The political, educational, social, and economic evolution through which
the South passed during, say, the first fifteen or twenty years after
the close of the civil war furnishes one of the most interesting periods
that any country has passed through.
A large share of the thought and activity of the white South, of the
black South, and of that section of the North especially interested
in my race, was directed during the years of the Reconstruction period
toward politics, or toward matters bearing upon what were termed civil
or social rights. The work of education was rather slow, and covered a
large section of the South; still I think I am justified in saying that
in the public mind the Negro's relation to politics overshadowed nearly
every other interest. The education of the race was conducted quietly,
and attracted comparatively little attention, just as is true at the
present time. The appointment of one Negro postmaster at a third or
fourth rate post office will be given wider publicity through the daily
press than the founding of a school, or some important discovery in
science.
With reference to the black man's political relation to the state and
Federal governments, I think I am safe in saying that for many years
after the civil war there were sharp and antagonistic views between the
North and the South, as well as between the white South and the black
South. At practically every point where there was a political question
to be decided in the South the blacks would array themselves on one side
and the whites on the other. I remember that very soon after I began
teaching school in Alabama an old colored man came to me just prior to
an election. He said: "You can read de newspapers and most of us can't,
but dar is one thing dat we knows dat you don't, and dat is how to vote
down here; and we wants you to vote as we does." He added: "I tell you
how we does. We watches de white man; we keeps watching de white man;
de nearer it gits to election time de more we watches de white man. We
watches him till we finds out which way he gwine to vote. After we finds
out which way he gwine to vote, den we votes exactly de other way; den
we knows we 's right."
Stories on the other side might be given showing that a certain class of
white people, both at the polls and in the Legislatures, voted just as
unreasonably in opposing politically what they thought the Negro or the
North wanted, no matter how much benefit might ensue from a contrary
action. Unfortunately such antagonism did not end with matters
political, but in many cases affected the relation of the races in
nearly every walk of life. Aside from political strife, there was
naturally deep feeling between the North and the South on account of the
war. On nearly every question growing out of the war, which was debated
in Congress, or in political campaigns, there was the keenest difference
and often the deepest feeling. There was almost no question of even a
semi-political nature, or having a remote connection with the Negro,
upon which there was not sharp and often bitter division between the
North and South. It is needless to say that in many cases the Negro
was the sufferer. He was being ground between the upper and nether
millstones. Even to this day it is well-nigh impossible, largely by
reason of the force of habit, in certain states to prevent state and
even local campaigns from being centred in some form upon the black man.
In states like Mississippi, for example, where the Negro ceased nearly
a score of years ago, by operation of law, to be a determining factor
in politics, he forms in some way the principal fuel for campaign
discussion at nearly every election. The sad feature of this is, that
it prevents the presentation before the masses of the people of matters
pertaining to local and state improvement, and to great national issues
like finance, tariff, or foreign policies. It prevents the masses from
receiving the broad and helpful education which every political campaign
should furnish, and, what is equally unfortunate, it prevents the youth
from seeing and hearing on the platform the great political leaders of
the two national parties. During a national campaign few of the great
Democratic leaders debate national questions in the South, because it
is felt that the old antagonism to the Negro politically will keep the
South voting one way. Few of the great Republican leaders appear on
Southern platforms, because they feel that nothing will be gained.
One of the saddest instances of this situation that has come within my
knowledge occurred some years ago in a certain Southern state where a
white friend of mine was making the race for Congress on the Democratic
ticket in a district that was overwhelmingly Democratic. I speak of this
man as my friend, because there was no personal favor in reason which
he would have refused me. He was equally friendly to the race, and was
generous in giving for its education, and in helping individuals to
buy land. His campaign took him into one of the "white" counties, where
there were few colored people, and where the whites were unusually
ignorant. I was surprised one morning to read in the daily papers of a
bitter attack he had made on the Negro while speaking in this county.
The next time I saw him I informed him of my surprise. He replied that
he was ashamed of what he had said, and that he did not himself believe
much that he had stated, but gave as a reason for his action that he had
found himself before an audience which had heard little for thirty years
in the way of political discussion that did not bear upon the Negro, and
that he therefore knew it was almost impossible to interest them in any
other subject.
But this is somewhat aside from my purpose, which is, I repeat, to make
plain that in all political matters there was for years after the war
no meeting ground of agreement for the two races, or for the North and
South. Upon the question of the Negro's civil rights, as embodied in
what was called the Civil Rights Bill, there was almost the same sharp
line of division between the races, and, in theory at least, between the
Northern and Southern whites,--largely because the former were
supposed to be giving the blacks social recognition, and encouraging
intermingling between the races. The white teachers, who came from
the North to work in missionary schools, received for years little
recognition or encouragement from the rank and file of their own race.
The lines were so sharply drawn that in cities where native Southern
white women taught Negro children in the public schools, they would
have no dealings with Northern white women who, perhaps, taught Negro
children from the same family in a missionary school.
I want to call attention here to a phase of Reconstruction policy which
is often overlooked. All now agree that there was much in Reconstruction
which was unwise and unfortunate. However we may regard that policy, and
much as we may regret mistakes, the fact is too often overlooked that it
was during the Reconstruction period that a public school system for the
education of all the people of the South was first established in most
of the states. Much that was done by those in charge of Reconstruction
legislation has been overturned, but the public school system still
remains. True, it has been modified and improved, but the system
remains, and is every day growing in popularity and strength.
As to the difference of opinion between the North and the South
regarding Negro education, I find that many people, especially in the
North, have a wrong conception of the attitude of the Southern white
people. It is and has been very generally thought that what is termed
"higher education" of the Negro has been from the first opposed by the
white South. This opinion is far from being correct. I remember that,
in 1891, when I began the work of establishing the Tuskegee Institute
in Alabama, practically all of the white people who talked to me on the
subject took it for granted that instruction in the Greek, Latin, and
modern languages would be one of the main features of our curriculum. I
heard no one oppose what he thought our course of study was to embrace.
In fact, there are many white people in the South at the present time
who do not know that instruction in the dead languages is not given at
the Tuskegee Institute. In further proof of what I have stated, if one
will go through the catalogue of the schools maintained by the states
for Negro people, and managed by Southern white people, he will find in
almost every case that instruction in the higher branches is given with
the consent and approval of white officials. This was true as far back
as 1880. It is not unusual to meet at this time Southern white people
who are as emphatic in their belief in the value of classical education
as a certain element of colored people themselves. In matters relating
to civil and political rights, the breach was broad, and without
apparent hope of being bridged; even in the matter of religion,
practically all of the denominations had split on the subject of the
Negro, though I should add that there is now, and always has been, a
closer touch and more cooperation in matters of religion between the
white and colored people in the South than is generally known. But the
breach between the white churches in the South and North remains.
In matters of education the difference was much less sharp. The truth
is that a large element in the South had little faith in the efficacy
of the higher or any other kind of education of the Negro. They were
indifferent, but did not openly oppose; on the other hand, there has
always been a potent element of white people in all of the Southern
states who have stood out openly and bravely for the education of
all the people, regardless of race. This element has thus far been
successful in shaping and leading public opinion, and I think that it
will continue to do so more and more. This statement must not be taken
to mean that there is as yet an equitable division of the school funds,
raised by common taxation, between the two races in many sections of the
South, though the Southern states deserve much credit for what has been
done. In discussing the small amount of direct taxes the Negro pays, the
fact that he pays tremendous indirect taxes is often overlooked.
I wish, however, to emphasize the fact that while there was either open
antagonism or indifference in the directions I have named, it was the
introduction of industrial training into the Negro's education
that seemed to furnish the first basis for anything like united and
sympathetic interest and action between the two races in the South and
between the whites in the North and those in the South. Aside from its
direct benefit to the black race, industrial education has furnished
a basis for mutual faith and cooperation, which has meant more to the
South, and to the work of education, than has been realized.
This was, at the least, something in the way of construction. Many
people, I think, fail to appreciate the difference between the problems
now before us and those that existed previous to the civil war. Slavery
presented a problem of destruction; freedom presents a problem of
construction.
From its first inception the white people of the South had faith in the
theory of industrial education, because they had noted, what was
not unnatural, that a large element of the colored people at first
interpreted freedom to mean freedom from work with the hands. They
naturally had not learned to appreciate the fact that they had been
WORKED, and that one of the great lessons for freemen to learn is to
WORK. They had not learned the vast difference between WORKING and BEING
WORKED. The white people saw in the movement to teach the Negro youth
the dignity, beauty, and civilizing power of all honorable labor with
the hands something that would lead the Negro into his new life of
freedom gradually and sensibly, and prevent his going from one extreme
of life to the other too suddenly. Furthermore, industrial education
appealed directly to the individual and community interest of the white
people. They saw at once that intelligence coupled with skill would add
wealth to the community and to the state, in which both races would have
an added share. Crude labor in the days of slavery, they believed, could
be handled and made in a degree profitable, but ignorant and unskilled
labor in a state of freedom could not be made so. Practically every
white man in the South was interested in agricultural or in mechanical
or in some form of manual labor; every white man was interested in
all that related to the home life,--the cooking and serving of food,
laundering, dairying, poultry-raising, and housekeeping in general.
There was no family whose interest in intelligent and skillful nursing
was not now and then quickened by the presence of a trained nurse. As
already stated, there was general appreciation of the fact that
the industrial education of the black people had direct, vital, and
practical bearing upon the life of each white family in the South; while
there was no such appreciation of the results of mere literary training.
If a black man became a lawyer, a doctor, a minister, or an ordinary
teacher, his professional duties would not ordinarily bring him in touch
with the life of the white portion of the community, but rather confine
him almost exclusively to his own race. While purely literary or
professional education was not opposed by the white population, it was
something in which they found little or no interest, beyond a confused
hope that it would result in producing a higher and a better type of
Negro manhood. The minute it was seen that through industrial education
the Negro youth was not only studying chemistry, but also how to apply
the knowledge of chemistry to the enrichment of the soil, or to cooking,
or to dairying, and that the student was being taught not only geometry
and physics, but their application to blacksmithing, brickmaking,
farming, and what not, then there began to appear for the first time
a common bond between the two races and cooperation between North and
South.
One of the most interesting and valuable instances of the kind that I
know of is presented in the case of Mr. George W. Carver, one of our
instructors in agriculture at Tuskegee Institute. For some time it has
been his custom to prepare articles containing information concerning
the conditions of local crops, and warning the farmers against the
ravages of certain insects and diseases. The local white papers are
always glad to publish these articles, and they are read by white and
colored farmers.
Some months ago a white land-holder in Montgomery County asked Mr.
Carver to go through his farm with him for the purpose of inspecting
it. While doing so Mr. Carver discovered traces of what he thought was
a valuable mineral deposit, used in making a certain kind of paint.
The interests of the land-owner and the agricultural instructor at once
became mutual. Specimens of the deposits were taken to the laboratories
of the Tuskegee Institute and analyzed by Mr. Carver. In due time the
land-owner received a report of the analysis, together with a statement
showing the commercial value and application of the mineral. I shall
not go through the whole interesting story, except to say that a stock
company, composed of some of the best white people in Alabama, has been
organized, and is now preparing to build a factory for the purpose
of putting their product on the market. I hardly need to add that
Mr. Carver has been freely consulted at every step, and his services
generously recognized in the organization of the concern. When the
company was being formed the following testimonial, among others, was
embodied in the printed copy of the circular:--
"George W. Carver, Director of the Department of Agriculture, Tuskegee,
Alabama, says:--
"'The pigment is an ochreous clay. Its value as a paint is due to the
presence of ferric oxide, of which it contains more than any of the
French, Australian, American, Irish, or Welsh ochres. Ferric oxides have
long been recognized as the essential constituents of such paints as
Venetian red, Turkish red, oxide red, Indian red, and scarlet. They are
most desirable, being quite permanent when exposed to light and air. As
a stain they are most valuable.'"
In further proof of what I wish to emphasize, I think I am safe in
saying that the work of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute,
under the late General S. C. Armstrong, was the first to receive any
kind of recognition and hearty sympathy from the Southern white people,
and General Armstrong was perhaps the first Northern educator of Negroes
who won the confidence and cooperation of the white South. The effects
of General Armstrong's introduction of industrial education at Hampton,
and its extension to the Tuskegee Institute in the far South, are now
actively and helpfully apparent in the splendid work being accomplished
for the whole South by the Southern Education Board, with Mr. Robert C.
Ogden at its head, and by the General Education Board, with Mr. William
H. Baldwin, Jr., as its president. Without the introduction of manual
training it is doubtful whether such work as is now being wrought
through these two boards for both races in the South could have been
possible within a quarter of a century to come. Later on in the
history of our country it will be recognized and appreciated that the
far-reaching and statesman-like efforts of these two boards for general
education in the South, under the guidance of the two gentlemen named,
and with the cooperation and assistance of such men as Mr. George Foster
Peabody, Dr. Wallace Buttrick, Mr. John D. Rockefeller, of the North,
and Mr. Edgar Gardner Murphy, Chancellor Hill, Dr. Alderman, Dr. McIver,
Dr. Dabney, and others of the South, will have furnished the material
for one of the brightest and most encouraging chapters in the history of
our country. The fact that we have reached the point where men and women
who were so far apart twenty years ago can meet in the South and discuss
freely from the same platform questions relating to the industrial,
educational, political, moral, and religious development of the two
races marks a great step in advance. It is true that as yet the Negro
has not been invited to share in these discussions.
Aside from the reasons I have given showing why the South favored
industrial education, coupled with intellectual and moral training,
many of the whites saw, for example, that the Negroes who were master
carpenters and contractors, under the guidance of their owners, could
become still greater factors in the development of the South if their
children were not suddenly removed from the atmosphere and occupations
of their fathers, and if they could be taught to use the thing in hand
as a foundation for higher growth. Many of the white people were wise
enough to see that such education would enable some of the Negro youths
to become more skillful carpenters and contractors, and that if they
laid an economic foundation in this way in their generation, they would
be laying a foundation for a more abstract education of their children
in the future.
Again, a large element of people at the South favored manual training
for the Negro because they were wise enough to see that the South was
largely free from the restrictive influences of the Northern trades
unions, and that such organizations would secure little hold in the
South so long as the Negro kept abreast in intelligence and skill with
the same class of people elsewhere. Many realized that the South would
be tying itself to a body of death if it did not help the Negro up. In
this connection I want to call attention to the fact that the official
records show that within one year about one million foreigners came into
the United States. Notwithstanding this number, practically none went
into the Southern states; to be more exact, the records show that in
1892 only 2278 all told went into the states of Alabama, Arkansas,
Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee, and Virginia. One ship sometimes brings as many to New York.
Various reasons are given to explain why these foreigners systematically
avoid the South. One is that the climate is so hot; and another is that
they do not like the restrictions thrown about the ballot; and still
another is the presence of the Negro is so large numbers. Whatever the
true reason is, the fact remains that foreigners avoid the South, and
the South is more and more realizing that it cannot keep pace with the
progress being made in other parts of the country if a third of its
population is ignorant and without skill.
The South must frankly face this truth, that for a long period it must
depend upon the black man to do for it what the foreigner is now doing
for the great West. If, by reason of his skill and knowledge, one man in
Iowa learns to produce as much corn in a season as four men can produce
in Alabama, it requires little reasoning to see that Alabama will buy
most of her corn from Iowa.
Another interesting result of the introduction of industrial education
for the Negro has been its influence upon the white people of the South,
and, I believe, upon the whites of the North as well. This phase of it
has proved of interest in making hand training a conciliatory element
between the races.
In 1883 I was delivering an address on industrial education before the
colored State Teachers' Association of one of our Southern states.
When I had finished, some of the teachers began to ask the State
Superintendent of Education, who was on the programme, some questions
about the subject. He politely but firmly stopped the questions by
stating that he knew absolutely nothing about industrial training, and
had never heard it discussed before. At that time there was no such
education being given at any white institution in that state. With one
or two exceptions this case will illustrate what was true of all the
Southern states. A careful investigation of the subject will show
that it was not until after industrial education was started among
the colored people, and its value proved, that it was taken up by the
Southern white people.
Manual training or industrial and technical schools for the whites have,
for the most part, been established under state auspices, and are at
this time chiefly maintained by the states. An investigation would also
show that in securing money from the state legislatures for the purpose
of introducing hand work, one of the main arguments used was the
existence and success of industrial training among the Negroes. It was
often argued that the white boys and girls would be left behind unless
they had the opportunities for securing the same kind of training
that was being given the colored people. Although it is, I think, not
generally known, it is a fact that since the idea of industrial or
technical education for white people took root within the last few
years, much more money is spent annually for such education for the
whites than for the colored people. Any one who has not looked into the
subject will be surprised to find how thorough and high grade the work
is. Take, for example, the state of Georgia, and it will be found that
several times as much is being spent at the Industrial College for
white girls at Milledgeville, and at the technical school for whites
at Atlanta, as is being spent in the whole state for the industrial
education of Negro youths. I have met no Southern white educators who
have not been generous in their praise of the Negro schools for taking
the initiative in hand training. This fact has again served to create in
matters relating to education a bond of sympathy between the two races
in the South. Referring again to the influence of industrial training
for the Negro in education, in the Northern states I find, while writing
this article, the following announcement in the advertisement of what
is perhaps the most high-priced and exclusive girls' seminary in
Massachusetts:--
"In planning a system of education for young ladies, with the view of
fitting them for the greatest usefulness in life, the idea was conceived
of supplementing the purely intellectual work by a practical training in
the art of home management and its related subjects.
"It was the first school of high literary grade to introduce courses in
Domestic Science into the regular curriculum.
"The results were so gratifying as to lead to the equipment of
Experiment Hall, a special building, fitted for the purpose of studying
the principles of Applied Housekeeping. Here the girls do the actual
work of cooking, marketing, arranging menus, and attend to all the
affairs of a well-arranged household.
"Courses are arranged also in sewing, dressmaking, and millinery; they
are conducted on a similarly practical basis, and equip the student with
a thorough knowledge of the subject."
A dozen years ago I do not believe that any such announcement would have
been made.
Beginning with the year 1877, the Negro in the South lost practically
all political control; that is to say, as early as 1885 the Negro
scarcely had any members of his race in the national Congress or
state legislatures, and long before this date had ceased to hold state
offices. This was true, notwithstanding the protests and fervent oratory
of such strong race leaders as Frederick Douglass, B. K. Bruce, John R.
Lynch, P. B. S. Pinchback, and John M. Langston, with a host of others.
When Frederick Douglass, the greatest man that the race has produced,
died in 1895, it is safe to say that the Negro in the Southern states,
with here and there a few exceptions, had practically no political
control or political influence, except in sending delegates to national
conventions, or in holding a few Federal positions by appointment. It
became evident to many of the wise Negroes that the race would have to
depend for its success in the future less upon political agitations and
the opportunity of holding office, and more upon something more tangible
and substantial. It was at this period in the Negro's development, when
the distance between the races was greatest, and the spirit and ambition
of the colored people most depressed, that the idea of industrial or
business development was introduced and began to be made prominent. It
did not take the more level-headed members of the race long to see that
while the Negro in the South was surrounded by many difficulties, there
was practically no line drawn and little race discrimination in the
world of commerce, banking, storekeeping, manufacturing, and the skilled
trades, and in agriculture, and that in this lay his great opportunity.
They understood that, while the whites might object to a Negro's being a
postmaster, they would not object to his being the president of a
bank, and in the latter occupation they would give him assistance and
encouragement. The colored people were quick to see that while the negro
would not be invited as a rule to attend the white man's prayer-meeting,
he would be invited every time to attend the stockholders' meeting of
a business concern in which he had an interest and that he could buy
property in practically any portion of the South where the white man
could buy it. The white citizens were all the more willing to encourage
the Negro in this economic or industrial development, because they saw
that the prosperity of the Negro meant also the prosperity of the white
man. They saw, too, that when a Negro became the owner of a home and
was a taxpayer, having a regular trade or other occupation, he at once
became a conservative and safe citizen and voter; one who would consider
the interests of his whole community before casting his ballot; and,
further, one whose ballot could not be purchased.
One case in point is that of the twenty-eight teachers at our school
in Tuskegee who applied for life-voting certificates under the new
constitution of Alabama, not one was refused registration; and if I may
be forgiven a personal reference, in my own case, the Board of Registers
were kind enough to send me a special request to the effect that they
wished me not to fail to register as a life voter. I do not wish
to convey the impression that all worthy colored people have been
registered in Alabama, because there have been many inexcusable and
unlawful omissions; but, with few exceptions, the 2700 who have been
registered represent the best Negroes in the state.
Though in some parts of the country he is now misunderstood, I believe
that the time is going to come when matters can be weighed soberly, and
when the whole people are going to see that president Roosevelt is, and
has been from the first, in line with this policy,--that of encouraging
the colored people who by industry and economy have won their way into
the confidence and respect of their neighbors. Both before and since
he became President I have had many conversations with him, and at all
times I have found him enthusiastic over the plan that I have described.
The growth of the race in industrial and business directions within the
last few years cannot perhaps be better illustrated than by the fact
that what is now the largest secular national organization among the
colored people is the National Negro Business League. This organization
brings together annually hundreds of men and women who have worked their
way up from the bottom to the point where they are now in some cases
bankers, merchants, manufacturers, planters, etc. The sight of this body
of men and women would surprise a large part of American citizens who do
not really know the better side of the Negro's life.
It ought to be stated frankly here that at first, and for several
years after the introduction of industrial training at such educational
centres as Hampton and Tuskegee, there was opposition from colored
people, and from portions of those Northern white people engaged in
educational and missionary work among the colored people in the South.
Most of those who manifested such opposition were actuated by the
highest and most honest motives. From the first the rank and file of the
blacks were quick to see the advantages of industrial training, as is
shown by the fact that industrial schools have always been overcrowded.
Opposition to industrial training was based largely on the old and
narrow ground that it was something that the Southern white people
favored, and therefore must be against the interests of the Negro.
Again, others opposed it because they feared that it meant the
abandonment of all political privileges, and the higher or classical
education of the race. They feared that the final outcome would be the
materialization of the Negro, and the smothering of his spiritual and
aesthetic nature. Others felt that industrial education had for its
object the limitation of the Negro's development, and the branding him
for all time as a special hand-working class.
Now that enough time has elapsed for those who opposed it to see that
it meant none of these things, opposition, except from a very few of
the colored people living in Boston and Washington, has ceased, and this
system has the enthusiastic support of the Negroes and of most of the
whites who formerly opposed it. All are beginning to see that it was
never meant that ALL Negro youths should secure industrial education,
any more than it is meant that ALL white youths should pass through
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or the Amherst Agricultural
College, to the exclusion of such training as is given at Harvard, Yale,
or Dartmouth; but that in a peculiar sense a large proportion of the
Negro youths needed to have that education which would enable them to
secure an economic foundation, without which no people can succeed in
any of the higher walks of life.
It is because of the fact that the Tuskegee Institute began at the
bottom, with work in the soil, in wood, in iron, in leather, that it
has now developed to the point where it is able to furnish employment
as teachers to twenty-eight Negro graduates of the best colleges in the
country. This is about three times as many Negro college graduates as
any other institution in the United States for the education of colored
people employs, the total number of officers and instructors at Tuskegee
being about one hundred and ten.
Those who once opposed this see now that while the Negro youth who
becomes skilled in agriculture and a successful farmer may not be able
himself to pass through a purely literary college, he is laying the
foundation for his children and grandchildren to do it if desirable.
Industrial education in this generation is contributing in the highest
degree to make what is called higher education a success. It is now
realized that in so far as the race has intelligent and skillful
producers, the greater will be the success of the minister, lawyer,
doctor, and teacher. Opposition has melted away, too, because all men
now see that it will take a long time to "materialize" a race, millions
of which hold neither houses nor railroads, nor bank stocks, nor
factories, nor coal and gold mines.
Another reason for the growth of a better understanding of the objects
and influence of industrial training is the fact, as before stated, that
it has been taken up with such interest and activity by the Southern
whites, and that it has been established at such universities as Cornell
in the East, and in practically all of the state colleges of the great
West.
It is now seen that the result of such education will be to help the
black man to make for himself an independent place in our great American
life. It was largely the poverty of the Negro that made him the prey of
designing politicians immediately after the war; and wherever poverty
and lack of industry exist to-day, one does not find in him that deep
spiritual life which the race must in the future possess in a higher
degree.
To those who still express the fear that perhaps too much stress is
put upon industrial education for the Negro I would add that I should
emphasize the same kind of training for any people, whether black or
white, in the same stage of development as the masses of the colored
people.
For a number of years this country has looked to Germany for much in the
way of education, and a large number of our brightest men and women are
sent there each year. The official reports show that in Saxony, Germany,
alone, there are 287 industrial schools, or one such school to every
14,641 people. This is true of a people who have back of them centuries
of wealth and culture. In the South I am safe in saying that there is
not more than one effective industrial school for every 400,000 colored
people.
A recent dispatch from Germany says that the German Emperor has had a
kitchen fitted up in the palace for the single purpose of having his
daughter taught cooking. If all classes and nationalities, who are
in most cases thousands of years ahead of the Negro in the arts of
civilization, continue their interest in industrial training, I cannot
understand how any reasonable person can object to such education for a
large part of a people who are in the poverty-stricken condition that is
true of a large element of my race, especially when such hand training
is combined, as it should be, with the best education of head and heart.