fair opportunity in the race of life? It seems to me clear that racial adjustment at the South may be reasonably hoped for when the parties most interested unite upon the spirit of the golden rule. This and this alone will insure friendly relationship. The white man must make up in his mind to be fair, and just, and to recognize the fact that the Negro deserves a chance for the highest, broadest and best possible life. Will the Southern white man ever willingly accord this common right? Yes, I think so. But the alienation is not all on one side. For thirty-six years the fact has been specially emphasized that the Southern white man is the black man's enemy. The result is a natural one. Antagonism and race friction have enlarged rather than lessened. The time has fully come when the colored pulpit, press and leadership throughout the country and specially in the South should seek to make friends of these people with whom the blacks must necessarily live. We can not over-estimate the value of education and the getting hold of homesteads in the progress of the race, but these alone are not sufficient.

Our churches must mean more for right living. The sacredness of the home, of the married life, of honesty, of integrity, of uprightness and of right character must more than ever be impressed. The churches must be more practical and less sentimental. Instead of encouraging late hours--thus opening the evil way to our young--and spending long seasons in mere shouts and gesticulations, let there be training classes, mothers' and children's meetings, and those within reasonable hours. Let our pulpits and press rebuke crime among us as well as away from us. Let us organize and encourage good citizenship committees in all our churches and in every community. Let us draw the line between the idle and industrious among us. Let us urge vagrant laws upon that set of men who will not work but form the criminal class in all our cities. Let us more than ever show ourselves ready to help rid the community of objectionable persons and places. Let us not say less--if well said--for right public sentiment must be made, but let us do more. There must be a studied use of "Yankee" common sense. It is not to be expected that the Southern man's training, relative to the Negro, can be readily displayed. But having been born and reared under Southern skies and for parts of ten successive years taught there is one country, and having former slaveholders among some of my warmest friends, I am prepared to believe that there is no innate hindrance to a life of peace between the races.

I can not think that the best people of the South will long endure the savage methods of avenging their madness. They must have a better second thought and will ultimately welcome the spirit of maintaining law and order.

With all, there is but one way to settle the race question. It must be squarely and justly met upon the uncompromising basis of right. The Negro is a human being with clearly demonstrated capabilities, and it can not be that the world's foremost nation will need to further climb the ladder of fame by keeping the foot of the strong upon the neck of the weak.

When men are possessed and led by the Gospel of Jesus Christ then will there be peace and harmony and good will among all the people. "They shall" then "neither hurt nor destroy in all" His "holy mountain;" "for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." God hasten that better day! Amen.

TOPIC IV.

SHOULD THE NEGRO BE GIVEN AN EDUCATION DIFFERENT FROM THAT GIVEN TO THE WHITES?

BY JAMES W. JOHNSON.

J. W. JOHNSON, A. B.

J. W. Johnson was born in Jacksonville, Fla., and after
finishing the public schools of his native city he went to
Atlanta University, from which institution he graduated with
the degree of A. B. in 1894. The same year he was appointed
principal of the Central Colored Grammar School, which
position he now holds. In 1895 he edited and published the
"Daily American," an afternoon paper. The publishing of this
paper was one of the greatest and most creditable efforts in
journalism ever made by any member of the race. In 1898 he
was admitted to the bar, and in 1899 to the Supreme Court of
Florida. In 1901 he was elected President of the Florida
State Teachers' Association.

Mr. Johnson is a man of varied talents. He has a reputation
as a pleasing speaker and fluent writer. He has devoted much
of his time to literature, and is a contributor to the
leading magazines. Mr. Johnson is a poet of more than
ordinary talent and ability, and is widely known as the
writer of the words of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," a
national hymn for the Colored people of America. He is also
the author of many songs and ballads, and also of the lyrics
of two comic operas.

In answering the question involved in the above subject it becomes necessary to define the word "education"; for the term, "education given to the whites," is too loose and broad to be easily or logically handled. If the word is used in its ordinary sense, then it embraces every known form of education, from instruction in the elementary English branches on up through to instruction in the most abstruse sciences; and I can see no reason why the blacks should not receive the same instruction as the corresponding class among the whites. Mark you, I say, as the corresponding class among the whites.

If by the term, "education given to the whites," is meant higher education as opposed to industrial training, the question can not be answered in the form in which it is stated; for there is no "the Negroes" in the unit sense. Since its freedom the colored race has classified itself into almost as many grades, as regards ability and capacity, as there are to be found among the whites; it is, therefore, no longer possible to speak of "the Negroes," meaning that they are all upon the same mental and moral plain. It is as absurd to say that every Negro should be made to receive an industrial training as it is to say that every Negro should be given a college education.

The question of higher education or industrial training is one that depends entirely upon the individual; and there should be no limit placed upon the individual's right of development. I think it a great folly to educate a colored man beyond his capacity; I think it an equally great folly to so educate a white man.

It is needless, and not within the limits of the subject, for me to make any defense of higher education for Negroes; but, I do say that every man, be he black or white, should be allowed to make the most of all of his powers, his possibilities, and his opportunities. I recognize the fact that the great majority of Negroes must, and, I hope, will be engaged in agriculture and the trades; that is true of every race; but there is, and ought to be, no power to say that this or that individual in any grade of society shall not break through his environments, and rise above his conditions. And I think it safe to say that the proportion of colored men and women who have been given an education beyond their capacity for receiving and using, is very little larger than the same among the whites; and, in the years to come, as the race shall more and more fit itself to the grinding process which it takes to turn out a people, that proportion will become less and less, and each individual will settle to his level, or rise triumphant over obstacles and circumstances to the place for which his ability and aspirations fit him.

But let us consider our subject in a deeper sense; if by education is meant that training, those influences by which the habits, the character, the thoughts, and the ideals of a people are formed and developed, then, the answer hinges upon the answer to another question: Is the Negro to remain in this country a separate and distinct race, or is he to become one of the elements in the future composite American?

If, as some claim, the Negro is to remain in this country a separate and distinct race, then, in this deeper sense of the word, he should receive an education different from that given to the whites.

Because the Negro and the white race, although they have the same inherent powers, possess widely different characteristics. There are some things which the white race can do better than the Negro, and there are some things which the Negro can do better than the white race. This is no disparagement to either. It is no fault of the Negro that he has not that daring and restless spirit, that desire for founding new empires, that craving for power over weaker races, which makes the white race a pioneer; neither is it the fault of the white race that it has not that buoyancy of spirit, that cheerful patience, that music in the soul, that faith in a Higher Power, which supports the Negro under hardships that would crush or make pessimists of almost any other race on earth.

There have been given to each race certain talents, and for them each will be held accountable, and rewarded accordingly as they shall use them. Two boys in the same family may be gifted differently, one with an artistic, the other with a scientific, turn of mind; both cannot become artists, nor both scientists, yet they may each become equally great in their respective spheres. It is for the Negro to find out his own best and strongest powers, and make the most of them. He cannot by merely imitating the white man arrive at his fullest and truest racial development. He cannot and will not, as an absolutely distinct race, evolve, along the same lines, the _identical_ civilization of the white race, but who shall say that along his own lines he may not evolve one equally as glorious and grand?

It is true, situated as he is among the most advanced people of the world in the very height of their power, with almost all of the ideals before him belonging to that people, the American Negro is greatly handicapped in distinct racial development; but the task is, perhaps, not an impossible one. Some of the most accessible means have not yet been fully employed; for instance, the race has never been made entirely familiar with the deeds and thoughts of the few men of mark it has already produced. In this deeper sense of education the knowing of one Crispus Attucks is worth more to the race than the knowing of one George Washington; and the knowing of one Dunbar is worth more than the knowing of all the Longfellows that America will ever produce.

If the Negro is to remain in this country a separate and distinct race, and is, as such, to reach the highest development of his powers, he ought to be given an education different from that given to the whites; in that, in addition to whatever other instruction he may receive, those virtuous traits and characteristics which are peculiarly his should be developed to the highest degree possible.

If, on the other hand, he is to become, in time, one of the elements in the future American race--and this seems the more plausible answer to the question--his education ought to be purely American and not in any special way Negro.

History affords no precedent of two races, distinct yet equally powerful, living together in harmony; one has always reduced to a secondary position or destroyed the other, or the two have united. So it will be a question, if the Negro succeeds in making himself the equal of the white man in intellectual attainment, wealth, and power, whether or not what is now antipathy between the two races will develop into outright antagonism; and if we are to judge from human experience through all the past we must say that it will. If the Negro shall succeed in making a new record in history so well and so good; but if he is to follow the precedents of the past, it will be a far nobler destiny for him to become an integral part of the future American type than to drop into an acknowledged and permanent secondary position.

And may it not be in the great plan of Providence that the Negro shall supply in the future American race the very elements that it shall lack and require to make it the most perfect race the world shall have seen?

If the Negro is to become an inseparable part of the great American nation his education should be in every way the same as that of other American citizens.

SECOND PAPER.

SHOULD THE NEGRO BE GIVEN AN EDUCATION DIFFERENT FROM THAT GIVEN TO THE WHITES?

BY PROF. JAMES STORUM, OF WASHINGTON, D. C.

PROF. JAMES STORUM.

Prof. James Storum was born in the city of Buffalo, New
York, March 31, 1847. His mother, Mary Cannady, was a native
of Sussex County, Virginia, where she lived for twelve
years, when her father sold his farm and moved to Ohio and
located with his wife and eight children near Urbana. His
mother was a woman of strong character, deep religious
convictions, and piety, and full of energy and enterprise, a
counterpart of which is seen in her worthy son.

His grandfather, Charles Storum, of Duchess County, New
York, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and did
valiant service for the independence of this Republic. He
died in 1843 at the age of one hundred years. Prof. Storum
began his school life in the public schools of his native
city. He was admired by his associates for his manly
qualities and good fellowship, and was held in high esteem
by his teachers for his studious habit and exemplary
deportment. At the age of thirteen he embraced religion and
united with the Michigan Street Baptist Church, where both
his parents were useful and active members.

He frequently heard his parents express their purpose to
send him to college, and as he grew older and better able to
appreciate the value of education, the desire grew very
strong within him to fit himself for a larger field of
usefulness. In due time he entered Oberlin College, and
after spending eighteen months in the preparatory department
he entered the college proper, and graduated with the class
of 1870.

Immediately after his graduation, Prof. Storum came to the
city of Washington to teach in Wayland Seminary, one of the
schools fostered by the Baptist Home Mission Society. He
taught at Wayland thirteen years. Here, as in every walk in
life, he exerted a most wholesome influence over the young
men and women attending the seminary, whose graduates are
found in all parts of this country. They delight to speak of
the inspiration and high incentive they received from Prof.
Storum while under his instruction.

After leaving Wayland, Prof. Storum taught in the public
schools of Washington one year, whence he was called to the
city of Petersburg, Virginia, to organize the Virginia
Normal and Collegiate Institute, provided for by the
Legislature of the "Old Dominion." He remained here three
years and endeared himself to the pupils of the new school
and to the citizens of Petersburg, irrespective of race,
political bias or denominational creeds. He then returned to
Washington and from that time until the present he has been
teaching in the public high school.

Prof. Storum has ever been interested in and connected with
the various enterprises whose aim has been the improvement
and elevation of the Colored people. For five years he was
secretary of the Capital Savings Bank of Washington and a
member of the Board of Directors of the Industrial Building
and Savings Company. For three consecutive years Prof.
Storum was president of the Bethel Literary and Historical
Society, the most prominent association of its kind in the
country. Through his influence and by his energy the library
and reading room were established and are now the most
interesting and prominent features of the society.

In addition to his many and exacting duties, Prof. Storum
has written and lectured on a great variety of subjects,
religious, political, educational and financial.

He was happily married in 1872 to Mrs. Carrie Garrett
Browne, a teacher in the public schools of Washington. There
are three surviving children. Their domestic life has had
its sunshine and its shadow. The darkest cloud that has
overhung their household was the death of their oldest son,
who died eight years ago at the age of eighteen, and who had
given promise of being an unusually brilliant and useful
man.

The excuse for presenting this article is the oft repeated declaration that there should be one kind of education for the more favored class and another kind of education for the less favored class of our citizens. This declaration was never mooted until these latter years. The following incident will serve to illustrate the position taken by the advocates of this subject: A young man of more than ordinary ability, having a fine mind, and exceedingly apt and ambitious to learn, came to one of the schools in the South supported by Northern friends. He had had some advantages and had proved his capabilities to learn. He was giving great satisfaction to his teachers. He was prepared to take up one of the advanced studies, and did so and wrote to his friend telling him of the studies he was pursuing and the progress he was making. His friend, a would-be philanthropist, replied that he would not assist him if he pursued such studies. "You only need to learn to read, write, and cipher a little to teach your people." Yet this same man thought it necessary to take the common school course, a college course, and a professional course to teach his people. What class of people will have confidence in or give their support to a teacher, preacher, lawyer, or physician who knows only the A, B, C's of his profession? It is an historical as well as a scientific fact that no people have ever risen to influence and power without a strong intellectual and moral class permeating and leavening the entire mass. From the very beginning of our educational system the idea that the system and method of education should be different for the different classes of our people never entered the mind or thoughts of our educators nor any part of the body politic.

In the Southern part of our land the ruling class denied educational facilities to the colored people, and quite generally throughout the South it was made a penal offence to teach a colored man, woman, or child to read. The reason for this was well understood. Education produces intelligence and unfolds to one his powers and capabilities, and an intelligent people cannot be enslaved.

After the close of the war of the rebellion, schools were opened for the colored people. The newly-emancipated were not entirely oblivious to some of the advantages and benefits that follow from education, for they were constantly in touch with the master-class, so that when the opportunity was offered the colored people flocked to the schools in numbers far beyond the accommodations given. The colored people showed such avidity for learning and made such surprising progress that it seemed almost miraculous. Dr. Mayo says: "No people in human history have made such progress as the colored people of the United States." I can see no reason why the colored people should be differently educated from mankind generally; nor can I understand why persons should urge a different education unless they are hostile to and bitterly opposed to the progress of the colored people.

The aim or purpose of education is, always has been, and will ever be, preparation for complete living, that is, to be useful in one's day and generation and to live happily. "To secure this requires the acquisition of knowledge found in two fields of human endeavor. First, man and his experience and achievements and external nature; second, training to intelligent and productive activity in the use of this knowledge and the proper enjoyment of it."

What the education of the youth of a nation shall be depends upon the aim, purpose, and character of the government.

The history of the education of a people is the history of its civilization. Its civilization is not to be found in its material success, nor in its achievements in arms; but its civilization is manifest in its intellectual, moral, and esthetic development. It follows, then, that the education of a nation is to be found in the characteristics of its civilization; this includes religion, politics, justice, art, and mode of thought. The history of education fully attests this fact.

The government of Egypt was monarchical in form. The ruling classes were educated; the lower classes were not; yet while they were the beasts of burden and forced to toil under the most exacting taskmasters they were of a mild and kind disposition, the result of their religious training.

The government of the Jews was Theocratic; their civilization was distinctively religious; their education was along religious lines. Their poets sing of the love, the power, the majesty, and the everlasting dominion of "I AM THAT I AM." Through the Jews indeed are all the nations of the earth blessed, in that they have preserved and transmitted through the ages the religion of their King and His Anointed.

Greece had two distinct ideas of government. The Dorian, as exemplified by the laws of Sparta, whose fundamental principle was that the individual existed for the state and must obey the behests of the state. The Ionian, as we find it in the constitution of Athens, whose basic principle was that the state existed for the individual and the individual was a freeman. The educational system of Sparta was entirely military, in keeping with the aim and purpose of the state. The boys at the tender age of seven years were taken from their homes and placed in state schools to be taught the art of war, and how to endure all of its hardships and privations. The educational system at Athens reflected the aim and purpose of the Athenian State; it was humanistic. The intellectual, ethical, and physical powers of the child were developed. In that little peninsula of Southern Europe there were two distinct civilizations having very little in common and always antagonistic. Sparta developed human machines, men of great physical force, but contributed nothing to the civilization of the world, nothing for the betterment of mankind. Liberty, patriotism, love of home and kindred, are the characteristics of the Athenian civilization. The contributions of Athens for the civilization of the world and the elevation of mankind are beyond human conception. The mind of man cannot conceive of the innumerable blessings that have flowed from Athenian civilization, the great reservoir of thought and perfected art. The profoundest thoughts of philosophy, the most electrifying words of statesmen and orators; the grand, sublime and patriotic strains of the muses, the illimitable beauty and symmetry of her art have been bequeathed to the world by Athens, "THE EYE OF GREECE." But above and beyond these is the principle of personal liberty and popular government that has come down to us from the Athenian Commonwealth. The aim and purpose of the Athenian Republic in its educational system was to train the children to become useful citizens, capable of aiding in the management of the state. Aristotle says: "Education should be regulated by the state for the ends of the state; * * * as the end purposed to the State, as the whole, is one, it is clear that the education of all the citizens must be one and the same and the superintendence of it a public affair rather than in private hands."

The aim and purpose of the Roman government was to bequeath to humanity moral energy and jurisprudence, the latter of which is the basis of all modern law. A strong and an abiding faith subsisted between the Roman State and each of her citizens. "I am a Roman citizen," was the proudest allusion a man could make to himself, for he knew that the great Roman power was behind him to protect him in his rights. The children of the Romans were educated to be of use to the state. Cicero says: "The fatherland has produced us and brought us up that we may devote to its use the finest capabilities of our minds, talents, and understanding. Therefore, we must learn those arts whereby we may be of greatest service to the state, for that I hold to be the highest wisdom and virtue."

The aim and purpose of our government is to maintain and perpetuate the idea of constitutional liberty and to develop a popular government in which each inhabitant shall feel a personal interest in all that pertains to the government, and the government in turn shall feel itself obligated to protect and defend the interests of the humblest citizen within its dominion. Our government is "of the people, for the people, and by the people."

In this country there must be but one system of education welding all the people in one aim and purpose. Unity of thought, unity of action, and sympathy, unity in American life and duty, is and must ever be maintained in the stratification of American society. The government must be unique and homogeneous in its aim, purpose, and sympathy. The entire question of American citizenship is especially important in harmonizing the elements. Herbert Spencer says: "The education of the child must accord, both in mode and arrangement, with the education of mankind as considered historically; or, in other words, the genesis of knowledge in the individual must follow the same course as the genesis of knowledge in the race. * * * It follows that if there be an order in which the human race has mastered its various kinds of knowledge, there will arise in every child an aptitude to acquire these kinds of knowledge by the same order. As the mind of humanity placed in the midst of phenomena and striving to comprehend them, has, after endless comparisons, speculations, experiments and theories reached its present knowledge by a specific route, it may rationally be inferred that the relationship between mind and phenomena, is such as to prevent this knowledge from being reached by any other route; and that as each child's mind stands in this same relationship to phenomena they can be accessible to it only through the same route."

Man is a trinity in his nature, consisting of mind, soul and body; these must be developed and the same means must be employed to bring it about. Intellectual, moral and physical training must characterize our system of education. The intellectual and the physical is being emphasized and the moral training must be made more prominent than it has been in the past. The aim and purpose of the founders of this Republic was to preserve in the substrata of the government those noble and lofty principles of the Christian religion for the maintenance of which they left their native land that they might plant these principles in the virgin soil of America.

Manual training is now being made an attractive feature in our schools, though by no means a new feature. Manual training must be made to strengthen the intellectual and moral training or it will fail in its purpose and end as an educational value. Trade schools are one thing, manual training schools another thing. It is not the purpose nor the end of manual training schools, as a branch of our school system, to teach trades _per se_, but rather to aid the pupils to find out their natural bent and to strengthen the trend of their ambition along chosen lines; or, in other words, to help the pupil to discover his powers, capabilities and capacity, to reveal the pupil to himself. Dr. Mayo says: "The higher education according to the last American interpretation is just this: The art of placing an educated mind, a consecrated heart, and a trained will, the whole of a refined manhood and womanhood, right at the ends of the ten fingers of both hands, so that whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do you may do all to the glory of God."

There were two distinct civilizations attempted in this country; one was planted at Jamestown, Virginia, the other at Plymouth, Massachusetts. They were antagonistic in thought, aim and purpose. The civilization at Plymouth was an example of the "survival of the fittest," the errors of the one must be engulfed in the ever abiding principles of the other. The educational feature of the one must yield to the educational feature of the other. There must be but one system of education for all the people, great and small, black and white. This is essential for the peace, comfort, and prosperity of the nation.

This is an Anglo-Saxon country. The thought of this country is Anglo-Saxon. The progress of this country is Anglo-Saxon. The colored people of this country, like all others born and reared on our shores, are Anglo-Saxon in thought, in religion, in education, in training, and hence it is unsafe and dangerous, not to say impracticable, to educate them or any other class of our citizens along different lines. The people of this nation must be one in purpose, one in aim; there must be a common bond uniting them in a common sympathy and fraternity. To secure this end all the people must be trained to the highest wisdom. "The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom." Hence, says Milton: "To govern well is to train up a nation in true wisdom and virtue and that which springs from thence, magnanimity and likeness to God, which is called godliness. Other things follow as the shadow does the substance."

THIRD PAPER.

SHOULD THE NEGRO BE GIVEN AN EDUCATION DIFFERENT FROM THAT GIVEN TO THE WHITES?

BY REV. S. G. ATKINS.

PROF. S. G. ATKINS, A. M.

Prof. S. G. Atkins, President and Founder of The Slater
Industrial and State Normal School, Winston-Salem, N. C.,
was born of a humble, yet high, because Christian,
parentage, in Chatham County, North Carolina, June 11, 1863.
Through this humble slave, yet Christian, parentage, there
came to this youth principles of industry, morality and
Christianity which formed the broad, deep, and solid
foundation on which has rested his eventful and useful life.
In early life he learned that "the fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom." In the days of youth he remembered his
Creator.

Like many of the world's noblest and best characters, Prof.
Atkins started life's journey at the plow handles; clearing
the ground of roots and stumps, splitting rails, opening the
furrow, planting and harvesting the crops, constituted the
duty and pleasures of his early life.

Early evincing an insatiable thirst for knowledge, all the
advantages of the village school were given him. His
progress here was phenomenal. His eagerness to know truth;
his power of mind to perceive, comprehend and analyze; his
retentive memory, soon gave him first place among his
fellows in the school in the village. A few years passed; he
in the meantime having prepared himself, the master-mantle
of the village school falls upon him. His work here caused a
widening of his intellectual horizon. In the year 1880,
therefore, he entered the Academic Department of St.
Augustine Normal and Collegiate Institute, Raleigh, N. C.,
and graduated with distinction in 1884.

Immediately after leaving college, President J. C. Price,
the famous colored orator, invited him to join the faculty
at Livingstone College, Salisbury, N. C. At this post he
proved himself one of the most useful men in the faculty. At
times he filled various positions in the college. The
Grammar School Department, under his management, was a model
department, and was the pride of the college. He taught
here, serving well and at a great sacrifice, six years.
Prof. Atkins retired from the Livingstone College to enter
the public school work in which he had long taken a deep
interest. This interest had been manifested chiefly in
connection with his devotion to the work of building up the
North Carolina Teachers' Association, which body he helped
to organize and of which he was President for three
successive years. His first extended work in this field was
as Principal of the Colored Graded School, of Winston, N. C.
This position of responsibility he held, with increasing
success, for five years, when he gave it up, against the
protest of the Board of School Commissioners of Winston, to
become President of The Slater Industrial and State Normal
School. This Institution had already been projected by him
to meet a want among the colored people in the community
which he soon saw that the public school could not meet,
viz.: a deeper ethical culture and the training of the youth
of the community, not only in books, but also in some useful
handicraft which would the sooner furnish the basis for
strong personal character and sound home-life. His first
step in this direction had been the founding of the
settlement known as "Columbian Heights," to serve as a
background for the Institution, which would do this. The
settlement was founded in 1891, and the Institution
projected in 1892. Prof. Atkins, as the first settler on
Columbian Heights, and as the organizer and both Secretary
and agent of the Board of Trustees, pushed the work of The
Slater Industrial School, encouraged and supported by the
industrious efforts of the members of the Board, until in
1895 he was called to the Presidency of the Institution.
From that date to the present his labors have been an
inseparable part of the history of the school.