to read and write. Gray-haired veterans of the plantations sat side by
side in the day schools as well as in the night schools with the
smallest pickaninnies. And all seemed eager to learn the mysterious
arts of the schoolroom. The school-book, in the eyes of the unlettered
slave, was a sort of fetich to which he attributed the power of the
white man. The young slave could follow his master to the door of the
schoolhouse, but thus far and no farther. The mysterious rites and
ceremonies which went on within were forbidden him. Human nature has
ever been curious to know that the knowledge of which is prohibited,
and so the slave had a great curiosity to master the printed page and
to be admitted to the privileges of the schoolroom. It was not
surprising that the whole race tried to go to school, and it need not
surprise us if, in the enthusiasm for book-learning, from which the
race had been so strictly debarred, too much stress may have been
placed on mere book learning and too much confidence placed in the
formal processes of the schoolroom. But, better even this exaggerated
enthusiasm than indifference to all education of the schoolroom. The
race would soon learn that the blue-back Webster's Speller was not the
magic wand that would turn all troubles and difficulties into success
and prosperity; that the ability to spell B-a-Ba, k-e-r-ker, baker,
would buy no bread of the baker; while the power to read, "Do we go up
by it!" with painful praiseworthy effort, would help the ex-slave but
little as he strove to "go up by" the dangers ahead of him.
But they went to school, all of them at first, or all that could
possibly do so, either by day or by night. It is not recorded that
the chickens of that time had rest, but it must be that they did, for
verily, in the first mad rush of letters, even chickens must have been
forgotten by a race whose predilection for them has furnished the
point for many a joke, as well as the occasion for painful if not
indignant regret on the part of those whose fowls may have been
abstracted. And it is a hopeful sign for the future of the Negro that
while his first wild enthusiasm for the school-house has been
moderated, his real desire for educational improvement continues
strong and steady. He will go to school--the public school--when he
can, and the higher institutions for his race are all filled to their
capacity and are expanding. Will not this thirst for knowledge on the
part of a so lately savage race bear good fruit both for the Negro and
for humanity?
But who were to teach these black fanatics, seeking initiation for the
first time, in the long and gloomy history of their race, into the
mysteries, elusinian, of a modern, and, to them, totally foreign cult?
A faithful band of Christian missionary white women gave answer by
coming in the face of an inevitable social ostracism to light the
torch of thought in a region hitherto unblessed by a single ray of
education's light. The first Negro schools were taught by these white
ladies at Charleston, at Atlanta, at Montgomery, at New Orleans, at
Austin, and at the other great centers of the South's Negro
population. The success of the first labors of this devoted band led
to the foundation of permanent institutions for the elementary and
later for the normal and collegiate instruction of the Negro youth. At
Nashville, at Atlanta, at Raleigh, at Memphis, and at New Orleans
institutions were founded which have become great schools and have
contributed beyond measure to the process of civilizing the Negro as a
mass--a process confessedly still far from completion. Complicated and
annoying as the race problem assuredly is and will be for years to
come at the South, it would be far worse--much farther away from even
a hopeful degree of solution--but for the work done by the missionary
colleges.
The missionary schools, of which Fisk, Atlanta, Straight, Roger
Williams and Central Tennessee may be taken as types, furnished the
first Negro school teachers and the Negro owes to these schools,
founded and maintained in the spirit of the purest Christian
philanthropy, a debt he can never repay in either kind or equivalence.
The nearest like payment he can make is to imitate the beautiful,
pure, devoted, lives of the missionary teachers. Too much cannot be
said in praise of their labors. Perhaps if only the missionary
Christian teachers had come and the political missionaries had
remained at home, all might have been better.
But the missionary schools could reach but few. How was the great mass
of the colored population to be educated? This was the question, and
it was a most serious one. But the answer came not from the federal
government, as some expected--that source from which so many had
looked to get the mythical "mule" and the legendary "forty acres"--it
came from the South, from the wasted resources of the former master.
History furnishes no precedent as it affords no parallel to the action
of the ex-slaveholders--a dominant race--in entering at once--before
any opportunity had been afforded for recuperation from the losses of
the Civil War--on the expensive work of giving a public school system
to their former slaves--now technically, at least, their political
equals. And nothing can be gained by the Negro in refusing gratitude
to the South for this most magnanimous act and policy. An instance of
this unselfish policy of the South in its attitude toward Negro
education is seen in the history of Texas, the most liberal as well as
the most progressive of the Southern commonwealths. The Constitutional
Convention of 1876, which of course was Democratic, framed the present
state constitution of Texas, and in it absolutely equal provision is
made for both the elementary and the higher education of the Negro
youth of Texas. And it is to the credit of Texas as an enlightened
state as well as fortunate for her Negro population, that in the
distribution of the magnificent school fund of the state, no
discrimination is made between the races.
The Negro public schools are doing a great work for the elevation of
the colored people. In a silent, unobtrusive way, these schools are
leavening the thought and life of the race. The status and progress of
the Negro are too commonly gauged by the deeds of the loafing and
criminal element. The honest, law-abiding Negro who has a home, is
getting a little property, has a small bank account, and is educating
his children to useful citizenship, attracts little or no attention.
But a race that has in a generation since chattel slavery gotten
property worth by reliable estimate upward of $400,000,000 has been
doing something. All of such a race are not either lazy, vicious, or
immoral. The public school is doing effective work for the Negroes of
the South in awakening in them a desire for better ways of living and
higher ideals of conduct. Much remains to be done but that already
accomplished is an earnest of better work yet to be done.
The Negro public school teacher has been more than a mere
schoolkeeper. No class of educators in any race has done more, all
things considered. The colored teacher has been a herald of
civilization to the youth of his people. His superior culture and
character have acted as a powerful stimulus to the easily roused
imagination of the colored youth, and the black boy feels, in the
presence of the black "professah," to him the embodiment of learning,
that he too can become "something." At first he does not know what
that something is, but he determines to be "somebody" and to make a
place and a standing for himself in the world. In this way the colored
school teacher is leading his race "up from slavery;" that is from the
slavery of ignorance and superstition, of intellectual and moral
inertia, of aimlessness and shiftlessness, into the freedom of
intelligence, of energy, ambition and industry. Lincoln removed the
formal yoke of a legal bondage, but the colored teacher is helping his
race to get free a second time from a bondage just as galling--the
bondage of intellectual and moral blindness and of industrial
independence. Booker T. Washington is such a teacher--a teacher,
indeed, and the leader of a race. And what Mr. Washington, himself a
product of the missionary schools, is doing in a large way as the
teacher and leader of the entire Negro race in America, hundreds, yea,
thousands, of colored teachers in city and village, in the malarial
river bottoms and among the pine-clad hills, are doing in a local but
no less effective, though less comprehensive way. These colored men
and women, many of whom are people of genuine culture and character,
are giving their lives to the upbuilding of a race. And it is for them
a labor of love.
These teachers teach by example as well as by precept. Their homes are
models in neatness and refinement that are readily imitated by the
other colored people of the community. It is to the credit of the
colored teacher that he is, with rare exceptions, a model in his moral
conduct and home life, and sets a high standard for his race, which
they invariably--some of them--seek to follow. The colored teacher,
too, has always been conservative and has been the wise adviser of his
people. Himself dependent on the sentiment of the best white people of
the community, he has usually won the confidence and respect of the
white people, and they in turn have given him their moral support in
the work of improving the minds, morals, and habits of the Negro youth
of the community. In this way it is throughout the entire South--the
best white people of the community by maintaining public schools for
the Negro youth and by co-operation with the colored teacher, and
often by personal interest in the work of both teacher and pupil, are
actually aiding most effectively if not really directing the
educational development of the colored race.
It is also greatly to the credit of the colored teacher in the South
that he has not gotten above his race or tried to leave them, but has
remained at his post and in his place doing the duty Providence has
assigned and content to leave results to God and the future.
THIRD PAPER.
WHAT IS THE NEGRO TEACHER DOING IN THE MATTER OF UPLIFTING HIS RACE?
BY T. W. TALLEY.
[Illustration: Prof. T. W. Talley]
PROF. THOMAS WASHINGTON TALLEY.
Thomas Washington Talley is a native of Bedford County,
Tenn. His boyhood was spent upon his father's farm where he
imbibed a love for nature. Some of the experiments made by
him, as a child, with some of the lower animals, have proven
most valuable aids in answering scientific problems
encountered in later years.
In 1883 he entered the preparatory department of Fisk
University, and after three years of study was admitted to
college.
He began teaching in the public schools of his native state
at the age of twelve. By teaching during his summer
vacations, and by obtaining state scholarships through
competitive examinations, he secured the larger portion of
the means necessary for his support in college. He graduated
from the classical course of Fisk University in 1890,
receiving the degree of A. B. From 1890 to 1891 he was a
member of the Fisk University Jubilee Singers, who raised
funds for the building of the Fisk Theological Seminary. In
this company it was his duty aside from singing, to present
the needs of the school. This he did with much eloquence and
his appeals were always answered by liberal contributions.
In 1892 he received the degree A. M. from his alma mater for
special work done in Natural Philosophy, Latin and German.
On October 1, 1896, he matriculated in the Graduate
Department of Central Tennessee College (now Walden
University), having spent the two preceding summers in
resident work along the lines indicated by his courses of
study in the institution. He selected courses leading to the
degree of Doctor of Science.
He has been chiefly engaged in educational work and has held
the following positions: Instructor in Mathematics and
Music, Alcorn A. & M. College, Westside, Miss., two years;
Professor of Natural Sciences, five years, and
Vice-President two years in the State N. & I. College,
Tallahassee, Fla. He at present occupies the chair of
Natural Philosophy and General, Analytical and Industrial
Chemistry in the Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Ala.
He is a member of the American Ornithologists Union, the
Michigan Ornithological Club, a Vice-president of the
Florida Audubon Society, and a Fellow of the American Negro
Academy. He is considered an authority in Biology and
Chemistry.
As soon as the clouds of the Civil War had cleared from our country
and the Negro had become a free man, the question immediately
presented itself as to how he could be made worthy of citizenship and
capable of exercising the rights and privileges of free government.
Free government exists through intelligence and integrity in citizens.
The whole system of slavery in which the Negro had been schooled was
such as to leave him without either intelligence or integrity. It
rather taught him that deception was a better way to recognition than
decency; and that whatever supplied his wants, regardless of its
nature, was the means to be used. As the Negro stepped forth from the
darkness of bondage into the light of freedom, the eye of his mind
accustomed to the blackest and lowest was not ready to exercise the
function thus suddenly thrust upon it. It was blinded and needed
treatment that it might be so reconstructed as to guide and lead
aright in this new atmosphere to which it had suddenly gained
admission. The Negro came from slavery in want of training, and
training is requisite to citizenship.
A man, to be trained symmetrically, must be trained mentally, morally
and physically. Although this symmetrical training is much a result of
personal effort, the effort must be directed by an intelligent,
interested teaching. It is to such teaching that the Negro school
teacher has directed and is directing his efforts.
The first schools established distinctively for Negroes in our country
were supported and taught by philanthropic white people of the North.
At the date of the founding of these schools there were practically no
Negro teachers, but in these institutions, fostered by consecrated
white men and women, Negro boys and girls began to receive training
through which they developed into the first teachers of the race.
These schools, begun by philanthropy (although at first they did
primary work) have developed into the Negro colleges, normal schools
and industrial schools of the South. These schools of higher learning
are still manned largely by white men and women. Thus the work of the
Negro teacher is almost entirely limited to a few state colleges and
to the public schools of the Southern cities and of the country
districts. The especial point of excellence which characterizes the
work of the Negro teacher is its interestedness. Whatever may be the
sentiment in other sections, in the South--the real home of the
Negro--every Negro's standing is gauged by the standing of the whole
race in case of those who are most kindly disposed to him, while those
who are illy disposed judge all by the lowest of the race. There is
little or no recognition of individual merit except in so far as it
meets the approval of his Southern white neighbor. Such being the
case, the Negro teacher, realizing that their own elevation comes only
through and in so far as the whole race is elevated, have a double
stimulus for zealously doing their best work; first their love for the
race which naturally springs up between those of the same blood and of
the same descent, and second a selfish reason--their personal
elevation, which only comes through the elevation of the whole race.
Such interested teaching is not without its effect. Illiteracy is
disappearing from day to day. A consultation of the latest census
reports, and a contrasting of them with those previously taken, will
show that the Negro has wiped out some of his illiteracy and is
increasing in wealth, intelligence, etc.--yes, in all that which will
finally force his recognition as a full-fledged American citizen
without any "ifs," except that he be as any other man in possessions,
in mind, and in character.
The Negro teachers are more and more studying the needs of their race
and are shaping their work to meet the demands of the times. The Negro
race formerly sang, and still sings, with much fervor of spirit: "You
may have all this world; Give me Jesus." In the days of its ignorance,
the Negro race observed this beautiful song in letter, but not in
spirit. The Negro teachers have caught the spirit and are beginning
to spread it among the ignorant masses. These teachers go into the
Sunday schools and there teach the race to keep the spirit, "You may
have all this world; Give me Jesus." They teach them that Christ is
far above and is to be preferred to the whole world, but they also
teach them that which is equally good, and that is, getting a hold on
a portion of the goods of this world is a splendid preparation for
getting a hold upon the things which lead up to heaven. In other
words, the Negro teachers have become the great preachers of wealth
getting, not because they would have the race carnally-minded, but
because they know that no race of paupers can ever amount to anything
or enjoy the full rights of citizens.
To the end of replenishing the empty treasury of the race the Negro
teachers are encouraging their fellows to gain a skillful use of the
hand. Many of them are enthusiastic to the extent that they would see
every Negro school in the land teaching skill in the trades and in the
tilling of soil. In this movement for the education of the hand the
Negro teacher is meeting with encouragement on all sides. Such an
education cannot fail to work great benefit for the race, and help to
give it standing. Given an intelligent Negro mass, masters of the
trades and of science of agriculture, there need be no fear for the
Negro's future. The only mistake which it seems that the Negro
teachers may possibly make at this time is, that having pictured in
their minds the benefit of having a mass skilled in industry, and
noting the present popularity of industrial training, they may lose
sight of the fact that the skilled hand must be backed by and rest
upon a mind trained to logical thinking. Industrial training does much
indeed toward mental training, but by no means does it, nor can it, do
all. There is quite a tendency at present aside from industrial
training to limit the mental training of the race to the "3 r's,"
viz., reading, writing and arithmetic. The highest industrial
attainment is not possible with such a limitation. The making, the
repairing and the manipulation of machinery calls for a knowledge of
natural philosophy and higher mathematics. The masterly tilling of the
soil demands one learned in chemistry and botany--botany, which we
know is not even a stranger to Latin. So we might go through every
industry and point out that its perfection is conditioned on the
highest mental training. Let the Negro teacher, while loving
industrial training for his race, not learn to despise that which
appears on the surface to be merely a mental gymnastic, but which,
when examined more carefully, proves to be that only which furnishes
a condition for the best and the highest even in that which he may
most love.
Since social conditions in the South are such as to necessitate a
system of separate schools for whites and Negroes, and since this
necessitates the establishment of a large number of extra schools, it
inevitably results in the shortening of school terms and the cutting
down of the salaries of teachers. I have found some Negro country
schools in Alabama paying the teachers from twelve to fifteen dollars
per month, and the length of the school term was only four months. In
these cases I did not find the teachers worrying over the small
salary, but they were working to have the Negro patrons, from their
own scanty purses, lengthen the school term. In not a few cases the
Negro teachers observed were thus lengthening out the school term from
one to two months every year.
The Negro teacher is also here and there founding institutions of
higher learning. He is getting a hold on the churches, the state,
benevolent societies, and individuals, and is causing them to
contribute money and goods to educational centers which are to prove
most potent levers in lifting the race to a higher level.
The fact that at present a large number of the states of the Union are
basing suffrage upon an educational qualification enhances the value
of the literary work to be done by the Negro teacher. In some states
in the South the educational qualification is avowedly adopted by the
whites to eliminate the Negro from the body politic. The Negro
teachers are not sleeping over the interests of their race in this
matter. They are working quietly, but earnestly. Most of them have the
resolution which I heard expressed during the past summer by a Negro
country school teacher, viz.: "I intend that all my pupils shall learn
to read, write, and have the qualifications for voting if nothing
more."
This, then, is what the Negro teacher is doing in the matter of
uplifting his race: he is giving to it literary training, teaching it
to skillfully use the hand, and encouraging it to accumulate property.
He is lengthening school terms and founding institutions of learning.
He is entering into the inner life of his people; and is implanting
ideas and ideals there which will make them strong and respected by
all the races of mankind.
FOURTH PAPER.
WHAT IS THE NEGRO TEACHER DOING IN THE MATTER OF UPLIFTING HIS RACE?
BY PROF. H. L. WALKER.
[Illustration: Prof. H. L. Walker]
PROF. H. L. WALKER, A. B.
Prof. H. L. Walker was born near the city of Augusta, Ga.,
in the year of 1859. His parents, Wesley and Adline Walker,
were the property of slave owners to whom they rendered
allegiance until 1864 and 1865, when Sherman took his
triumphal march through Georgia and the Carolinas. At the
fall of the Confederacy young Henry went with his parents to
Wilmington, N. C., where they spent about a year, during
which time young Henry for the first time saw the inside of
a school, taught by those pioneering teachers from the
North. At the close of this year the family left Wilmington
and went to Augusta, Ga., which city has been the scene of
our subject's boyhood and the basis of his literary career.
The public schools of Augusta were completed by 1874 and
upon the recommendation of all of his teachers young
"Henry," as he was familiarly called, was matriculated at
the Atlanta University, one of the most noted of Negro
colleges in the South. In this institution he studied for
eight years, coming out in 1882 with the class honor and the
degree of A. B. His parents died during his early boyhood,
even before he had entered the Atlanta University, so that
in his efforts to complete his collegiate career he had to
rely largely upon his own resources, and the very kind
assistance of his foster parents, and other friends whose
protege he was.
Prepared for his life work, he left school in June, 1882,
and was immediately elected principal of the Mitchell Street
Graded School, Atlanta, Ga., his examination papers being
the best offered for this position. In the following
month--July--he was also elected President of the Georgia
State Teachers' Association for Colored Teachers, of which
body more will be said later. As a student at College our
subject was studious, popular with professors and students,
and acquired that assiduity and strict adherence to business
that has since characterized all his subsequent life. In the
profession of teaching he continued to rise higher and
higher each year, holding positions of trust and honor under
each of the State's superintendents of education down to the
present incumbent. For eighteen years he has held sway in
the public school of the city of Augusta, during which time
Mr. Walker has officered the Second Ward Grammar School, the
famous Ware High School and at present the First Ward High
School, which position he still fills with dignity and
credit to himself and race. As Peabody expert, Mr. Walker,
by appointment of the successive State superintendents of
education, has occupied the lecture platform in all parts of
the State, with the best lecturers, white and Colored, that
money could command, and they have all cheerfully conceded
his ripe ability to master and handle successfully such
subjects as have been assigned him from year to year. As a
practical school man and well-informed scholar, Mr. Walker
is always at home. As a Peabody lecturer he has often been
pronounced one of the best in the State. Every Summer his
services are in demand in various parts of the State. For
ten years Mr. Walker was the honored President of the
Georgia State Teachers' Association, Colored, and no man has
since filled that honored chair whose administration has in
any way rivaled the success of Mr. Walker. During his ten
years the association was built up as it has never been
since. The intelligence of the State--white and
Colored--came together in these annual meetings and made
this gathering of educators and leaders the most
representative body in the State.