When it comes to mental success and adaptability, the advance of Colored
Americans is phenomenal, and shows as high an order of intelligence as
any nationality in the world. Remember they are just regaining a lost
heritage of renown.
The schools, colleges and universities number among their brightest and
most brilliant pupils numerous Colored American youths, who are an honor
to the cause of education and to their race. They have won scholarship
prizes at Cornell University, at Amherst College, Simmons College,
Columbia University, Wellesley College, Radcliffe College, Howard
University, and in numerous public schools prizes have been awarded them
against numbers of competitors.
Our Colored Americans are taking hold of the educational problem with a
vim and courage, and they are succeeding along every department of
study.
As an illustration of the thirst for knowledge, the case of Mrs. Martha
Harmon, of New York, will be agreeable: This lady is seventy years of
age, and attended night school for four years, taking an elementary
course. She never missed an evening and was late only once. The New York
Board of Education presented her with two gold medals, one for
attendance, and the other for proficiency in her studies.
The intellectual progress of the Colored Americans may be emphasized by
reference to that highly modern and civilized agent of education known
as “The Press.”
There are now more than one hundred and fifty-three organs of the
Colored Americans, edited and managed exclusively by them, and devoted
to their interests as well as to the cause of general intelligence,
improvement and higher education. These organs of the “Press” are
classified into: magazines, 3; daily papers, 3; school papers, 11;
weekly papers, 136.
Ten of these newspapers own the buildings they occupy, and fifty-four
own their own printing plants.
There is a large field here for exploitation and splendid opportunities
for the development of a high order of intellect. Only one of these
newspapers was established before the Civil War, the Christian Recorder,
of Philadelphia, which began in 1839. All the others were established
after the Civil War, one in 1865, the others after 1870—a fact which
demonstrates the ability of Colored Americans to advance in intellectual
ability when the opportunities are presented for its free exercise.
The sphere of influence of the newspapers can not be disputed, we know
how it is regarded and the enormous deference paid to that influence
among the White Americans, and the same results must obtain among the
Colored Americans.
There is room in this department of intellectual development, for many
strong and vigorous writers, who will be able to crystallize the
energies of the Colored Americans into a determined effort to maintain
their position in the onward movement of the human race toward
unification.