country by learning how to better intensify crops and redouble their
products, Colored farmers both young and old are taking either short or
full courses in scientific agriculture in the following named schools
that are a few among the many giving such instructions:
Agricultural & Mechanical College for Negroes, Normal, Ala.;
Agricultural & Industrial State School, Nashville, Tenn.; Agricultural
& Technical College, Greensboro, N. C.; Agricultural & Normal
University., Langston, Okla.; Alcorn Agricultural & Mechanical College,
Alcorn, Miss.; Branch Normal College, Pine Bluff, Ark.; Downingtown
Industrial & Agricultural College, Downingtown, Pa.; Florida
Agricultural & Mechanical College Tallahassee, Fla.; Georgia Normal
& Agricultural College, Albany, Ga.; Hampton Normal & Agricultural
Institute, Hampton, Va.; Armstrong Agricultural & Industrial Institute,
West Butler, Ala.; Tuskegee Normal & Industrial Institute, Tuskegee,
Ala. (extracts from Negro Year Book, 1918-1918 edition, pgs. 2-308-345)
As soon as Colored men have finished agricultural courses in the above
named or other schools, they are fully prepared to locate in any
section of the country and put into practice the farming theories they
have just learned. It is quite natural that the majority of them want
to settle and farm in the South--the birth place of their parents and
usually of themselves, and the best farming district in the United
States, and many of them do settle there. But quite a few (and the
number is rapidly increasing) after deciding to follow farming as a
life work have settled in the North, or even better have followed
Horace Greeley’s famous advice “Young man, go West”. There they have
settled with assurances of better human treatments and fuller civic
rights due all human beings and American citizens, than they would
have received if they had settled in many parts of the South. On the
Pacific Coast they have found farming conditions more in accord with
their special agricultural training than any place in America with
the exception of the South. And whenever any of those Colored farmers
arrived in California, for instance, without money to buy a few acres
of land, they at once hired themselves out to farmers (without any fear
of Southern peonage systems) and in a little while had saved enough
money to strike out for themselves. During the time they served as farm
laborers they were able to get practical and valuable experience in
three ways; through experimenting they got acquainted with the Western
crops that were new to them; they got acquainted with the customs
and habits of the people, and they had time to carefully and slowly
investigate many sections of the country before selecting the plot of
land and district in which they planned to later and permanently settle.
The following two quotations are parts of articles written by Governor
Wm. D. Stephens and Secretary of State Frank C. Jordan of California,
and which articles appeared in the April 1, 1920 issue of the
California Free Lance that has since been absorbed into the California
Voice. The reading of these quotations may be of interest to those
concerned.
Governor Stephens said--“Workers are what we need and opportunity was
never so widely open to the Negro as it is today. A very large number
of Colored workers are well fitted for farm labor and it would be
better for them, and a measure of aid to our agricultural interests,
if they could be diverted from the cities into the country. The farm
laborer situation is difficult in this state and steps might well be
taken to shift to the country those Colored men who are residing in
large cities, under conditions unsuited to them. Our Negro workers
could themselves help to solve this problem. Any effort initiated on
their part undoubtedly would meet with active encouragement. Some
adaptation to new conditions would be necessary, but this could easily
be brought about through co-operation between Negro workers and the
employing farmers of our state. I regard this matter of shifting
workers who are misplaced in cities to the farms of our state as a
matter of importance, and I invite the earnest attention of the Negro
people to it as one primarily in their interest as well as being for
the best interest of our state.”
Secretary of State, Jordan said in part: “California today has need of
farmers and farm laborers. There is a general alarm felt by persons
acquainted with farming conditions at the shortage of laborers. The
farmer or farm laborer has a comfortable living under health-giving
conditions and the money he makes he can save. He is an independent
producer and plays a most important part in the national welfare. The
California lands are marvels of richness. Truck gardening, fruit
orchards, wheat and rice fields, cotton lands--in fact, nearly all
farm culture--can be found in this State. The important question at
present is, Where are we to find laborers to increase and intensify
cultivation? Immigration from European countries has practically
ceased. Mexican labor is difficult and uncertain. We can only hope for
laborers to come from the more thickly settled parts of the country.
The youth of today needs to be educated not only in the technique of
farming, but also in the advantages of farm life. The prosperity of the
nation rests largely on the agricultural workers. The city dwellers
cannot reduce the high cost of living without the farmer’s co-operation
in increased production. The factory worker depends upon the farmer
for food. His high wages mean little to him unless food is plentiful.
Let a young man consider carefully the opportunities offered by
country as well as civic life--the sturdy independence, the healthful
surroundings, the wholesome food, of the former--before he decides what
his life work will be.”
Copied below is another article “Land Conditions” that appeared in the
same issue of the Free Lance and which article goes more in detail
regarding the wonderful opportunities of farm life in California--the
land of not-too-cold nor not-too-hot climate, the land of singing
birds, blooming flowers and golden fruits.
“Probably the greatest opportunity for the race lies in the
agricultural sections of the state. Land at reasonable prices is now
being offered by the Southern Pacific Land Company in sixteen counties
in various parts of the state. While a great deal of this land is
available for grazing purposes, yet there are large tracts awaiting
the coming of the man with the plow, chief among which are sections
laying in the beautiful Antelope Valley, situated in Los Angeles
county, which section’s chief products are alfalfa, grain, fruit and
dairying products. The soil of this valley is somewhat varied. The
upper mesas and slopes in the main valley are decomposed granite of
fine texture, with considerable vegetable humus. In the lower levels
there are great deposits of silt and in every case the soils are light
and easy to work The water conditions are all that can be desired,
there being quite a deal of artesian wells, where the water is found at
depths varying from 50 to 600 feet. Prices of land in this valley vary
from $2 to $10 per acre for grazing land and from $10 to $71.50 for
agricultural lands, with possibilities of irrigation by pumping.
“In Fresno county, the home of the raisin and the Thompson grapes,
there will be found plenty of opportunities for dairying, fruit and
general farming. This county has now quite a large number of Negro
ranchers who are engaged profitably in various agricultural pursuits.
The price of land in this vicinity ranges from $20 to $143 per acre,
with fine possibilities of irrigation by pumping.
“Nearly all sections in the State of California are filled with
opportunities for men with small capital to engage in various kinds of
farming. While some are impressed by the large ranches, there is ample
opportunities to engage in small farming projects. Land at reasonable
prices and for all purposes can be obtained in the following counties;
Siskiyou, Shasta, Tehama, Butte, Nevada, Yuba, El Dorado, Monterey,
Stanislaus, Fresno, Imperial, Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles,
Kern and Tulare, Recent reports from various sections of the State show
that there are now over 2100 Negroes engaged in agricultural, forestry
and animal husbandry in this State.”
In his annual report of February 1920, Secretary Houston of the
Department of Agriculture pointed out that when both the acreage and
yield per acre are taken into account, the American farmer leads the
world in individual production of crops. He further pointed out that
the aggregate value of all crops raised in the United States for that
year amounted to over fifteen billion dollars. These facts are truly
very encouraging and complimentary to the American farmer and are
quite apt to give him somewhat of a “big-head” until he reads “Social
Aspects of the Decreasing Food Surplus in The United States.” This is
a nation-wide agricultural survey written by one of America’s best
authorities on that subject, Prof. Bernhard Ostrolenk, Director of the
National Farm school at Farm School, Pa.
One of the most startling facts and timely warnings he brings out in
his survey is that three million farms in the United States are idle on
account of the American people not developing their unimproved lands.
In writing about the already improved lands and abandoned farms, he
says in part:
“And now we come to the most serious aspect of the agricultural
situation in the United States. For the period of 1900 to 1910 more
than two and a half million people left the country to go to the
cities. Double that figure could safely be assumed to be the true
situation from 1910 to 1920. A tragedy is facing the country. Scarcity
of food means dissatisfaction, unrest, riots, mob rule, anarchy.
“Instead of proud boasting when new acquisitions are made in our
cities, new apprehensions for the future food supply should be aroused.
Can the Nation afford to be indifferent to the farmer much longer? We
need an exodus from our congested districts back to the soil and the
National Farm School is ready to lead in that movement. We have proved
that it can be done by taking raw city youths and training them to be
successful farmers. Eighty-seven per cent of our graduates own and
operate their own farms.”
In giving out this advice and information of deep thought and timely
warning, Prof. Ostrolenk has meant for it to apply to and benefit the
great masses of Colored people who are jammed in the cities living in
unsanitary courts and alleys, as he has meant for it to influence the
masses of his own people who have left the country for the cities. And
in putting a last spread on this bread-and-butter subject, the writer
can truthfully say that just as the National Farm School, under the
direction of Prof. Ostrolenk, is taking the lead among other white
agricultural schools in helping to solve this great problem by turning
out such efficient white farmers; so are Hampton Institute, under
the guidance of Dr. Jas. E. Gregg, and Tuskegee Institute, under the
leadership of Dr. Robt. R. Moton, gladly and whole-heartedly joining
hands with the National Farm School in helping to bring about this
“Back-to-the-Farm” movement by taking the lead among other Negro
agricultural schools in turning out practically and scientifically
trained Colored farmers.
Young men who wish to take a scientific course in agriculture but
hesitate to do so because they fear their race and color will prevent
them from getting sales for their products, should remember that:
The greatest and only food supplier in the world (the earth) is
Colored, and that no race of people ever attempts to wean itself from
sucking its daily life-giving nourishments from Nature’s nippled
breasts just because those breasts are made of the brown colored dust
and dirt from which all crops must come.
[Illustration]
ON THE FARM
CHESTNUT HUNTING
It was after four, one Friday when
We all rejoiced at school-week end,
And plans were made for Saturday roves
Among the trees of chestnut groves.
And half that night we thought of fun
That we would have when day begun;
So up we got with early sun
To get our chores real quickly done.
The cross-roads by the old mill-dam
Was where we formed our happy band
Of laughing girls and whistling boys,
Who vied their chums in making noise.
Blushing maids in tam-o’-shanters,
And teasing lads with roguish banters
All romped away one happy crew
To where we knew the best nuts grew.
What luck to be a boy or girl,
When leaves begin to brown and curl!
What joy it is to feel the thrill
That’s in the air from hill to hill!
Tramping over knolls and dales,
We saw a woods fenced in with rails;
And there tree limbs were bending down
Thick with burs all big and round.
Then we raced by rocky juts,
Until we spied the brownish nuts
Peeping down from sticky burs
Smooth inside as softest furs.
Boys shook boughs and nuts rained down
Rolling over frost-bit ground:
Those whose hands the burs did bruise
Upon them stamped with heavy shoes.
Some stood on the ground below
So their clubs to better throw:
Girls with sacks from flour mill
Picked enough each bag to fill.
When on a fence we climbed to chat,
The top rail broke and down we sat
On sticky burs all round about
That made us dance as well as pout.
What jolly times we had out there
Joking some two as a loving pair,
’Till baskets all were well heaped up,
When home we went to get our sup’.
We hid the nuts clear out of sight,
To roast or boil some winter night,
When coals glowed red within the grate
And snow outdoors fell deep and late.
Oh! that I were a youth once more
To gather chestnuts as of yore
From trees that once had blooming health
But long since dead from insects’ stealth.
Whenever now through woods I go,
My anguished heart does overflow
To see the blighted chestnut die
While puzzled science no cure does spy.
--_Harrison._
[Illustration]
IN THE TRADE SCHOOLS
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
He loved both mankind and the soil,
And taught his folks to learn to toil
In all trades of the manual work
That kept them from an idle shirk.
Tuskegee stands a monument
To Booker T. whose life was spent
On begging trips for cash and fuel
To build and run that world-famed school.
--_Harrison._
Just as the late Dr. Booker T. Washington, founder of the wonderful
school, Tuskegee, was the greatest agricultural and industrial leader
of his race in the United States; so Dr. Robert R. Moton, former
educator at Hampton Institute and present principal of Tusgkee
Institute, is today the foremost leader of the American Colored people
in industrial and agricultural education. And the tireless efforts and
uplifting influence of those two great industrial leaders have either
originated or greatly encouraged and advanced much of the skilled
industrial and intensive agricultural progress made by the Colored
people in America during the past thirty or more years.
But the pioneer and greatest industrial educator of them all was
General Samuel Chapman Armstrong who founded in 1868 the famous
Hampton Institute, which is said to be the leading school of its kind
in America, and among the best in the world. For years not even many
intelligent white and Colored people looked with kindly favor upon
General Armstrong’s then new and strange methods of teaching the head,
the hand and the heart to work together for the highest development
of an individual or a race. People then generally thought that it was
foolish to go to school just to learn the trades or how to work on a
farm, as they had always been taught that schools were places where one
went to learn to study books alone. And that was what nearly every one
wanted to do as it was thought to be a disgrace and dishonor to work
with the hands. But many years had not passed before it was seen and
proved that General Armstrong’s methods were among the most valuable
educational teachings in the world.
And today civilized countries throughout the world are using in their
private, public and government schools vocational and industrial plans
and methods copied after those originated by the far-sighted General
Armstrong and so successfully carried on after his death by Dr. Hollis
Burke Frissell. The unusual beneficial careers of those two life long
friends of Colored peoples stand with the foremost among the careers
of many brave white men and women who have not been ashamed to follow
the footsteps of Christ by unselfishly giving their lives and fortunes
for the encouragement and uplift of an oppressed people. Since the
death of Dr. Frissell a few years ago, Hampton has been under the
careful and progressive leadership of Dr. Jas. E. Gregg who has kept
up the high grade of industrial education he found there. He has also
raised the academic standards to higher planes, in order to better
fit his graduates to more successfully face the advanced educational
requirements they have to meet when going out into the world to wring
success from the opportunities that will constantly come into their
callings.
Below are named a few of the other Colored industrial schools that are
yearly turning out hundreds of skilled and practical auto repairers,
blacksmiths, bricklayers, carpenters, cabinetmakers, domestic
science teachers, dressmakers, engineers, house matrons, machinists,
milliners, painters, printers, plumbers, school teachers, shoemakers,
steamfitters, tailors, tinsmiths, upholsters, wheelwrights and other
artisans.
Albion Academy, Franklintown, S. C.; Americus Institute, Americus, Ga.;
Berean Ind. School, Phila., Pa.; Calhoun Colored School, Calhoun, Ala.;
Camden Colored High School, Camden, Ark.,; Coleman College, Gibsland,
La.; Betts Academy, Trenton, S. C.; Cheyney Training School, Cheyney,
Pa.; Christiansburg Ind. Institute, Cambria Va.; Clayton Ind. School,
Manor, Texas; Clinton Nor. & Ind. College, Rockhill, S. C.; Colored
Industrial School, Cincinnati, O.; Cookman, Institute, Jacksonville,
Fla.; Daytona Training School for Girls, Daytona, Fla.; Delaware Nor. &
Ind. School, Dover, Del.; Dunbar Training School, Brownsville, Tenn.;
Florida Bapt. Academy, St., Augustine, Fla.; Fort Valley High & Ind.
Inst., Fort Valley, Ga.; Fort Worth Ind. & Mech. Col., Fort Worth,
Tex.; Georgia State & Ind. College, Savannah, Ga.; Greenville Ind.
Inst., Greenville, Miss.; Haines Nor. & Ind. Insti., Augusta, Ga.;
Henderson Normal Inst., Henderson, N. V.; Joseph Brick Ind. School,
Bricks, N. C.; Lincoln Normal School, Marion, Ala.; Lincoln Inst, of
Kentucky, Lincoln Ridge, Ky.; Knox Academy, Selma, Ala.; Manassas
Ind. School, Manassas, Va.; Mary Potter Memorial School, Oxford, N.
C.; Mayesville Ind. Inst., Mayesville, S. C.; Mound Bayou Ind. Col.,
Mound Bayou, Miss.; National Training School, (women) Washington, D.C.;
New Jersey Nor. Training School, Bordentown, N. J.; Oklahoma Nor. &
Ind. Inst., Boley, Okla.; Penn Normal & Ind. School, Frogmore, S. C.;
Princess Anne Academy, Princess Anne, Md.; Prairie View State Nor. &
Ind. School, Prairie View, Texas; Schofield N. & Ind. Inst., Aiken, S.
C.; Sater State Normal & Ind. School, Winston-Salem, N. C.; Snow Hill
Inst., Snow Hill, Ala.; St. Augustine School, Raleigh, N. C.; St. Paul
Nor. & Ind. Inst. Lawrenceville, Va.; Vicksburg Ind. School, Vicksburg,
Miss.; Voorhees Ind. School, Denmark, S. C.; State College for Colored
Youth, Dover, Del.; Walker Bapt. Inst., Augusta, Ga.; Waters Normal
Inst., Winton, N. C. (extracts from Work’s Negro Year book, 1918-1919
edition, pages 309-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20).
IN THE TRADE SCHOOLS
While a great many of these schools are kept going through the
donations of money by Northern white individuals and organizations as
well as by the aid of several state appropriations, the majority of
them are supported and run by Colored people themselves. “The African
Methodist Episcopal Church is raising each year about $500,000 for the
support of its twenty colleges and normal schools. The Negro Baptists
are giving support to about 110 colleges and academies.” All together
there are about 175 such schools supported by different Colored church
denominations that raise each year for this purpose about two million
dollars. The properties of these schools thus supported are worth
about two million five hundred thousand dollars. (Ref: Works Negro Year
Book 1918-1919 edition page 286.)
Among the foremost Colored leaders in industrial education are J. B.
Dudley, Winston-Salem, N. C., W. J. Edwards, Snow Hill, Ala., J. M.
Gandy, Petersburg, Va., W. H. Goler, Salisbury, N. C., W. J. Hale,
Nashville, Tenn., J. R. E. Lee, Kansas City, Mo., E. A. Long, Cambria,
Va., R. R. Moton, Tuskegee, Ala., J. S. Russell, Lawrenceville, Va.,
Emmett J. Scott, Washington, D.C., R. R. Wright, Sr., Savannah, Ga.
[Illustration]
IN THE RURAL SCHOOLS
When it is taken into consideration that in 1910, just 47 years
after their freedom was received, there were less than three million
illiterate Negroes in America out of their population of ten million,
it will be seen that the Colored people under most unfavorable
circumstances that have always existed have made very good strides
along educational lines. Rural education among them began as early as
1861 when the first real day school was started near Fortress Monroe,
Va., by the American Missionary Association. That school, which was
taught by Miss Mary S. Peake, a Colored teacher, was the forrunner of
Negro rural school education in the South as well as the pioneer site
of the present Hampton Institute. The movement continued to grow and
spread so rapidly that in 1870 through the assistance of the Freedman’s
Bureau, there had been established in different parts of the South over
four thousand common schools.
While it is true that the majority of the Southern white people apposed
the education of the Negro, there were many of the best thinking among
them who did everything possible to elevate their Colored population.
Together with the hundreds of Northern white people (mostly of the
Quaker and Puritan stocks) who willingly gave their times, fortunes
and in many cases their lives for this cause, different white church
denominations and other organizations spent large sums of money for the
establishment of schools and the support of teachers for the work. As
the outgrowth of that early start there are today in just the Southern
States alone over two million Colored children attending public schools
that are being taught by nearly thirty-seven thousand Colored teachers.
(Ref: Work Negro Year Book, 1918-1919 edition, page 269.)
The greatest encouragement and help that the Southern Colored people
have received in the development of their rural school systems have
come from the Rosenwald Rural School Fund, which was founded by Mr.
Julius Rosenwald, President of the Sears-Roebuck Company of Chicago,
Ill. The following quotation is an extract from Work’s Negro Year
Book, 1918-1919 edition, page 291; “June 12, 1914, Mr. Rosenwald
announced that through the Tuskegee Institute he would provide money to
assist in erecting rural school-houses for Negroes in the South under
the following terms: that the people in the community where a school
house is to be erected shall secure from the public school funds or
raise among themselves an amount equivalent to or larger than that
given by Mr. Rosenwald. It is understood that in no case will the sum
given by Mr. Rosenwald exceed $400 for a one-teacher school and $500
for a two-teacher school.”