Altanta Bapt. Col., Atlanta Univ., Atlanta, Ga.; Barber Memorial
Seminary, (women) Anniston, Ala.; Benedict Col., Columbia S. C.; Biddle
Univ., Charlotte, N. C.; Claflin, Col., Orangeburg, S. C.; Clarke
Univ., Atlanta, Ga.; Edward Waters Col., Jacksonville, Fla.; Fisk
Univ., Nashville, Tenn.; Hartshorn Col., (women) Richmond, Va.; Howard
Univ., Washington, D.C.; Jackson Col., Jackson, Miss.; Knoxville Col.;
Knoxville, Tenn.; Lane Col.; Jackson, Tenn.; Lincoln Univ., Lincoln,
Pa.; Livingston Col., Salisbury, N. C.; Mary Allen Seminary, (women)
Crockett, Texas; Mary Holmes Seminary, (women) West Point, Miss.;
Meherry Univ., Nashville, Tenn.; Miles Memorial Col., Birmingham, Ala.;
Morehouse Col., Atlanta, Ga.; Morgan Col., Baltimore, Md.; Morris Brown
Univ., Atlanta, Ga.; National Training School, Durham, N. C.; National
Training School, (women) Washington, D.C.; Paine Univ., Augusta, Ga.;
Paul Quinn Col., Waco, Tex.; Payne Univ., Selma, Ala.; Philander Smith
Col., Little Rock, Ark.; Roger Williams Univ., Nashville, Tenn.;
Rust Univ., Holley Springs, Miss.; Selma Univ., Selma, Ala.; Scotia
Seminary, (women) Concord, N. C.; Shaw Univ., Raleigh, N. C.; Geo.
R. Smith Col., Sedalia, Mo., Spellman Seminary, (women) Atlanta,
Ga.; Shorter Col., Little Rock, Ark.; State Normal Col., Normal,
Ala.; Straight Col., New Orleans, La.; Southern Univ., Baton Rouge,
La.; Talladega Col., Talledega, Ala.; Touguloo Univ., Touguloo,
Miss.; Virginia Union Univ., Richmond, Va.; Western Univ., Quindaro,
Kan.; Wilberforce Univ., Wilberforce, O.; West Va. Collegiate Inst.,
Institute, West Va.; Wiley Col., Marshall, Tex. (extracts from Work’s
Negro Year Book, 1918-1919 edition, pgs. 303-4-5).
Some of the foremost Colored leaders in higher education as well
as among the most noted scholars of today are: H. S. Blackiston,
Institute, W. Va., St. Elmo Brady, Washington, D.C., John W. Davis,
Institute, W. Va., John A. Gregg, Wilberforce, O., G. E. Haynes,
Washington D.C., John Hope, Atlanta, Ga., Elmer S. Imes, New York
City, E. E. Just, Washington, D.C. Clement Richardson, Jefferson City,
Mo., L. J. Rowan, Alcorn, Miss., W. S. Scarborough, Wilberforce, O.,
J. B. Simpson, Richmond, Va., C. H. Turner, St. Louis, Mo., N. B.
Young, Tallahassee, Fla., R. C. Woods, Lynchburg, Va., C. G. Woodson,
Washington, D.C., R. R. Wright, Jr., Phila., Pa.
Whenever a Colored person makes a phenomenal advancement in any special
and worthy field of progress, some jealous enemy of the race silently
creeps out at once, loads his donkey cart full of smoked glasses,
leather glasses, sun glasses, eye glasses, spy glasses, magnifying
glasses, old ladies’ spectacles, microscopes, telescopes, X-Rays,
etc., etc., etc., and scoots around examining even the very breath
the unsuspecting Colored person leaves upon the air. If the surmised
results of that examination and the color of the victim’s skin in any
way suggests that he has one drop of Caucasian blood in him; then
the credit for all the success he has attained is given to the white
race--just as a little patch of white hair on the forehead of an
otherwise jet black horse is the cause of that black horse winning a
race.
Allowing such enemies of Negroes to retain their foolish beliefs rather
than waste valuable time trying to convince them they’re wrong, the
writer, for the benefit of well-meaning but easily influenced white
people who might be led astray by the above foolish beliefs, picks
out just one from among scores of full-blooded Negroes of highest
attainments in different fields. This selected and highly gifted
Negro scholar is Dr. W. S. Scarborough, A. M., LL. D., Ph. D. about
whom there has never been the slightest question regarding his not
being a genuine Negro. He was for many years president of Wilberforce
University and is a member of at least seven national and international
educational societies the majority to which no other Negro belongs. At
this writing Dr. Scarborough has just sailed for Europe where he will
represent America in several international meetings of educational
societies. He is the author of a Greek Grammar and several other
original works in Greek.
Talented high school Colored youths who wish to go to college, but
hesitate to go as high as possible in education for fear of their
learned colored complexions displeasing other races, should remember
that:
The highest thing in the world (the sky) is Colored, and who is not at
all times over-joyed in spirits and much benefited in hopefulness when
seeing blue patches of the elevated sky after it has been hidden for
several days behind clouds that may even be of snowy whiteness?
[Illustration]
IN THE SCIENCES
MAT HENSON
When he looked around to call the roll,
As he first discovered the Northern Pole;
Commodore Peary had by his side
Mat Henson, a Negro, true and tried.
--_Harrison._
While the American Negro in the field of science has not yet produced
an Agassiz, the Race has already developed two men far advanced along
this path in the persons of Dr. Ernest R. Just, Head Professor of
Physiology at Howard University and Dr. Chas. H. Turner, Professor of
Biology at Howard University.
As the only magna cum laude man in his class of 1907, Dr. Just
graduated from Dartmouth College, and in 1916 received his degree, Ph.
D. from the University of Chicago in zoology and physiology. Among
the many scientific subjects upon which he has written he has chiefly
dwelt upon artificial parthenogenesis and fertilization. For ten years
he has spent his summer vacations as a student in research work at the
Marine Biological Laboratory at Wood’s Hole, Mass. On account of his
minute scientific researches and conclusions he has been made a member
in the Sigma Xi and Phi Beta Kappa Societies, The American Society of
Zoologists, the American Museum, and the American Association for the
Advancement of Science.
In order to further inspire Negro youths who plan to make this
particular professional line their work, the writer will cite an
incident that fully proves Dr. Just’s recognition and valuation in the
world of science. During the summer of 1920, the highest scientific
organ in the United States, The National Academy of Sciences, provided
a grant to Dr. Just, through Howard University, to cover research work
in the field of physiology. As this is the first grant of its kind not
only to a Negro but to a member of any race, it further proves that
hard study and sweaty work, bull dog grit and grip to never loose your
hold, mule stubborness to brace your hind feet in holding your grounds
and at the same time flopping your ears to all discouraging sounds,
taking tortoise steps slow but always forward, while keeping an eagle
eye on some chosen lofty peak, will finally result in any Colored
person, although prejudiced handicapped, reaching the highest point in
any noble calling.
Aside from the University of Chicago honoring him with the degree of
Ph. D. in 1907, the world’s greatest scientists in America and Europe
have weighed and found the full value of Dr. Chas. H. Turner as a
Biologist of the first order in the special fields of neurology and
comparative psychology.
Here and abroad scientific students and teachers alike constantly turn
for information and references to his writings on the habits and manner
of the Burrowing and Honey Bees, the Common Roach, the Mason Wasp, the
Ant and several other species of larger sized and more advanced insect
vertebrates. Some other of his research articles that have appeared in
some of the best magazines of science are Morphology of the Nervous
System of the Genus Cypris; Ecological Notes on the Cladocrea and
Copspoda of Augusta; the Mushroom Bodies of the Crawfish, Morphology of
the Avian Brain and other subjects along these lines. (Extracts from
Southern Workman, July 1920 issue, pgs. 324-26).
Negro boys who read these pages will notice that just as it is the
colored bees that are willing to drudge day after day in gathering
and laying aside bits by bits of the sweetest thing on earth (honey)
for future use; so has Dr. Turner (like all present and future youths
must do if they wish to gain success in any calling) been willing to
patiently and tirelessly plod ahead gathering and adding little by
little of the greatest thing on earth (knowledge) to his store of
wisdom. Today his research stack has piled up into such a vast heap
that he is now able to scatter it into scientific pastures in such
aways as to be of the most fertilizing values therein for the enriching
of future young minds and for the growing of reputation and fame for
himself.
The most original and beneficial researches and discoveries in the
American Negro field of chemistry have been made by Prof. G. E. Carver,
Director of Agricultural Research in Chemistry at Tuskegee Institute,
Tuskegee, Ala. Chief among his twenty and more discovered chemical
products that are today being used as practical farm and household
necessites are as follows: dressing for canvass shoes, made from
Macon County clays; dyes made from dandelion, black oak, wood ashes,
sweet gum, willow, swamp-maple, sweet potatoes, pomegranate, peanuts,
sage, orange, muscatine grape, onions, velvet beans and tomato vines;
cotton-stalk fibre for rope, cordage, mats and carpets; furniture
stains made from native clays and vegetables; feathers for millinery
purposes, secured from native wild and barn-yard fowls; laundry blues,
20 varieties; okra fibre for paper, rope, cordage, strawboard, matting
and carpet; poplar bark for artificial ribbon; Tonic stock feed, made
of snap corn, velvet beans, cotton-seed meal, and china berries,
containing protein, 14.5 per cent., fats, 4.5;, crude fibre 12, and
carbohydrates 52; Ultramarine Dyes, made from Macon County clays and
used for cotton, wool, silk, and leather; White and Color Washes, made
from clays; Wistaria for basketry work. One of his chemical products
that attracted the widest attention was Prof. Carver’s Sweet Potatoes
Flour that was successfully used during the World War by the Tuskegee
Institute (which has a population around two thousand students and
instructors) as a substitute for wheat flour. (Ref. Work’s Negro Year
Book, 1918-1919 edition, p. 42).
Quite a number of Colored men and women have graduated in chemistry
and physics with high honors from some of the leading universities in
America, and are today holding responsible and high salaried positions
either as professors in colleges or as consulting chemists in private
commercial corporations. Among such professors in colleges are St. Elmo
Brady and E. Chandler who have attracted unusual attention to their
chemical experiments and for their accurate conclusions have received
their Ph. D. degrees from the University of Illinois. Dr. Brady is
author of a book on chemistry.
For the past twenty-five years a Colored man by the name of O. W.
Collins has been employed by the R. W. Hunt Bureau of Inspection, said
to be the largest engineering corporation in America. Mr. Collins is an
analytical and consulting chemist for that corporation.
Harry Keelan, a Harvard graduate, during the World War resigned a $300
a month position as consulting chemist in a New York white firm, in
order to join some other Colored men in organizing a company for the
manufacture of dyes. In this industry he was ably assisted by E. L.
Davidson, another Harvard graduate, and the quality of their dyes was
of such high grade and standard that their firm was unable to fill the
rush orders for their products.
Miss Deborah Henderson graduated from the Central High School, Detroit,
Mich., attending the Oberlin College where her scholastic achievements
won her the much coveted “key”. Then entering the University of Chicago
she attended there until her graduation as a ranking bacteriologist
and chemical technician, as well as serving during her senior year
as president of the Alpha Kappa Sorority. Miss Henderson is only
one among numerous Colored women who have successfully invaded the
highest chemical fields. After reaching that stage of advancement,
they have experimentally as well as theoretically peeped and peered
into many scientific secret lanes and avenues until they learned much
of the hidden and inexhaustive mysteries therein. And with the proper
encouragements, facilities and surroundings, it is not impossible for
some American Colored women scientist some day becoming a second Madame
Curie by finally discovering and giving to the world another hidden
force of the elements, like Radium, that will greatly benefit humanity
and add much to the store of man’s scientific knowledge.
The following quotation is part of an article that appeared in the
April 9, 1921 issue of the Chicago Defender:
“In the various fields of learning the race has wrought and has its
representatives; but not until now have we had a graduate doctor of
metaphysics. The pioneer in this instance is Dr. Adene C. E. Minott,
founder and head of the Clio School of Mental Sciences, Inc., 3543
State street, this city.
“While yet a girl in her teens, Miss Minott showed exceptional ability.
She graduated first in her class from Grammar School No. 80, New York
City, and won the prize for general excellence from her teacher,
Miss Mary E. Eaton. Miss Minott then entered the Girl’s Technical
High School of that city and, after receiving necessary academic
counts, entered the Mac Donnall College of Phrenology and Psychology,
Washington, D.C. Because she was a Race woman, she was not permitted
to study with the regular classes, but forced to take the course by
private instruction. Despite this disadvantage, Miss Minott completed
the studies in one-half the regular time, graduated with honors and
received the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy.
“Returning to New York City, she next forced admittance into the
world-famed American Institute of Anthropology, perfecting herself as
a teacher in five branches of anthropology, as follows: Phrenology,
physiognomy, practical psychology, physiology and anatomy of the brain.
When she graduated from this institution, as a mark of distinction
for an excellent record, she was presented with a membership medal
and received the degree of Fellow of the American Institute of
Anthropology, this making her the only Race woman in the United States
to graduate from this institution or holding such a degree.
“Two years ago Prof. Minott began an intensive course in metaphysics
and business psychology at the College of Metaphysics, St. Louis, Mo.
She completed the courses and took the midwinter examinations recently,
passing with honors and receiving the title and degree of Doctor of
Metaphysics, being the first again of the Race to receive that degree
in this country.
“The first years of Dr. Minott’s practice were confined to an exclusive
clientele among the whites of New York City. Five years ago, however,
she was prevailed upon to establish a branch of the Clio School of
Mental Sciences in Chicago, and to centralize her efforts somewhat upon
the developing and improving of her own people. This she did, and her
efforts have met with enviable success and gratifying appreciation.”
Miss Minott’s unusually successful career proves that a Colored girl
has the same brain power to reach the mental heights a white girl is
able to attain, even when that Colored girl is given only half the
encouragement, half the privileges and half access to the proper
environments. It is true that all Colored girls cannot soar as high in
education as Miss Minott, but all Colored girls can improve themselves
from day to day if they will only decide to study. A cook can elevate
herself to a hairdresser; a chambermaid can elevate herself to a
dressmaker; a waitress can elevate herself to a stenographer and
typewriter; a factory girl can elevate herself to a bookkeeper and a
child’s nurse can elevate herself to a school teacher. But such girls
cannot reach such successes if they go to ball rooms and cabarets to
elevate their skirts instead of going to night schools to elevate
their minds. It all depends upon each girl herself whether she will do
drudgery work all her life or whether she will do it a few years as a
stepping stone while she is preparing herself for something higher.
Colored cooks, waitresses, etc., who think it is no use to develop
their minds, or study for more education just because they are Colored
and will not get a chance to use such education, should remember that:
They would never have grape fruits, oranges or bananas to prepare and
serve if those fruits refused to grow and develop because of their
yellow skins; they would never have coffee to serve if it had refused
to grow because it is brown; they would never have steak to broil
and serve if yellow alderney or black holstein cattle had refused to
develop from calves to cows because of their colors. Thus, if fruits,
vegetables and dumb animals keep right on growing and developing into
their fullest bloom of power and usefulness regardless of their colors;
why should not Colored girls, who have brains to think, hands to work
and God to guide them in right, do the same?
IN MEDICINE.
THE MEDICINE MAN
(The fellow who makes you one minute cry
To give you more years of health and spry.)
At least once a year he ought to test
Heart, lungs and kidneys for your best.
LOVE, air and water you’ll longer enjoy,
If doctors thus you’ll timely employ.
--_Harrison._
IN order to help look after the general health, advise and encourage
good physical conditions and thereby save and prolong the lives of the
several million Colored people residing in the United States, and to
assist in easing the pains and sufferings of all humanity; there are
between four and five thousand Colored physicians today practicing
medicine in America. While the majority of these professional men are
located in parts of this country where they do business exclusively
among their own people, there are hundreds of Colored doctors residing
in many other states where the number of their white patients is as
large as among their own race.
In 1767 there was born in Philadelphia, Pa., a slave by the name of
Jas. Derham, who in his early life was taught medicine by his white
owner, a practicing physician. After Derham had saved enough money to
set himself up in business and had secured his freedom, he moved to New
Orleans, La., where in a few years he built up both a large practice
and an independent fortune. It is said that Dr. Derham was the first
Negro in the United States to be recognized as a practicing physician.
Dr. Daniel H. Williams of Chicago, Ill., not only is spoken of as
being in the front rank of the foremost physicians and surgeons of
the Negro race but he is also classed with the first medical men of
any race or nation. He is the founder of the celebrated Provident
Hospital and Training School of Chicago and was Surgeon-in-Chief of
the famous Freedman’s Hospital, Washington, D.C., under President
Cleveland’s administration. His medical ability became so widely known
that he has been called to nearly every important part of the United
States for consultation. His skill in being the first surgeon to make
a successful operation on the human heart has won him world-wide
reputation. As a result of his deep medical studies and most delicate
surgical operations he has been honored with the first Negro membership
in the American College of Surgeons.
Dr. Algernon B. Jackson, Phila., Pa., has the distinction of receiving
a Fellowship in the American College of Physicians, as a result
of his great all-around medical skill and especially his first
discovery of a cure for articular rheumatism. He is Head of the Mercy
Hospital, which is one of the most practically and beautifully located
Colored institutions of its kind not only in Philadelphia but in the
United States. The results of Dr. Jackson’s medical experiments and
discoveries have been published in leading medical journals and have
won a name for him here and abroad.
Aside from teaching as a professor in one of the leading white medical
schools in Boston, Mass., Dr. S. C. Fuller, a Neuropathologist of
nationwide fame, is also serving as a member on the medical staff of
the Massachusetts Hospital (white) for the insane. In this capacity
he has from time to time made some very valuable discoveries and
suggestions that have been accepted and put into practical and
beneficial uses for the treatment and care of the insane.
The honor of being the first Colored physician to be accepted as an
interne in the Bellevue Hospital, a New York City white institution
of world-wide renown, rests upon the capable shoulders of Dr. U. G.
Vincent. A few years ago he graduated with such high honors from the
University of Pa., that he was not compelled (as is usually the case)
to take the interne entrance examination when admitted to the Bellevue
Hospital.
Dr. Louis T. Wright, of Atlanta, Ga., now of New York, graduated
from Harvard University among the brainiest men of his class. As a
young physician both in age and practice, he is making wonderful
strides along medical paths and has already discovered a new method
of vaccination that has been tested and used by the United States
Government.
On account of some extra special and greatly beneficial medical
efforts having been spent in their unusually successful careers, the
following names have been handed to the writer as belonging to a few
of the Colored physicians who are recognized as standing among the
very highest in their profession. E. A. Balloch, Washington, D.C.,
H. R. Butler, Atlanta, Ga., J. E. Cannady, Charleston, W. Va., A. M.
Curtis, Washington, D.C., U. G. Dailey, Chicago, Ill., J. J. France,
Portsmouth, Va., S. A. Furniss, Indianapolis, Ind., J. H. Hale,
Nashville, Tenn., Geo. C. Hall., Chicago, Ill., J. A. Kenney, Tuskegee,
Ala., N. F. Mossell, Phila., Pa., H. M. Murray, Wilmington, Del., W. L.
Perry, St. Louis, Mo., C. V. Roman, Nashville, Tenn., E. P. Roberts,
New York City, N. Y., H. A. Royster, Raleigh N. C., York Russell, New
York City, N. Y., W. A. Warfield, Washington, D.C., and A. Wilberforce
Williams, Chicago, Ill.
As the result of often handicapped and hurried researches in the
hundred or more following named cities, the writer was only able to
secure the few names listed below from among the thousands of doctors
unlocated but who are just as skilled in the healing powers and just as
learned in the medical science whereever they may be practicing:
Atlanta, Ga.
Dr. R. A. Carter, Drs. J. W. Burney,
H. R. Bulter, C. H. Johnson, H. E. Nash, J. A. Slater.
Atlantic City, N. J.
Drs. R. E. Harris, C. McGuire.
Augusta, Ga.
Drs. T. W. Josey, G. N. Stoney.
Baltimore, Md.
Drs. H. F. Brown, J. C. Brown, D. E. Campbell, H. White, W. H. Wright.
Birmingham, Ala.
Drs. J. W. Anderson, H. C. Bryant, U. G. Mason, J. B. Clayton, E. R. Dudley.
Boley, Okla.
Drs. J. D. Nelson, W. A. Paxton, J. W. Young.
Boston, Mass.
Drs. C. Garland, C. Harrison, I. L. Roberts, B. Robinson.
Buffalo, N. Y.
Drs. M. A. Allen, H. Lewis.
Brooklyn, N. Y.
Drs. R. Birnie, F. M. Jacobs, R. Johnson, O. M. Waller.
Camden, N. J.
Drs. C. T. Branch, I. Wilson.
Charleston, S. C.,
Drs. M. M. Edwards, W. H. Johnson, J. M. Thompson, W. H. Miller
Charleston, W. Va.
Drs. J. E. Cannady, H. F. Gamble, R. L. Jones.
Charlotte, N. C.
E. F. Tyson, J. T. Williams.
Chattanooga, Tenn.
Drs. T. A. Key, W. A. Thompson.
Chester, Pa.
Dr. J. H. Miller, K. L. Kurd, E. E. Raven.
Chicago, Ill.
Drs. U. G. Dailey, S. C. Dickson, W. S. Grant,
G. C. Hall, E. B. Ramsey, A. Wilberforce Williams, Daniel H. Williams.
Cincinnati, O.
Drs. E. B. Gray, F. W. Johnson.
Cleveland, O.
Drs. E. A. Bailey, C. H. Garvin, E. J. Gregg, O. A. Taylor, J. T. Sykes.
Columbia, S.C.
N. A. Jenkins, F. B. Johnson.
Columbus, O.
W. W. Cooper, W. A. Method, W. R. Morrison, W. Woodlin.
Danville, Va.
F. W. James, A. L. Winslow.
Dayton, O.
L. H. Cox, B. A. Rose.
Denver, Col.
S. A. Huff, J. H. Westbrook.
Des Moines, Iowa.
Drs. A. J. Booker, A. Jefferson.
Detroit, Mich.
Drs. Northcross and Turner.
Durham, N. C.
Drs. C. Donnell, A. M. Moore.
Evansville, Ind.
G. W. Buckner, H. Thompson.
Fort Smith, Ark.
Drs. S. W. Harrison, N. H. Lockhart.
Fort Worth, Texas.
Drs. A. B. Borders, J. W. Tildon.
Gary, Ind.
Drs. Baskett and Blackwell, C. E. Hawkins.
Greenville, S.C.
Dr. A. E. Boyd.