Rev. Dr. B. F. Lee, editor of the _Christian Recorder_, the organ
of the A. M. E. Church, who was for a number of years President of
the Wilberforce University, said: “I think that there is a spirit of
unrest among colored people in that they are losing confidence in
the management of these institutions. They feel that they have been
overlooked; that white men are many times put over them as teachers
when persons of their own race could fill the position equally as well
or better. The teachings of religion will never allow any one race to
be its own absolute and exclusive educator, much less the educator of
all races.”
Prof. E. A. Bouchett, a graduate of Yale College, who is professor
in the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia, said: “The day
has long gone by when an educated colored man was looked upon in this
country as a curiosity. All persons of intelligence agree that the
Negro is capable of undergoing the most severe mental training with
credit to himself and his _alma mater_. The success of the graduates
of colored colleges as teachers is abundantly attested, especially in
the South and West; so the exclusion from the professor’s chair in his
own _alma mater_ cannot be defended by alleging lack of ability or
deficient capacity.”