peculiar attitude. While this vile crime is always to be condemned in
the strongest language, and it should be followed by the severest
legal punishment, yet the custom of lynching a Negro when he is
accused of committing such a crime calls the attention of the whole
country to it, in such a way as is not always true in the case of a
white man, North or South. Any one who reads the daily papers
carefully knows that such assaults are constantly charged against
white men in the North and in the South; but, because the white man,
in most cases, is punished by the regular machinery of the courts,
attention is seldom attracted to his crime outside of the immediate
neighborhood where the offense is committed. This, to say nothing of
the cases where the victim of lynch law could prove his innocence, if
he were given a hearing before a cool, level-headed set of jurors in
open court, makes the apparent contrast unfavorable to the black man.
It is hardly proper, in summing up the value of any race, to dwell
almost continually upon its weaker element. As other men are judged,
so should the Negro be judged, by the best that the race can produce,
rather than by the worst. Keep the searchlight constantly focused upon
the criminal and worthless element of any people, and few among all
the races and nations of the world can be accounted successful. More
attention should be directed to individuals who have succeeded, and
less to those who have failed. And Negroes who have succeeded grandly
can be found in every corner of the South.
I doubt that much reliance can safely be placed upon mere ability to
read and write a little as a means of saving any race. Education
should go further. One of the weaknesses in the Negro's present
condition grows out of failure, in the early years of his freedom, to
teach him, in connection with thorough academic and religious
branches, the dignity and beauty of labor, and to give him a working
knowledge of the industries by which he must earn a subsistence. But
the main question is: What is the present tendency of the race, where
it has been given a fair opportunity, and where there has been
thorough education of hand, head and heart? This question I answer
from my own experience of nineteen years in the heart of the South,
and from my daily contact with whites and blacks. In the first place,
the social barrier prevents most white people from coming into real
contact with the higher and better side of the Negro's social life.
The Negro loafer, drunkard and gambler can be seen without social
contact. The higher life cannot be seen without social contact. As I
write these lines I am in the home of a Negro friend, where in the
matter of cleanliness, sweetness, attractiveness, modern conveniences
and other evidences of intelligence, morality and culture, the home
would compare favorably with that of any white family in the
neighborhood; and yet this Negro home is unknown outside of the little
town where it exists. To really know the life of this family, one
would have to become a part of it for days, as I have been. One of the
most encouraging changes that have taken place in the life of the
Negro race in the past thirty years is the creation of a growing
public sentiment which draws a line between the good and bad, the
clean and unclean. This change is fast taking place in every part of
the country. It is one that cannot be accurately measured by any table
of statistics. To be able to appreciate it fully, one must himself be
a part of the social life of the race.
As to the effect of industrial education in the solution of the race
problem, we should not expect too much from it in a short time. To the
late General S. C. Armstrong, of Hampton Institute, in Virginia,
should be given the credit, mainly, for inaugurating this system of
education. When the Hampton Institute began the systematic, industrial
training of the Negro, such training was unpopular among a large class
of colored people. Later, when the same system was started by me at
the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, in Alabama, it was still
unpopular, especially in that part of the South. But the feeling
against it has now almost disappeared in all parts of the country, so
much so that I do not consider the opposition of a few people here and
there as of material consequence. Where there is one who opposes it
there are thousands who indorse it. So far as the colored people are
concerned, I consider that the battle for this principle has been
fought and the victory won. What the colored people are anxious about
is that, with industrial education, they shall have thorough mental
and religious training, and in this they are right. For bringing about
this change in the attitude of the colored people, much credit should
be given to the John F. Slater Fund, under the wise guidance of such
men as Mr. Morris K. Jesup and Dr. J. L. M. Curry, as well as to Dr.
H. B. Frissell, of the Hampton Institute. That such institutions for
industrial training as the Hampton Institute and the Tuskegee
Institute are always crowded with the best class of Negro students
from nearly every state in the Union, and that every year they are
compelled to refuse admission to hundreds of others, for lack of room
and means, are sufficient evidence that the black race has come to
appreciate the value of industrial education. The almost pathetic
demand of the colored people for the industrial education in every
corner of the South is added evidence of the growing intelligence of
the race. In saying what I do in regard to industrial education, I do
not wish to be understood as meaning that the education of the Negro
should be confined to that kind alone, because we need men and women
well educated in other directions; but for the masses industrial
education is the supreme need. I repeat that we must not expect too
much from this training, in the redemption of a race, in the space of
a few years.
There are few institutions in the South where industrial training is
given upon a large and systematic scale, and the graduates from these
institutions have not had time to make themselves felt to any very
large extent upon the life of the rank and file of the people. But
what are the indications? As I write, I have before me a record of
graduates, which is carefully compiled each year. Of the hundreds who
have been trained at the Tuskegee Institute, less than five per cent
have failed because of the any moral weakness. These graduates, as
well as hundreds of other students who could not remain to finish the
course, are now at work in the schoolroom, in the field, in the shop,
in the home, or as teachers of industry, or in some way they are
making their education felt in the lifting up of the colored people.
Wherever these graduates go, they not only help their own race, but,
in nearly every case, they win the respect and confidence of the white
people.
Not long ago I sent a number of letters to white men, in all the
Southern states, asking, among others, this question: "Judged by
actual observation in your community, what is the effect of education
upon the Negro?" In asking this question, I was careful to explain
that by education I did not mean a mere smattering, but a thorough
education of the head, heart and hand. I received about three hundred
replies, and there was only one who said that education did not help
the Negro. Most of the others were emphatic in stating that education
made the Negro a better citizen. In all the record of crime in the
South, there are very few instances where a black man, who has been
thoroughly educated in the respects I have mentioned, has been ever
charged with the crime of assaulting a woman. In fact, I do not know
of a single instance of this kind, whether the man was educated in an
industrial school or in a college.
The following extracts from a letter written by a Southern white man
to the Daily Advertiser, of Montgomery, Alabama, contain most valuable
testimony. The letter refers to convicts in Alabama, most of whom are
colored:
"I was conversing not long ago with the warden of one of our mining
prisons, containing about 500 convicts. The warden is a practical man,
who has been in charge of prisoners for more than fifteen years, and
has no theories of any kind to support. I remarked to him that I
wanted some information as to the effect of manual training in
preventing criminality, and asked him to state what per cent of the
prisoners under his charge had received any manual training, besides
the acquaintance with the crudest agricultural labor. He replied:
'Perhaps about one per cent.' He added: 'No; much less than that. We
have here at present only one mechanic; that is, there is one man who
claims to be a house painter.'
"'Have you any shoemakers?'
"'Never have had a shoemaker.'
"'Have you any tailors?'
"'Never have had a tailor.'
"'Any printers?'
"'Never have had a printer.'
"'Any carpenters?'
"'Never have had a carpenter. There is not a man in this prison that
could saw to a straight line.'"
Now, these facts seem to show that manual training is almost as good a
preventive for criminality as vaccination is for smallpox.
We can best judge further of the value of industrial and academic
education by using a few statistics bearing upon the state of
Virginia, where graduates from the Hampton Institute and other schools
have gone in large numbers and have had an opportunity, in point of
time, to make their influence apparent upon the Negro population.
These statistics, based on census reports, were compiled mainly by
persons connected with the Hampton Negro Conference:
"Taking taxation as a basis, the colored people of the State of
Virginia contributed, in 1898, directly to the expenses of the State
government, the sum of $9,576.76, and for schools $3,239.41 from their
personal property, a total of $12,816.17; while, from their real
estate, for the purpose of the commonwealth there was paid by them
$34,303.53, and for schools $11,457.22, or a total of $45,760.75--a
grand total of $58,576.92.
"The report for the same year shows them to own 987,118 acres of land,
valued at $3,800,459, improved by buildings valued at $2,056,490, a
total of $5,856,949. In the towns and cities, they own lots assessed
at $2,154,331, improved by buildings valued at $3,400,636, a total of
$5,554,976 for town property, and a grand total of $11,411,916 of
their property of all kinds in the commonwealth. A comparative
statement of different years would doubtless show a general upward
tendency.
"The counties of Accomac, Essex, King and Queen, Middlesex, Mathews,
Northampton, Northumberland, Richmond, Westmoreland, Gloucester,
Princess Anne and Lancaster, all agricultural, show an aggregate of
114,197 acres held by Negroes in 1897, the last year accounted for in
official reports, against 108,824 held the previous year, an increase
of 5,379, or nearly five per cent. The total valuation of land owned
by Negroes in the same counties for 1897, is $547,800, against
$496,385 for the year next preceding, a gain of $51,150, or more than
ten per cent. Their present property, as assessed in 1897, was
$517,560, in 1896, $527,688, a loss of $10,128. Combining the real and
personal property for 1897, we have $1,409,059, against $1,320,504 for
1896, a net gain of $88,555, an increase of six and one-half per cent.
"The records of Gloucester, Lancaster, Middlesex, Princess Anne,
Northumberland, Northampton, King and Queen, Essex, and Westmoreland,
where the colored population exceeds the white, show that the criminal
expense for 1896 was $14,313.29, but for 1897 it was only $8,538.12, a
saving of $5,774.17 to the State, or a falling off of forty per cent.
This does not tell the whole story. In the first named year twenty-six
persons were convicted of felonies, with sentences in the
penitentiary, while in the year succeeding only nine, or one-third as
many, were convicted of the graver offences of the law."
According to these returns, in 1892, when the colored people formed 41
per cent of the population, they owned 2.75 per cent of the total
number of acres assessed for taxation, and 3.40 per cent of the
buildings; in 1898, although not constituting more than 37 per cent of
the population (by reason of white immigration), they owned 3.23 per
cent of the acreage assessed, and 4.64 per cent of the buildings--a
gain of nearly one-third in six years.
According to statistics gathered by a graduate of the Hampton
Institute, in twelve counties in Virginia, there has been in the part
of the state covered by the investigation an increase of 5,379 acres
in the holdings of colored people, and an increase of $51,150 in the
value of their land. In nine counties there has been a decrease in the
number of persons charged with felonies and sent to the penitentiary
from twenty-six in 1896 to nine in 1897.
I do not believe that the Negro will grow weaker in morals and less
strong in numbers because of his immediate contact with the white
race. The first class life insurance companies are considered
excellent authorities as to the longevity of individuals and races;
and the fact that most of them now seek to insure the educated class
of blacks, is a good test of what these companies think, of the effect
of education upon the mortality of the race.
The case of Jamaica, in the West Indies, presents a good example by
which to judge the future of the Negro of the United States, so far as
mortality is concerned. The argument drawn from Jamaica is valuable,
chiefly because the race there has been free for sixty-two years,
instead of thirty-five, as in our own country. During the years of
freedom, the blacks of Jamaica have been in constant contact with the
white man. Slavery was abolished in Jamaica in 1838. The census of
1844 showed that there were 364,000 Negroes on the island. In 1871
there were 493,000, and in 1891 there were 610,597. In a history of
Jamaica written by Mr. W. P. Livingston, who spent ten years studying
the conditions of the island, we find that, immediately after
emancipation on the island, there was something of the reaction that
has taken place in some parts of our country; but that recently there
has been a settling down to real, earnest life on the part of a large
proportion of the race. After calling attention to certain weak and
unsatisfactory phases in the life of the Jamaica Negro, Mr. Livingston
says:
"This, then, is the race as it exists to-day, a product of sixty years
of freedom; on the whole, a plain, honest, Anglicized people, with no
peculiarity except a harmless ignorance and superstition. Looking at
it in contrast with what it was at the beginning of the period, one
cannot but be impressed with the wonderful progress it has made;
and where there has been steady progress in the past, there is
infinite hope for the future. * * * The impact of Roman power and
culture on the northern barbarians of the United Kingdom did not make
itself felt for three hundred years. * * * Instead of dying off before
civilization, he (the Negro) grows stronger as he comes within its
best influences."
In comparing the black race of Jamaica with that of the United States,
it should be borne in mind that the Negro in America enjoys advantages
and encouragements which the race in Jamaica does not possess.
What I have said, I repeat, is based largely upon my own experience
and observation, rather than upon statistics. I do not wish to convey
the impression that the problem before our country is not a large and
serious one; but I do believe that in a judicious system of
industrial, mental and religious training we have found the method of
solving it. What we most need is the money necessary to make the
system effective. The indications are hopeful, not discouraging; and
not the least encouraging is the fact that, in addition to the
munificence of Northern philanthropists and the appropriations of the
Southern state governments from common taxation, with the efforts of
the Negro himself, we have now reached a point at which the solution
of this problem is drawing to its aid some of the most thoughtful and
cultured white men and women of the South, as is indicated by the
article to which I have already referred, from the pen of Professor
John Roach Straton.
SECOND PAPER.
WILL THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO SOLVE THE RACE PROBLEM?
BY PROF. J. R. HAWKINS.
[Illustration: Prof. John R. Hawkins]
JOHN RUSSELL HAWKINS.
John Russell Hawkins, the oldest son of Ossian and
Christiana Hawkins, was born in the town of Warrenton,
Warren County, North Carolina, on May 31, 1862. At the age
of six years, he began attending the public school of his
native town and made rapid progress in his studies.
When old enough to help his father work, he had to stop
attending school regularly and apply himself to work on his
father's farm. In the mean time, he kept up studies by
attending night school and employing private tutors. At the
age of fifteen, he went with four members of the highest
class in the regular graded school to take the public
examination for school teacher. Of the five examined, he
made the highest grades and received an appointment as
assistant teacher in the same school where he had received
his first training.
In 1881, he left home and went to Hampton Institute,
Hampton, Va., where he spent one year in special study
preparatory for business.
In 1882, he left Hampton and accepted a position in the
Government service, as railway postal clerk, on the line
between Raleigh, N. C., and Norfolk, Va. Here he soon made a
record that classed him among the best clerks in the
service. In 1885, Mr. Hawkins returned to his native town
and was elected as principal of the graded school. Here he
spent two years teaching and reading law under private
tutors.
In 1887, he was asked to go to Kittrell, N. C., to fill the
position as business manager and treasurer of Kittrell
College, then known as Kittrell Normal and Industrial
Institute. So acceptably did Mr. Hawkins fill this position
that in 1890 he was elected to the Presidency of Kittrell
College, which position he has filled with credit.
During the first eight years of his work at Kittrell, he
developed that work so rapidly that the trustees deemed it
wise to accept his recommendations and broaden the work so
as to cover a regular college course. Mr. Hawkins has always
been an ardent advocate of higher education for the Negro
and worked hard to fit himself for giving such advantages to
his students. For five years he spent his summers in the
North, where he could get the best school advantages and
keep himself in touch with best school methods.
Mr. Hawkins has been one of the most successful educators of
the South and has raised large sums of money by public
canvass among the philanthropists of the country. In his
native State, North Carolina, he is a recognized leader
among his people, and by his ability and standing has won
the confidence and respect of all classes. A ripe scholar, a
deep thinker, a ready writer and a polished orator, his
services are almost constantly in demand. Indeed, it has
been said of him that he is one of the finest public
speakers on the stage. He speaks with such power of
conviction as to touch the heart of his audiences and at
once lead them into the subject under consideration with
interest and profit.
In 1896 he was elected by the General Conference of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church as Commissioner of
Education and filled that office so acceptably that at the
end of his first term in 1900, he was re-elected by
acclamation. He is regarded as among the strongest laymen in
his church and one of the best financiers of the race.
One of the finest qualities of Mr. Hawkins is his devotion
to his family and his high ideals in home life.
In 1892 he married Miss Lillian M. Kennedy, of Sioux Falls,
South Dakota, whose companionship and devotion has been a
most important factor in contributing to her husband's
success. They are the happy parents of two children, a girl
and a boy, and are pleasantly located at Kittrell, N. C., in
a very beautiful home.
Every nation of recognized merit and ability, chronicled in the
world's history, is proud to revert to some special feature of its
life, and point with pride to some one thing that has given character
to its institutions and added to its national glory. As far back as
history runs, we find nations, classes and races, pointing out
different things as the stronghold, the ground work, the pillars on
which their fame rests.
The thing to which the Negro can point with most pride, is the
activity and progress made in the development of an ideal home life
and the providing of a liberal education for his people. Indeed, it is
worthy of note, that in both church and state, there is a growing
interest in behalf of extending to all classes the privileges and
benefits of at least a limited education. Nations that once thought of
nothing but war and conquest are throwing their influence in the scale
of popular education.
Countries that have long wielded the scepter of power, and held
thousands subject to the will and opinion of one man or set of men,
are being aroused to the importance of individual thought and
individual responsibility. Churches and organizations that necessarily
began their work with one or two as leaders, who had to do the
thinking for hundreds of others, are now turning their attention to
the work of training and developing the faculties and character of
each one so as to enable him to think and act intelligently for
himself; this is the spirit of the present age. In this lies the hope
and destiny of all classes and all races.
Hence, if there be any particular problem as connected with the Negro
race, in my opinion the solution of that problem will come only by
following the rule of action applied to the uplifting and development
of others.
The Negro is no new specie of nature; he is no new issue in the
category of life; no new element in the citizenship of this country,
and needs no special prescription to suit his needs. His case is one
common to a people whose surroundings and environments have placed, or
caused them to be placed, in a dependent attitude, and his only hope
for rising above the common level of a menial slave is to so husband
his resources as to change these environments and become the master
of, rather than the helpless creature, of circumstances. The faithful
pioneers who carried the torch of knowledge into darkened regions and
cheered the lives of thousands with rays of hope and promise, opened
the way for the liberation of great forces that had long lain dormant
and smothered. Knowledge has been the torch in the civilizer's hand,
and carrying this still we can find treasures still unearthed and
truths still unlearned.
The glories already achieved in the field of science, art and
literature have but aroused us to seek for still greater honors. The
ray of light that has fallen across our pathway, giving hope and
promise of better and brighter things further on, has but fired the
zeal within us, and there is no way of satisfying this burning zeal
save the feasting on the coveted goal--the riches and beauties of
wisdom. One writer says: "As long as one's mind is shrouded in
ignorance he is but the tool of others, and the victim of foolishness
and gross absurdities. He will never experience those pleasures which
come from a well-directed train of thought and which is akin to the
dignity of a high nature. On the other hand, the person whose mind is
illumined with the light of knowledge, and whose soul is lit up, is
introduced as it were into a new world. He can trace back the stream
of time to its commencement, and gliding along its downward course,
can survey the most memorable events and see the dawnings of Divine
Mercy and the manifestations of the Son of God in our nature." 'Tis
not enough to know that we have faculties. 'Tis not sufficient to say
that there lives in us the power to see, to hear, to feel, to reason,
to think and to act; we must develop these powers until we can feel
the benefit of the blessings that come from their use. We will never
be able to reason for ourselves unless we learn to think for
ourselves. The thinking mind is the active mind, and the active mind
is the growing mind; the growing mind moves the man, and the man that
moves helps to move the world. He moves step by step from the common
level of events to things of greater height. He rises from pinnacle to
pinnacle, never ceasing, never tiring, never stopping, ever growing,
ever moving, ever rising till he finds the fountain head of all truth
and all virtue. We are now face to face with a new order of things.
Under this new regime we witness the foreshadowing of a higher sense
of civilization, a higher standard of morals, a broader field of
culture and a purer realm of thought.