The work of these schools has often been eriti eked, and sometimes, perhaps, justly. But it is nevertheless true that they have had much to do with the uplifting of the negro race. From them have gone forth many of the best teachers of the negro piddle sellouts, Most of these in stitutions had as their model the New England high school or college. Latin and Greek had often n prominent place. The practiral side of education. which was largely provided for in the New England home, was not supplied in time one room cabin of the South. Too great emphasis was sometimes placed upon the literary and apademie side of education, and ton little upon the gaining of it knowledge of the common things of life and of the forming of habits of intelligent industry. It was natural that the colored man, after• years of forced labor, should revolt against any education that gave prominence to the work of the hand. It was natural that his teacher, who heard it continually said that negroes were fit only to be hewers of wood and drawers of water. should wish to prove that they could be come successful lawyers, physicians. and clergy uu•u, The wisdom Of raising up leaders of a people is unquestioned, lint where ninety per cent. of a race live on the land, as is the ease with the blacks of the South, and where a large majority live. as the masses of the negro race still do, in one-room cabins under the lien system of crops, it would seem that there ought to be a close relation between education and vocation, and that their teachers and clergymen should be taught how to build their own houses, and how to cultivate their land Each year is giving to these higher institutions for negrow in the South, as to the colleges of the North. eurrieula which have a more vital connection with life.
What is called race prejudice has caused a separation between the white and black races which, though attended with evil, has been pro ductive of much good. The unwillingness of the Southern whites to allow white and black ehil d tell to be taught in the same schools has re sulted in the founding of the schools just de scribed, which are in some respects superior to most of those that are open to the white children of the South. It has also resulted in a system of public schools taught by colored teachers which, while it has its disadvantages, has re sulted in good to the race.
Before the year 1870 there were practically no negro public schools, with the exception of those in Alemphis. New Orleans. and Nashville. There were, however, in the District of Columbia 10, 494 colored ehildren in public and private schools. In 1870. while for the most part there was opposition, certain far-seeing Southerners de clared in favor of the education of tlte blacks. In 1871 a little improvement was made. In 1872 Delaware and Kentneky were the only States that hail not made provision for negro education. In 1873 and 1874 State normal schools began to be established for the training of negro In 1877 the total number of negro clhildr•en re ported of school age was 1,513.065. and the I.er enrolled in the schools 571,500. There were twenty-seven normal schools with 3785 pupils, and twenty-three institutions for secondary in struction, with 2087 pupils. In 1882-83 the col ored school population in the Distriet of Colum bia and the former slave States was 1.914,572, and the enrollment S02.982. Thus. less than twenty years after the war there was built up in the South a public school system for both whites and blacks. with normal schools for the training of teachers, which, the extreme pov erty of the Southern States, was admirable. In 1897-9s the United States Commissioner of Edu cation stated that there was an enrollment in the schools of 1,500,712 colored children, or 52.97 per of the colored school population, while Iris report for 1900-01 shows an enrollment of 57.2:2 per rent. of the negro children. The aver
ag,e daily attendance in the colored schools is 02.46 per cent. of their enrollment.
No account of negro education in America.
would be complete which did not include an ac count of the work of General S. C. Armstrong at Hampton Institute. Believing in the moral value of self-help, General Armstrong built up a school in which greater prominence trim. given to doing than to mere learning, where there was Ind only the schoolroom, but also the workshop; not only the church, but also the farm; not only the train ing of the mind, but also that of the heart and hand. An effort was made in this school to lit men and women for definite conditions, to develop a love for intelligent work, and to inspire in its pupils 11 strong desire to go out and help to uplift their people. The school at Tuskegee, founded by Booker T. Washington, Hampton's most dis tinguished graduate, was established with similar view's. While receiving help from the North, both of these schools have put themselves in the closest touch with the South and its public school system. Their influence on this system has been marked. As a result of the kind of training given at Hampton and Tuskegm hundreds of young people have been sent out who, by the establishment of homes. the cultivation of land, and the carrying on of business enterprises, have reconstructed whole communities. There is reason to believe that this type of school is meet ing the preFsing need, on the part of the negro people, of knowledge of the common duties of life, while, at the same time, it is providing a kind of training• which results in the stability of charac ter so lacking in the masses of this people, In the establishment and conduct of negro schools, two wisely administered funds have had a large share. (See PEABODY EDUCATIONAL FUND; SLATER FUND.)' Mention should also be made of the Southern and General Education Boards, which are composed of prominent Northern and Southern men. Both these agencies represent a union of wealth, business sagacity, and edueation al statesmanship that augurs well for the cause of universal education. The Southern Education Board conducts a campaign of education for the purpose of stimulating public sentiment in favor of more liberal provision for the common schools for both races. Its work is supplemented by that of the General Education Board, which, in addi tion to collecting information in regard to exist ing educational conditions among both races, is empowered to disburse certain funds where they are most needed for the strengthening of the agencies tending to promote the education of all the people.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Mayo, Third Estate of the Bibliography. Mayo, Third Estate of the South (Boston, 1890) ; Botume, First bays Among the Contrabands (Boston, 1893) ; Curry, l Brief Sketch of George Peabody and a History of the Peabody Education Fund through Thirty Years (Cambridge, 189S) ; shington, The Future of the .t crican Negro (Bos ton. 1S99) ; id.. "Education of the Negro." in Nonograph.s on Education in the United Stales (Albany. 1900) ; Thomas. The .1mcriean Negro New York. 19011 ; "The Negro Common School," in _1 flanta Unirersity Publications, No. C (Atlanta, 1901) ; Sadler, "The Edueation of the Colored Race," in Special Reports of Great Britain Education• Board, vol. xi. (London. 1902) ; John F. Slater Panel for the Eduratio» of Freedmen Occasional Papers (Baltimore. 1894 et seq.); Reports of the Commissioner of Educa tion for 1R96-97 (Washington, 1S9S1 : Dubois. "A Select Bibliography of the American Negro for General Readers," in .Itlanta University Pub lications (Atlanta, 1901) : id., "The Negro Arti san." Atlanta University Publications, No. 7 (Atlanta, 1902).