South Carolina paid its Negro male teachers $239 annually, its Negro female teachers $184.15

In view of these figures, the short school terms, the meager teacher training facilities, it was not surprising that in 1916, according to the records of the southern states, over 50 per cent of the colored teachers in public schools had an education less than the equivalent of the six elementary grades.16 At that time the total number of public high schools for Negroes was 64. They were largely located in the border states. The states further south each had but one or two public high schools for their entire Negro population. North Carolina and Louisiana had none.1 In 1917 and 1918 but one per cent of the colored pupils were to be found in the public high schools of the south. This was but one-ninth of the average proportion of children in the public secondary schools for the entire country and less than one-seventh of that for the white children of the south.1

18

In the lower south the secondary education of the Negro was practically dependent on private institutions.19 These institutions were to be found throughout the south and were supported by gifts from churches and other organizations and by private individuals of both races. Several important private funds had been established which greatly aided in shaping and developing Negro educational policies. But the private funds available for Negro schools were not as great as those for white schools. In 1916 but 18 per cent of the total expenditures of southern private and public schools were spent for Negroes, who formed 30 per cent of the population.20

One of the arguments usually brought forth to support the policy of giving the Negro a proportionately smaller share of the funds devoted to public education is his smaller contribution to the public taxes. This argument is at variance with the ideals of democracy. If logically pursued, it would result in the great mass of poor whites who paid little or no taxes receiving a poorer quality of education, covering a shorter period of time, than those who paid high taxes. It would mean that the propertied Negro could obtain better public instruction for his children than the poor white man, that the childless man would be 15 "Negro Year Book," p. 240.

16 "Negro Education," Vol. I, p. 12.

17 Ibid., Vol. II, pp. 15-16.

18 Department of Interior, Bulletin, 1920, No. 11, "Statistics of State School Systems," 1917-1918, pp. 75-76.

19 "Negro Education," Vol. II, p. 16. 20 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 12.

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exempt from that part of his tax which would ordinarily go toward supporting public education.

The short school year of the average southern Negro school prevents the pupils from making the same progress they would in the north. In 1920-1921 the number of days which Negro schools kept open in the south varied from 73 days in South Carolina to 163 in Maryland.21

That large numbers of Negro children did not find it possible or convenient to attend school for even this brief space of time, either because of economic reasons and the need of their presence at home, the insufficiency of school facilities, or the lack of a sufficient element of compulsion, was indicated by the poor school attendance and the large number of Negro children out of school. In 1917-1918 the average time of school attendance in the southern states per colored pupil enrolled was 70 days, that of the whites 100 days.22 In 1920, 47 per cent of all Negro children from five to 20 years of age inclusive were not enrolled in school. Most of those attending school were concentrated in the lower grades. Approximately 70 per cent were in the elementary schools, 25 per cent in secondary schools, 3 per cent in schools of collegiate rank, and 2 per cent in professional schools.2

23

Many Negro schools calling themselves colleges are not of collegiate rank. In 1916 the United States Bureau of Education in a study of Negro colleges stated that "under a liberal interpretation of college work," only 33 of the 653 private and state schools for colored people in the south were teaching any subjects of college grade.24 The present tendency is toward the limitation of the number of advanced schools, with a campaign to increase their finances and improve their curriculum.25

Measures for Improvement in Negro Education. While Negro education in the south presents a rather dismal picture, measures are being taken to better the situation. For several years increasing attention has been paid to the Negro public schools of the south. The work has been conducted by public and private agencies. Country and summer schools for teacher training have been established to develop a better trained corps of Negro teachers.26 A large number of responsible white southerners are becoming

21 "Negro Year Book," p. 238.

22 "Statistics of State School Systems," 1917-1918, p. 78.

23 "Negro Year Book," p. 243.

24 "Negro Education," Vol. I, p. 59.

25 "Negro Year Book," p. 234.

26 Ibid., pp. 21-22.

increasingly aware of the necessity of improving and extending education for both whites and Negroes in the south. The need of the Negro, who comparatively has much less than the white, is urgent. His lack of opportunity for a really good education in satisfactory surroundings makes large numbers of his race illiterate, increases their susceptibility to disease, raises their death rate, decreases their economic powers and their standard of living, and so makes them more liable to commit crime and to become a burden on the community. Only by giving the Negro a comprehensive and practical education can he be made an effective member of the community, can the white man be protected from the evils incident to poverty and ignorance.

The Southern University Race Commission wrote in an open letter:

"The inadequate provision for the education of the Negro is more than an injustice to him; it is an injury to the white man. The South cannot realize its destiny if one-third of its population is undeveloped and inefficient. . . . Our appeal is for a larger share for the Negro on the ground of the common welfare and common justice. He is the weakest link in our civilization, and our welfare is indissolubly bound up with his.'

27

Illiteracy. The growing realization of both north and south of the advisability of educating the Negro not only for his own development but for the protection of the white race is indicated by the constantly increasing Negro school attendance and the decreasing proportion of Negro illiterates. From 1910 to 1920 the per cent of Negroes five to twenty years old enrolled in school increased from 44.7 to 53.5. In 1880, seven-tenths of the Negro race were illiterate. By 1920 this proportion had been reduced to slightly over one-fifth. Although illiteracy among Negroes is steadily becoming less, they still contribute more than their share to the total number of illiterates in the United States. Almost two-fifths of all illiterates were Negroes in 1920, yet they constituted less than one-tenth of the total population.28 Sickness and Mortality. With 1,842,161 Negro illiterates or over one-fifth the Negroes in the United States without the rudiments of an education, it is not surprising that Negroes show a high rate of sickness and mortality. Ignorance is a breeder of disease and death. The individual who is untrained in the importance of personal hygiene and cleanliness and is without knowl27 "Negro Education," Vol. I, p. 5.

28 "Negro Year Book," pp. 240-241.

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edge of the dangers incident to unsanitary living conditions, cannot adequately care for himself and family. Lack of education ordinarily means a lower earning power, inability to secure healthful living conditions and competent medical treatment in sickness. It means less care for the pregnant woman, less for the infant child.

These are some of the causes behind the high sickness and death rate among Negroes. It is estimated that about 450,000 Negroes in the south are seriously ill all the time. This means an average of 18 sick days a year per Negro.29 Such a condition constitutes an economic loss to both white and colored. The efficiency of the colored laborer is lessened, and the white employer's business suffers. It means a money loss in expenditure for illness, in earnings, and in production. It means danger from infection to white men who work with and live in close proximity to Negroes. It raises the death rate among Negroes. In 1920 there was in the total registration area an excess of 5.6 Negro deaths over white deaths per 1,000 population.30

While the birth rate for Negroes is higher than that for whites, the difference is not great enough to counterbalance the high Negro death rate. The Negro infant has a much less expectation of life than has the white. Infant mortality for children under one year of age is 135.6 for Negroes per 1,000 births and 82.1 for whites.31

Negro, Diminishing Factor in Total Population. The result of these factors, together with the artificial increase which the white population has sustained through immigration, has made the Negro people a constantly diminishing proportionate factor in the total population. In 1790 they constituted 19.3 per cent of the population. In 1900 they comprised 11.6 per cent; in 1910, 10.7; and in 1920 but 9.9.

Negro and Crime. The factors which foster a high sickness and death rate among Negroes likewise raise the number of crimes committed by members of the race. Any comparative criminal statistics for white and colored must be considered with caution. They are often incomplete and inadequate. From the data available the Negro appears to furnish far more than his proportionate share of crimes. But the question of whether the Negro is inherently more criminal than the white man cannot be answered satisfactorily while the status of the two races remains so dif29 "Negro Year Book," p. 365.

30 Ibid., p. 361.

31 Ibid.

ferent. Our criminal classes are drawn largely from the ranks of the mentally inferior, the uneducated, and the poor. The number of Negroes belonging to these classes is comparatively greater than the number of whites. Thus the potential group of Negro criminals is larger than that of white criminals. Negroes have not the same industrial opportunities as white men. They are ordinarily paid lower wages, are more apt to lose their positions during periods of unemployment. With less chance to secure an education, their economic career is circumscribed. Poverty and forced idleness breed dissatisfaction, disease, vice, and crime. With no one to take the mother's place, home and children suffer when poverty compels both parents to seek remunerative employment. The child of the street has many temptations, little supervision, and care. His exposure to evil influences renders him more susceptible than his shielded brother.

Environment plays an important part in the prevalence of crime. The black belt is usually located close to the worst vice sections of the city. Often overcrowded, with poor and inadequate housing conditions, it is no wonder that its inhabitants furnish so large a share of the criminal classes. To such an environment the southern Negroes migrate. Many of them are unmarried, in the age group between 18 and 30, the age of greatest criminality. They overbalance the normal age grouping of the Negro population on the side of criminality, and in the interval of adjustment to their new lives raise the number of potential criminals among Negroes in the same way that the unadjusted white foreign immigrants do among whites.

Poverty is not only a potential factor in the performance of crime but is a cause of confinement in jail. It forbids the payment of fines in place of jail sentences, of bail which means freedom before trial. It prevents the use of expert legal service which may save the accused from conviction. A white police force, judge, and jury may be influenced by the preconceived idea that the Negro is more criminal than the white man. They may be swayed by unconscious color prejudice. The Chicago race commission, investigating the question of Negro crime in Chicago, found that the tendency of legal authorities was to book Negroes on more serious charges than whites, to convict them more readily, to give them longer sentences.32 These facts explain, at least in part, the Negro's high criminal record which is from three to five times greater than that of the white man.

Lynching. The particular crime committed by the Negro which 32 The Chicago Race Commission, "The Negro in Chicago," p. 329.