There are 36 institutions for the education of Colored women, and in
addition, there are 63 Training schools for nurses conducted by Colored
Americans.
It has been proved numberless times by actual experience, under the most
trying circumstances, that our Colored women make the very tenderest of
nurses. In these training schools, are to be found the most important
factors in the improvement of the health of our Colored Americans.
Indeed, their services are so valuable that they are not limited to
their own race.
At the close of the Civil war only five per cent of our Colored
Americans could read and write. In the year 1900, the number had
increased to 55.5 per cent, and in 1910, the number reached 69.5 per
cent. This is an astonishing increase in education, and it proves the
reason why our Colored Americans are forging to the front in the arts
and sciences, trade, commerce, and the professions. It is stupendous
progress when we consider that scarcely two generations were required to
bring about this uplift of an entire race. It takes the banner of racial
improvement.
It appears that the manufacturing and mechanical pursuits are very
attractive to our Colored Americans, the increase during the last ten
years being about 40 per cent. If we may make the comparison, it is on
record that 62 and ²⁄₁₀ per cent of all our Colored Americans are
engaged in profitable occupations, whereas, there are forty-eight and
six-tenths of the White Americans so engaged.