76. A BRIEF FOR THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO1 Ridicule and contempt have characterized the habitual attitude of the American mind toward the negro's higher strivings. The African was brought to this country for the purpose of performing manual and menial labor. His bodily powers alone were required to accomplish this industrial mission. No more account was taken of his higher susceptibilities than of the mental and moral faculties of the lower animals. As the late Mr. Price used to say, the white man saw in the negro's mind only what was apparent in his face, "darkness there, and nothing more." His usefulness in the world is still measured by physical faculties rather than by qualities of mind and soul. The merciless proposition of Carlyle, that the negro is useful to God's creation only as a servant, still finds wide acceptance. It is so natural to base a theory upon a long-established practice that one no longer wonders at the prevalence of this belief. The negro has sustained servile relation to the Caucasian for so long a time that it is as easy as it is agreeable to Caucasian pride to conclude that servitude is his ordained place in society. When it was first proposed to furnish means for the higher development of this race, some, who assumed the wisdom of their day and generation, entertained the proposition with a sneer; others with a smile. As the higher susceptibilities of the negro were not wanted, their existence was at one time denied. The eternal inferiority of the race was assumed as a part of the cosmic order of things. History, literature, science, speculative conjecture, and even Holy Writ were ransacked for evidence and argument to support the ruling dogma. While the slaveholder had proved beyond all possibility of doubt the incapacity of the negro for knowledge, yet he, prudently enough, passed laws forbidding the attempt. The African was snatched from the wilds of savagery and thrust into the midst of a mighty civilization. He thus escaped 1 By Kelly Miller. Adapted from Race Adjustment, 2d edition, pp. 259–275. The Neale Publishing Company, New York, 1909. the gradual progress of evolution. Education must accomplish more for a backward race than for a people who are in the forefront of progress. It must not only lead to the unfoldment of faculties but also equip for a life from which the recipient is separated by many centuries of development. It required the human race thousands of years to bridge the chasm between savagery and civilization, which must now be crossed by a school curriculum of a few years' duration. In a settled state of society the chief function of education is to enable the individual to live the life already attained by his race, but the educated negro must be a pioneer, a progressive force in the uplifting of his race, and that, too, notwithstanding the fact that he belongs to a backward breed that has never taken the initiative in the progressive movements of the world. The first great need of the negro is that the choice youth of the race should assimilate the principles of culture and hand them down to the masses below. This is the only gateway through which a new people may enter into modern civilization. Herein lies the history of culture. The select minds of the backward race or nation must receive the new cult and adapt it to the peculiar needs of their own people. Japan looms up as the most progressive of the non-Aryan races. The wonderful progress of these Oriental Yankees is due in a large measure to their wise plan of procedure. They send their picked youth to the great centers of western knowledge; but before this culture is applied to their own needs it must first be sifted through the sieve of their native comprehension. The graduates of the schools and colleges for the negro races are forming centers of civilizing influence in all parts of the land, and we confidently believe that these grains of leaven will ultimately leaven the whole lump. The work of the educated colored man is largely that of leadership. He requires, therefore, all the discipline, judgment and mental equipment that long preparation can afford. The more ignorant and backward the masses the more skilled and sagacious should the leaders be. If a beneficial and kindly contact between the races is denied on the lower plane of flesh and blood, it must be sought in the upper region of mental and moral kinship. Knowledge and virtue know no ethnic exclusiveness. If indeed races are irreconcilable, their best individual exponents are not. All dignified negotiation must be conducted on the high plane of individual equality. For East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, But there is neither East nor West, border nor breed nor birth, When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth. Irreconcilables become reconciled only after each has manifested the best possibilities of a common nature. The higher education tends to develop superior individuals who may be expected to exercise controlling influence over the multitude. The individual is the proof, the promise and the salvation of the race. The undeveloped races which, in modern times, have faded before the breath of civilization have probably perished because of their failure to produce commanding leaders to guide them wisely under the stress and strain which an encroaching civilization imposed. A single red Indian with the capacity and spirit of Booker T. Washington might have solved the red man's problems and averted his pending doom. Again, the higher education should be encouraged because of the moral impotency of all the moods of education which do not touch and stir the human spirit. It is folly to suppose that the moral nature of the child is improved because it has been taught to read and write and cast up accounts, or to practice a handicraft. The ability to saw a line or hit a nail aplomb with a hammer does not create a zeal for righteousness and truth. It is only when the pupil comes to feel the vitalizing power of knowledge that it begins to react upon the life and to fructify in character. This is especially true of a backward race whose acquisitive power outruns its apperceptive faculty. The negro has now reached a critical stage in his career. The point of attachment between the races which slavery made possible has been destroyed. The relation is daily becoming less intimate and friendly, and more businesslike and formal. It thus becomes all the more imperative that the race should gain for itself the primary principles of knowledge and culture. The social separation of the races in America renders it imperative that the professional classes among the negroes should be recruited from their own ranks. Under ordinary circumstances, professional places are filled by the most favored class in the community. In a Latin or Catholic country, where the fiction of "social equality" does not exist, there is felt no necessity for negro priest, teacher, or physician to administer to his own race. But in America this is conceded to be a social necessity. Such being the case, the negro leader, to use a familiar term, requires all the professional equipment of his white confrere, and special knowledge of the needs and circumstances of his race in addition. The teacher of the negro child, the preacher to a negro congregation, or the physician to negro patients certainly requires as much professional skill as those who administer to the corresponding needs of the white race. Nor are the requirements of the situation one whit diminished because the bestower is of the same race as the recipient. The negro has the same professional needs as his white confrere and can be qualified for his function only by courses of training of like extent and thoroughness. By no other means can he be qualified to enlighten the ignorant, restrain the vicious, care for the sick and afflicted; administer solace to weary souls, or plead in litigation the cause of the injured. According to the census of 1900 there were 72 cities in the United States with a population of more than 5000 persons of color, averaging 15,000 each, and aggregating 1,000,000 in all. The professional needs of this urban population for teachers, preachers, lawyers, and physicians call for 5000 well-equipped men and women, not one of whom would be qualified for his function merely by the three R's or a handicraft. The supreme concern of philanthropy is the welfare of the unawakened rural masses. To this end there is need of a goodly sprinkling of well-educated men and women to give wise guidance, direction and control. Let no one deceive himself that the country negro can be uplifted except through the influence of higher contact. It is impossible to inaugurate and conduct a manual training or industrial school without men of sound academic as well as technical knowledge. The torch which is to lighten the darksome places of the South must be kindled at the centers of light. Whenever the higher education of the negro is broached, industrial training is always suggested as a counterirritant. Partisans of rival claims align themselves in hostile array and will not so much as respect a flag of truce. These one-eyed enthusiasts lack binocular vision. We had as well attempt to decide whether the base or altitude is the more important element of a triangle. The two forms of training should be considered on the basis of their relative, not rival, claims. Indeed, one of the strongest claims for the higher education of the negro is that it will stimulate the dormant industrial activities of the race. The surest way to incite a people to meet the material demands of life is to teach them that life is more than meat. The unimaginative laborer pursues the routine rounds of his task, spurred on only by the immediate necessities of life and the taskmaster's stern command. To him, it is only time and the hour that run through the whole day. The negro lacks enlightened imagination. He needs prospect and vista. He does not make provision because he lacks prevision. Under slavery he toiled as the ass, dependent upon the daily allowance from his master's crib. To him the prayer, Give us this day our daily bread, has a material rather than a spiritual meaning. If you would perpetuate the industrial incapacity of the negro, then confine him to the low grounds of drudgery and toil and prevent him from casting his eyes unto the hills whence come inspiration and promise. The man with the hoe is of all men most miserable unless, forsooth, he has a hope. But if imbued with hope and sustained by an ideal, he can consecrate the hoe as well as any other instrument of service, as a means of fulfilling the promise within him. It requires range of vision to stimulate the industrial activities of the people. The most effective prayer that can be uttered for the negro is, "Lord, open Thou his eyes." He cannot see beyond the momentary gratification of appetite |