J<. CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH BY H. PAUL DOUGLASS BOSTON THE PILGRIM PRESS NEW YORK CHICAGO c O^^ ^ ■Fi,/5- Copyright, 1909 By H. p. Douglass ;■ '^ ;% 4 THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. To THE MEMORY OF HENRY LEE one of " the unfit " of whom the world was not worthy PREFACE THE writing of this book was undertaken at the re- quest of the Executive Committee of the American Missionary Association and primarily with its con- stituency in mind. From the work of that organization, therefore, with which the author is personally familiar, the illustrative matter has largely been drawn, especially in those chapters which describe missionary operations con- cretely. I have tried to interpret that work in its repre- sentative character and in relation to that of the whole group of agencies making for the complete Americaniza- tion of the South. Further and particularly the attempt has been to provide a sociological perspective and back- ground for the problems presented by the undeveloped peoples of the South. The approach has been through a particular group of interests, the purpose to throw light on the larger issue involved. The author misses in his book that deliberately lauda- tory mood which, by the recent usage of high authority, seems to be the proper way for the Northerner to discuss the South. Beginning with the Ogden parties, a succes- sion of distinguished Yankees have journeyed thither on all manner of speech-making occasions. There is so much compelling praise in that marvelously awakening section that these gentlemen have had little difficulty in filling the time allotted by program maker and interviewer with merited congratulations. The echoes of their speeches as reported back home have largely given tone to latter-day Northern thought on Southern problems. But one cannot easily be at the same time both guest and philosopher. n PREFACE Socrates, in Plato's " Banquet," when his turn comes to speak, assumes ironically the vein of his companions. When they protest that he is manifestly insincere he re- joins that the occasion demands politeness rather than truth. The Northern orators who have had popular hear- ing have spoken as guests and have played up to the occasion. Consequently nearly all the plain and hard- hitting telling of truth about the South is coming from Southerners. There is a striking contrast between some of their ut- terances and those which the North has been hearing from its own authorities. The professor of English, for exam- ple, in a Southern university made an original and highly successful attempt to get interest into his students' literary themes : he assigned the race problem as a topic. The resulting product did not lack in interest. Under the cap- tion " The Young Southerner and the Negro " ^ the pro- fessor summarizes his experiment as follows : — These, then, are the views of forty-eight young men from seven states of the South. They unanimously opposed any idea of social equality ; thirty-nine were opposed to higher education of the African ; twenty- five favored only reading, writing, and a trade ; thirty believed that he should possess no political rights ; nine were without faith in his religion ; eleven believed him to have been a better man in slavery days ; thirty- one declared that he must always be a common ser- vant to the white man; twenty-five thought that he possessed no ability in self-government ; seventeen were in favor of retaining him in the South; seven favored giving him a separate territory ; three fa- vored " black cities " ; nine believed that his dissipa- ' South Atlantic Quarterly, vol. viii, pp. 117 ff. PREFACE tion and uncleanliness would solve the problem by exterminating him; twelve were content to leave the whole question to Providence ; seventeen declared that fornication and the resulting amalgamation of the races were endangering the white blood of the South ; ten were opposed to lynching; and fourteen consid- ered a race war highly probable. Remember, once more, that these writers are not a crowd of ruffians from the lower strata of Southern life, but represen- tatives of refined families, and of a student body, ninety-six per cent of whom are confessing Chris- tions and forty per cent candidates for the ministry. Is such a study of existing tendencies just ground for optimism? . . . Are not the indications plain that the black man is to be restrained, hampered, browbeaten, discouraged within the next quarter of a century as never before in all the bitter years of his existence on this continent? In a similar vein of courageous candor the Rev. Quincy Ewing, a Southerner of Southerners, has recently diag- nosed the spirit of his section.^ The race problem, he says, is not the negro as an objective burden to civilization. It is not his economic inefficiency, for the South wants him as a laborer; nor his excessive criminality, for he is not more criminal than whites of corresponding social status ; nor his ignorance, for according to Governor Vardaman, at least, it is the difficult, educated negro, not the docile, Ignorant one who is the burden. Neither has the South- erner any personal aversion to the negro race. On the other hand, Mr. Ewing asserts, the race problem is dis- tinctly subjective. It originates in the white man's mind, in his convictions that the negro is " not human in the sense that he is human, not entitled to the exercise of human ' Atlantic Monthly, " The Heart of the Race Problem," vol. ciii, pp. 389 ff . fTiil PREFACE rights in the sense that he is entitled to the exercise of them." It is not what the negro now is or is not, but " how to keep him what he is in relation to the white man, how to prevent his achieving or becoming what would jus- tify the belief on his part or on the part of other people that he and the white man stand on common human ground." In Southern usage, then, " bad nigger " means not the criminal negro, but the one who shows signs of achievement and thus gets out of focus with the traditional view. " The problem arises only when people of one race are minded to adopt and act upon some policy more or less oppressive and repressive in dealing with peoples of another race. It is the existence of such a policy, become traditional and supported by immovable conviction, which constitutes the race problem of the Southern states." What shall we say to these things? In answering cer- tain comments of Northern papers on the street duel in which Senator Carmack was killed, the Richmond Times- Dispatch characterized such affairs as typical of the South but not characteristic. It further explains the distinction to mean that, while there are undoubtedly a considerable body of Southerners who approve and practise the street duel, it is not a trait of those who are profoundly repre- sentative of the life of their section. Now here are the attitudes of the professor's forty-eight young Southerners, and over against them the wholly opposing attitude of the able and courageous Review which publishes the study. Using the Times-Dispatches distinction, they are ahke typical of the South; but which is characteristic.'' One prefers to answer that the issue is still in doubt. The South is not homogeneous, hence cannot have a single sectional character. Since the war it has not reached stable equilibrium. It is in intellectual and moral transi- [ viii PREFACE tion. Its sifting is under way. The battle is on but the end is not yet. God defend the right! But if forced to generahze on the basis of present facts, one would have to confess that the tendencies represented by the young South- erners have political and social power beyond that of the South Atlantic Quarterly and its kind. The forty-eight are with the maj ority ; the Trinity College group are in the minority. The repressive policies which Mr. Ewing expounds are characteristic, his personal attitude is ex- ceptional. In view of these facts the author of this book sorrowfully finds his olive branch less wide-spreading than those of ex-President Eliot and President Taft seem to be. The book is dedicated to the memory of a negro teacher of manual training who died of tuberculosis at the age of thirty. The individual is typical of his race and his race of humanity. All stocks of men are always being sifted by one or another of the great secular processes. In con- templating the destiny of others, men stand in the shadow of their own and are led to the ultimate question. What significance in the economy of existence have those who go to the rubbish heap of temporal history.'' Are the verdicts of sociology as to human values necessarily the verdict of the Last Judgment.? No soul which hopes for itself can call that august ver- dict good unless the universe, somehow and somewhere, saves and utilizes much which fails of measurable human fruition. For the " unfit " (speaking as the evolutionist does) are infinitely outnumbered and outweighed by our multitudes of bankrupt aspirations, those subtle waifs of the inner life, dearer to the heart than the acknowledged sons of the home. Their fate — the fate of the " unfit " portions of ordinarily " fit " experience — constitutes a graver philosophical problem than the mere temporal fall- fk] PREFACE ing out of nations or races. If existence fails here it fails altogether. " What hand and brain went ever paired ? What heart alike conceived and dared ? What act proved all its thought had been? What wUl but felt the fleshly screen?" If existence be good these discrepancies in the most for- tunate experience must somehow find healing in a reuniting of the scattered elements of life. Whatever earth or seas hold these dead must give them up. Such is the salvation of the most fortunate, and it carries with it a possible salvation for the least fortunate. Where the most fortunate find their indispensable completion, the least fortunate may repair a whole life-failure. Death logically is no more unconquerable than unhappiness. " All that I hoped to be and was not comforts me." If so, maybe eternal values are buried in the secularly unfit and, for the idealist at least, the ultimate back- ground of the solemn sifting of humanity is a universe of unfathomed possibility which the Christian confesses as " the life everlasting." Many of my fellow workers and officers of the Associa- tion with other friends have aided me by information and suggestions. I thank them. I am particularly indebted to Rev. William H. Holloway ; also, especially for help in the sociological interpretation of the race problem, to my long-time friend, Prof. Carl Kelsey. New Yokk, June, 1909. [^] CONTENTS I. Tempering the Body Together Pass I. " Men of Every Tribe and Tongue and People and Nation " . 17 II, The Unassimilated Populations 19 III. The New Struggle for the Union 25 IV. The Place Problem 28 V. The Underlying Struggle for Democracy 32 VI. Competency of Missionary Judgment on National Problems . 35 II. The South as Missionary Ground I. Sectional vs. National Problems 44 II. The South as Missionary Ground 46 III. The Division of Labor between Assimilating Forces .... 66 III. The Sifting of the South I. The Two Souths and the Two Southerners 66 II. The Varied South 70 III. The Crisis of the Sifting 77 IV. Study of the Well-Sifted Negro Community 86 IV. The Sifting of Southern Sentiment I. Sifting the Hearts of Men 99 II. The Color-Line 116 III. Clues to Prophecy 119 V. What the Negro has Done for Himself I. Success with a Minimum of Assistance 127 II. Within the National Life 132 III. Within Racial Lines 140 _ CONTENTS VI. A Background for Black PAoa I. Dubious Verdicts from Conflicting Facts 166 II. Need of a Sociological Background 169 III. Alleged Racial Traits and their Sociological Explanations . . 171 VII. Typical Missionary Activities I. Spirit and Policy 209 II. Strategic Location 211 III. Classification of Institutions 212 A. Ungraded Schools 213 B. Graded Elementary Schools 216 C. Secondary Schools in Cities 223 D. Rured Secondary Schools 229 VIII. Typical Missionary Activities (co7itinued) III. Classification of Institutions (co»/in«ed) 237 E. Girls' Seminaries 237 F. Colleges and Universities 240 G. Specialized Instruction 247 IV. The Outreach of the Mission Schools 253 IX. Problems and Programs of Negro Education I. Higher vs. Industrial Education 267 II. The General Educational Parallel 278 III. Expert Interpretations of the Lessons of Experience . . . . 281 IV. Principles of Democratic Education 295 X. The Old Men of the Mountains I. The Problem of the Mountains 304 II. How the Mountain Man Lives 312 III. Mountain Life Reflected in the Mountaineer's Traits .... 317 [xii] CONTENTS XI. The Passing of the Mountaineer Page I. The Exploitation of the Mountains by Industry 335 II. The Exploitation of the Mountains by Leisure 343 III. The Uplift of the Mountains by Education 350 XII. Does the Purpose of God Thwart the Spirit of Christ ? I. The Moral Sifting of the Nation on the Race Issue .... 367 II, Moral Struggle Complicated by Intellectual Difficulties . . . 369 III. Examination of the Alleged Verdict of Science 373 IV. The Purpose of God and the Race Question 388 [ xiii ] ILLUSTRATIONS Pass Tenants on School Farm, Brick School, Enfield, N. C 28 Carnegie Building, Fessenden Academy, Fla 28 Two Congregational Deacons of Rural Churches 36 Agricultural Peasant of the Black Belt 42 City Slum, Tradd Street, Charleston, S. C 42 A. F. Beard, D.D 62 Old Memphis T8 New Jackson 78 Home of Negro Landlord, Thomasville, Ga 88 Negro Artisan and Street of Artisans' Homes, Thomasville, Ga. . 88 Negro Business Men's Homes, Thomasville, Ga 92 Negro Drug Store and Proprietor, Thomasville, Ga. 92 Negro Rural Home, Piedmont Region 134 Negro Business Street, Thomasville, Ga 134 Representative Negroes 140 Ingram Chapel, J. K. Brick School, N. C 148 First Congregational Church, Atlanta, Ga 148 The Yamacraw Section, Savannah, Ga. 152 Negro Tenements, Charleston, S. C 152 Aged Breadwinners 156 Servants' Quarters in Rear of a Modern Memphis Home .... 160 The Cotton Levee, New Orleans, with Negro Longshoremen . . . 160 Transportation, Liberty Co., Ga 220 Homes in the Land of Mud-Daub 220 The Environment of Dorchester Academy 232 Primary Grade, Andersonville, Ga 236 ILLUSTRATIONS Page Graduating Class, Straight University, New Orleans 236 Swayne Hall, Talladega College ; Chase Hall, Fisk University . . 242 Jubilee Hall, Fisk University ; DeForest Chapel, Talladega College 242 Strieby Hall and Beard Hall, Tougaloo University 242 Cotton Picking on School Farm 250 Football Team, Burrell Normal Institute, Florence, Ala 250 College Choir, Fisk University 256 CoUege Y. M. C. A., Fisk University 256 Domestic Science Laboratorj', Talladega College 280 Blacksmith Shop, Tougaloo University 280 Theological Graduates, Talladega College 298 Trained Nurses, Talladega College 298 Primitive Industry of the Mountains 310 Modern Industry of the New South 310 Domestic Grinding-Mill 318 Old Water-Mill 318 The Mountain Weaver 332 The Cotton-Mill 332 Black Mountain Academy, Evarts, Ky 350 Elementary Grades, Black Mountain Academy 350 Professors and Students, Atlanta Theological Seminary .... 360 Girls' Dormitory, Piedmont College 360 Typical Makers of Evidence on the Race Problem 388 [xvi] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH I. TEMPERING THE BODY TOGETHER I. "MEN OF EVERY TRIBE AND TONGUE AND PEOPLE AND NATION" IF the band of Mayflower Pilgrims had been composed of the same stuff as the present nation, and in like proportions, it would have included twelve negroes, a Porto Rican mulatto, and a mongrel of mingled Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Hawaiian blood. Thirteen of its number would have been Pilgrims by adoption only, and twenty more the children of at least one non-Pilgrim parent. Hardly one half would have remained of real Pilgrim stock. Picture this strangely varied group kneel- ing together in the cabin of the Mayflower to weld itself into a " civil body pohtick ! " The task is not lighter now that Providence has taken millions for hundreds and scat- tered them unevenly over a vast land of imperial natural diversities. The early struggle for the Union was an attempt to harmonize the interests of an essentially homogeneous The Earlier stock. They brought, to be sure, some Old- Struggle for World animosities to these new shores, born the Union pf class struggles or the competitions of mother-lands. To these were soon added differences created by the new environment. The scant population of the thirteen colonies occupied a fringe of seaboard, the widely 2 [17] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH varied physical resources of which were the basis of eco- nomic differences and conflicts. The North naturally be- came commercial and industrial, the South rural and agricultural. Intercommunication was difficult, and only the common danger to their frontier from the French and Indians, and the united struggle against England, taught the colonists cooperation. They were scarcely able at length to write their fateful compromises into a constitu- tion. Yet they had all come from a very small region in northwestern Europe, where blood and traditions had been blended as in no other area. They were predominatingly middle-class people, and save for one colony were Protes- tants. Their temperamental differences, however deep, had been included in a common history and civilization. But now the nation includes representatives of the en- tire human family in their whole range of physical and American In- mental differences. The white, black, yellow, stitutions not brown, red, are all Americans. Whatever made for Our , . , i i , • <> t Present Popu- sunderings untold centuries of diverse expe- lation rience and contrasting environment have wrought between the most widely separated branches of mankind exist between us as fellow citizens and intrude as internal problems for our people. Men of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation have become members of our common life. Our national institutions were not made by them nor for them, but were founded upon the ideals of a very select human group and never fully applied even within that group. Consequently, unless the foundations of the Republic are to be changed, and the American of our faith ceases to be, the diverse human stuff of the pres- ent nation must be inwardly prepared for participation in a democratic order of society. Such an order irrevo- cably demands that men be fit for it. TEMPERING THE BODY TOGETHER II. THE UNASSIMILATED POPULATIONS The peoples for whom the Americanizing energy of the nation has hitherto failed may be considered in three groups : 1. An old and neglected group. In the triumphant march of American civilization from east to west across TheMoun- *^^ continent there has been one striking taineers of the failure. A fragment of an original colonial Southern stock in the fastness of the Southern Appa- Appalachians i i • • /• i • .i • •!• i- <• lacnians remains nxed m the civilization of a hundred years ago. They represent the average American of Abraham Lincoln's boyhood and are our chief example of an " arrested frontier." One finds here the human type not to be met elsewhere in the United States. He is farmer, hunter, blacksmith, shop- keeper, or rude preacher. He is courageous, original, reads the sky and forest in lieu of books, and is little troubled by the outside world. He could not raise cotton, he did not own slaves, and his sympathies were with the North rather than with the South in the Civil War. His family lives as his great-grandfather's family lived, for change is almost unknown. Divi- sion of labor has httle place in such society, where homespun still prevails. These men are the descend- ants of the backwoodsmen who came from the Old World, from Pennsylvania, from Virginia, and the Carolinas, to the Holston, the French Broad, the Ken- tucky, and the Cumberland. Retired from all the world, they reveal the effects of a stable environment in a remote region.^ Akin to the Appalachian mountaineer and of the same stock is much of the population of the Ozark re- * Brigham, Geographical Influences in American History, p. 102. CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH gion, covering parts of Missouri, Arkansas, and Indian Territory. The gross population of these regions is over three mil- lion, but one must deduct from the problem the inhabitants of those valleys with their fertile fields and prosperous cities through which civilization from the earliest time has run as through a funnel. There is no uniform isolation of the mountain population, and no accurate enumeration of its submerged element is possible. Yet it is clear that here is the largest and most valuable fragment of the original American stock not fully assimilated to the national life. Under this same category of old and neglected peoples must be numbered the " Greaser " type — a product of rp, q . , the ancient mingling of Spaniard and Indian. Indian Mon- Its chief seats are New Mexico and Arizona, grel Popula- Its proportion of illiteracy greatly exceeds that of any other part of our population classified as " white." It constitutes a small but appealing problem for national solution. 2. A new and unexpected group. Our national T . ^. complacency with reference to foreign immi- Immigration \ •{ i i i • i i from Eastern gration suffered a sudden check with the un- and Southern foreseen change of the character of that urope immigration, dating from about 1882. Tliis change was the rapid shifting of the sources of immigration from Western to Eastern and South- ern Europe. A line drawn across the continent of Europe from northeast to southwest, separating the Scandinavian Peninsula, the British Isles, Germany, and France, from Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Turkey, separates countries not only of distinct races, but also of distinct civilizations. It separates Protestant Europe from Catholic Europe ; it scpa- [20l TEMPERING THE BODY TOGETHER rates countries of representative institutions and popular government from absolute monarchies ; it separates lands where education is universal from lands where illiteracy predominates ; it separates manufacturing countries, progressive agriculture, and skilled labor from primitive hand industries, back- ward agriculture, and unskilled labor ; it separates an educa,ted, thrifty peasantry from a peasantry scarcely a single generation removed from serfdom; it sepa- rates Teutonic races from Latin, Slav, Semitic, and Mongolian races. When the sources of American im- migration are shifted from the Western countries so nearly allied to our own, to Eastern countries so re- mote in the main attributes of Western civilization, the change is one that should challenge the attention of every citizen. Such a change has occurred, and it needs only a comparison of the statistics of immigra- tion for the year 1882 with those of 1902 and 1906 to gee its extent. While the total number of immigrants from Europe and Asiatic Turkey was approximately equal in 1882 and 1902, yet in 1882 Western Europe furnished 87 per cent of the immigrants, and in 1902 only 22 per cent, while the share of Southeastern Europe and Asiatic Turkey increased from 13 per cent in 1882 to 78 per cent in 1902. During twenty years the immigration of the Western races most nearly related to those which have fashioned Ameri- can institutions declined more than 75 per cent, while the immigrants of Eastern and Southern races, un- trained in self-government, increased nearly sixfold.^ In other words, for more than two-thirds of a century our incoming population came almost exclusively from those lands which were working out with us the great democratic tendency. Some had progressed more slowly ' Commons, Races and Immigrants in America, p. 69. fin CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH and less successfully than we, but the general tendency was the same, and their children came to these shores in- wardly disposed to the ideals and institutions which we were creating. The newest comers are the victims of a too abrupt transition. There is a gulf to be bridged before they can be made worthy participants in our national hfe. Another group of the new and unexpected peoples has come to us by annexation. It is the fruit of the so-called The Fruits of imperialistic tendency of our nation. Hawaii Annexation: brought US about 154,000 people, occupying Hawau eight mid-Pacific islands, with a total area about that of New Jersey. No part of our territory shows so much ethnic variety. Natives and half-castes form a dwindling half of the population. Southern Europe is represented by 8000 Portuguese. The most aggressive element is Oriental, predominatingly Japanese, but includ- ing 25,000 Chinese, and latterly Koreans, and even Hin- doos. As to religion. Buddhism is a close second to Chris- tianity. The ruling and exploiting Anglo-Saxon minority shows little desire to equalize opportunity for these Ameri- cans of other blood. Porto Rico, which is three-fourths as large as Connecti- cut, is one of the most densely populated parts of our do- main. Its people number nearly a million and consist of perhaps 100,000 pure Span- iards, 400,000 negroes and mulattoes, and 500,000 " Porto Ricans," which means people of Spanish and Indian mixed blood. Nowhere on the mainland is any such degree of illiteracy known as prevails here. The nominal Roman Catholic Christianity leaves almost everything to be de- sired. The superstition, illiteracy, poverty, and vice of the Porto Rican are all un-American and constitute a [22] TEMPERING THE BODY TOGETHER national problem which has come to us so unexpectedly that we have not jet properly appreciated it. Alaska as a habitation for Americans and a possible seat of civilization is so recent a possibility that its popu- lation belongs to the unexpected group. As a national domain it dates back to 1867, but its mining camps are the newest example of a frontier waiting for complete Americanization, and its perhaps 25,000 Eskimos and Indians present our only remaining opportunity for justice to the original American. 3. An exceptional group. He ignores the central clue to our history who forgets that for important elements of our people American democracy broke down from the beginning. To Jefferson, the most idealistic and thoroughgoing of the founders of the na- tion, it was a perplexity and grief that there existed a slave population which even his faith could not think of as included in equal citizenship. Though trembling " to think that God is just," he, with most good men of his day, comforted himself with the thought that the contradic- tion was for a brief time and that the neg'ro would soon be emancipated and deported. Now every eighth American is black, and beside this dark and massive problem every other problem of assimilation dwindles to insignificance. The Indian presented no such original perplexity to conscience. New England had indeed attempted some- what half-heartedly to evangelize him with- out much thought of how he was to be treated afterward, but the national policy from the be- ginning was to consider him an alien with whom treaties were to be made as with foreign nations. Those who tried to Christianize him were always counted as foreign mis- sionaries. Words cannot tell the bitterness of the struggle _ CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH that dispossessed him ; and however benign and inevitable the result, the methods employed were unspeakably shame- ful and brutal. Fragments of his race were isolated and engulfed by, rather than received into, the nation — as one swallows a speck of dust with his food. The remnant of less than one hundred and twenty-five thousand remains on the reservation, but is rapidly being scattered among the nation by the distribution of lands in severalty. This means the sundering of all ancient ties — the social foun- dations of the Indian's higher life and aspirations. Forced to merge himself in a social order abhorrent to his deepest instincts, he presents to-day his most pathetic appeal for a tolerance tempered with pedagogic sense to ease his passing. More than two hundred thousand Orientals, chiefly on our Pacific Coast, constitute another anomalous group, and the only one the treatment of which involves us in complication with foreign nations. Re- striction of Chinese immigration was attempted as early as 1854 by the State of California, and the nation com- pletely shut out the Chinaman as a competitor of American labor by the treaty of 1880 and law of 1888. This re- striction goes far beyond and is radically different in prin- ciple from that practised toward any other nation. " In the case of European immigration, the burden of proof is upon the immigration authorities to show that the im- migrant should be excluded. In the case of the Chinese, the burden of proof is on the immigrant to show that he should be admitted." -^ The recent influx of Japanese, which mounted to 14,000 in 1906, has been checked, temporarily at least, by the limitation of emigration on the part of their home government. A few Koreans and Hindoos have been imported as scouting par- * Commons, Races and Immigrants in America, p. 235. _ TEMPERING THE BODY TOGETHER ties of great industrial armies which will surely come unless our anomalous policy of exclusion is extended to them also. More than any other group the Orientals are feared as tending to depress the American standard of living. On the other hand no other is so quick to resent or so able to revenge by war or boycott the indignities put upon them. Thus facing the Pacific, American prob- lems take on international scope and broaden into problems of the relation of all men upon the earth. III. THE NEW STRUGGLE FOR THE UNION It is against increasing odds that the nation to-day re- news the task of creating a union out of diverse elements. „. „ J. If we had not the deeper problem of making rioneer Londi- . n ^ <• • -v • -e tionsmade men inwardly fit for our civilization, if we Assimilation were confronted only by the older and easier ^^^ problem of adjusting conflicting sectional in- terests, our task would still be harder ; for the fathers of the Republic achieved political union and the nation as- similated its earlier immigrants under very unique condi- tions. To be sure, America continued European inequali- ties in the class-governments of Massachusetts, Virginia, and indeed most of the colonies ; but social privilege largely melted away as men turned to face the West. They found there an empire of free land. The frontier knew no social advantage, and its temper came to dominate the Union. Men were not prejudged and socially placed according to a conventional scheme. All prizes were open to the primi- tive virtues. Men struggled against nature rather than with one another. As soon, however, as the land was oc- cupied and they turned to human competition. It was seen that the dominant classes were not inwardly neighborly CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH nor tolerant of men of other types. Our hospitable soil hitherto, and not our brotherly spirit, has Americanized the alien. Now our absorbing power has certainly suffered diminu- tion. Americanism — no matter whose — was of course "The Great bound to change under the pressure of chang- Dilution" ing social forces. But our departure from the original type has been abnormally rapid because of the " great dilution " of national character by alien blood and spirit. The prior question now is, Who shall Ameri- canize the American.'' Witness the indispensable and highly successful attempt by the Hebrew Educational Alliance in New York City to prepare the incoming Jew for intelli- gent citizenship. No one can praise too highly its results ; yet no one can pretend that the Americanism to which they are introduced is that of Puritan Massachusetts, or old Virginia, or even of the Teutonized Middle West. It may be better; it is certainly not identical. The issue, moreover, is not whether we have passed the theoretical danger point in the saturation of the nation ^ .. , by alien stuff. It is that of its abnormal Aliens at the congestion at our weakest spots, namely, in Weak Spots of the cities and in geographical regions of little assimilative vigor. The unassimilated masses will not and cannot be spread proportionately throughout the native population. The critical point of assimilation as a national problem relates to these areas of alien congestion. Again, as never before In America, the " ascensional energy of the individual " finds a check in a stratified so- Stratification of cial system of increasing rigidity. If Danish Society Hilda had immigrated to the prairies of North Dakota she would have sung in the choir of the TEMPERING THE BODY TOGETHER little white church with the son of an Iowa farmer, and their children would have gone to the Agricultural College and perhaps to Congress. Stopping in the suburbs of New York City, she must marry the iceman or the green- grocer. Everywhere throughout our older society the in- dividual is forced back upon his own class, which only by the combined efforts of its stragglers can hope for great advancement. Hence our day has seen a great strengthen- ing of these struggling groups within the nation. By his vocation, and often by his race, the newcomer is predes- tined to join one or another of them. He finds no easy opportunity to obtain the knowledge and sympathy which overcome artificial and even instinctive barriers and release in men their essential like-mindedness. Only in the South, to be sure, is the system of social caste professed and dog- matically defended, but it is actually in force almost every- where in the Union and is the greatest and most deadly foe to the assimilation of the alien groups. Increasingly, therefore, it Is the part of patriotism and statesmanship to endeavor to maintain the ideal of national unity on democratic terms and consciously to direct the assimilat- ing forces. It is more complicated than it was yesterday ; a vaster and more urgent contribution to national destiny, and a mightier challenge to the intelligence and energy of all good men. It is the new struggle for the Union. Beyond all physical and social difl5culties, present-day democracy Involves a moral difficulty of its own creating. We are asking ourselves to go further and do more than our fathers tried ; namely, to carry democracy into detail and to extend it Hterally to all sorts and conditions of men. There Is a rising standard and an enlarged definition of the American Ideal. It means more to us, In our complex civilization must mean CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH more varied and difficult adjustments of men, than Jeffer- son dreamed. And we have solemnly undertaken to solve the race problem on democratic terms — a task self-im- posed by conscience and a sharpened sense of equity, and broader than any the former generations knew. IV. THE RACE PROBLEM The praise which has been lavished on the assimilative vigor of the American stock and on the triumph of their The Crux of democratic institutions is justified only when Democracy one ignores the exceptional group — roughly, one-eighth of our mainland population. In spite of the odds above enumerated, we might look forward to the tri- umph of the American spirit over the social comphcations of the age except for the difficulty which lurks always in the background — the race problem. This cuts the nerve of our efforts for the most needy. It is the crux of democracy. From the standpoint of the nation's duty of fitting its people for citizenship, the race problem is, as Prof. A. B. "The Anglo- Hart has called it, the Anglo-Saxon problem. Saxon Its root is a wavering faith in democracy Problem" which makes us fail to use to the full our Americanizing vigor. If the inner transformation of all people of alien spirit could be undertaken by us in perfect equity and benevolence, and with the equal application of our ample resources, the result would show, of course, various degrees of resistance on the part of the unassimi- lated groups. Different capacities for speedy and perfect participation in our life would be revealed. This is the objective natural difficulty in the making over of those who are at present unfit for democracy. It must be fully [28] Tenants on School Farm Brick School, Enfield, N. C. Caiinf-gik Buiidinc;, Fessenden Acadeaiv, Fla. Built entirely by negro labor TEMPERING THE BODY TOGETHER and frankly recognized and adequately measured before we close the case. But such a statement of the case bears no resemblance to our actual problem. What we actually find and must reckon with is the deep-seated disposition to give up in advance, and on theoretical grounds, with respect to certain peoples called the " lower races." The common thought is that some peoples are only belated in the process of civilization, and could easily catch up under proper stimulus. The mountain people of the Southern Appala- chian are ascribed to this class. Other peoples are sup- posed to be essentially inferior — as all the off-color races — and most of all, the negro. To be sure, popular judgment in the matter does not at all draw the line where the scientific judgment is thought Popular vs ^^ draw it. The supposed scientist is likely "Scientific" to say that the distinction between superior Judgment g^^^^ inferior races is, at the bottom, that be- tween the temperate and tropical zones. This makes the Chinaman and the American Indian belong to the superior races ; but the trade-unionist of the Pacific coast and the Western ranchmen do not think so. In the Northern cities the negro indiscriminately occupies the same tenement as the recent emigrant from southern Europe, and " dago " and *' nigger " tend to become interchangeable terms. Finally, although by his proportionate influence on his- tory the Jew is the greatest of the human stocks, in Amer- ican practise he is widely shut out from some of the privileges of other citizens. The point is that we have everywhere to deal with the spirit which draws a line against a greater or smaller part of our population and treats it as incapable of full Americanization under demo- cratic ideals. CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH Now it is to be always insisted that our problem is not that of the natural equality of men, but of their success- T^ ful preparation for participation in the com- Democracy . ^ ^•l^ ^i ^ does not de- Tnon national liie. There has been some ac- pend on tual practise of democracy in the world — - '^^^ ^ less than we have sometimes thought, but still some successful association of men under self-government and with the will to equalize opportunity. Democracy has existed ; equality never ; therefore democracy does not depend on equality. Its success has not been based on the natural equipment of its members, but rather on their domination by common ideals. It is the vigor and health of spiritual forces of social control which makes democ- racy possible. " By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body." Again, it is clearly and positively to be stated that amal- gamation of blood through intermarriage is not the neces- sary or desirable method of initiating and hastening the assimilation, at least of the more divergent stocks. The marrying of the white and negro in the South, for exam- ple, as a means of solving the race problem, is not seri- ously contemplated by anybody. But this plain and explicit denial must in candor be ac- companied by the denial also of that negative dogmatism Valid Objec- which forbids amalgamation on the ground tions to Amal- of an alleged natural barrier between the ^ma ion, ^ races. It is absolutely not proven that na- chical, not ture interposes or intends to interpose any Physical physical or mental barrier. All supposed facts to the contrary miss the mark because conditions have never allowed a fair trial of the case. The half-breed has everywhere been the half-caste. His status and fate have been those of the underfed, the ill-housed, the socially TEMPERING THE BODY TOGETHER unprivileged. His lack of a controlling and saving social tradition, and the conflicting impulses of his two worlds, have subjected him to mental overstrain. But his problem is social and psychological, not physical. No one knows whether under equal opportunity the half-breed would show less fecundity, less forcefulness, less physical stamina and moral balance than the basal stocks. The laboratory of civilization has not yet tried that experiment. No state has ever been great enough to do social justice to those human mixtures which are banned by race prejudice, or to care to find out their actual capacity. None the less and partly for this reason amalgamation as a solvent of the race problem is definitely to be rejected . , ^. as tending to confusion and aggravating the Amalgamation . ,.„,! t- -i -i a Mistaken Solu- ongnial difficulty, it is a mistaken social tion; and method, the possible profitable employment Unnecessary ^^ ^j^j^j^ -^ ^^^^ ^^^^^.^ -^ beyond the hori- zon of our practical choices. And it is not necessary. All the present European nations are indeed the products of amalgamation, but an amalgamation which " occurred at a time so remote that it has been ascribed to the Stone Age. The later inroads have either been but temporary and have left but slight impression, or they have resulted in a division of territory. Thus the conquest of Britain by the Teutons and the Normans has not produced amal- gamation so much as it has caused a segregation of the Celts in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, and of the Teutons, with their later but slight infusion of Normans, in Eng- land. On the continent of Europe this segregation has been even more strongly marked." ^ Now racial distinc- tiveness has not kept the Scotch and Welsh from full and loyal partnership in British nationality ; and Ireland's * Commons, Races and Immigrants in America, p. 17. CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH estrangement is due to flagrant social injustice based on race prejudice. There are plenty of analogies, then, to show that it is possible to include diverse races in the es- sential spiritual unity of the nation without the mingling of blood, and also plenty of warnings against the fatefully inevitable schisms and irrepressible conflicts which come when an included population of distinct race is denied equal opportunity in the nation. Our actual business is assimilation. It is to make learn- ers of all in the nation, teaching its members to observe T . .^ . . all things which are characteristic of Ameri- Limits of As- ° . , . similation to be cans. For " it is not physical amalgamation discovered that unites mankind; it is mental commu- II y y ria^ nity. To be great, a nation need not be of one blood ; it must be of one mind. Racial inequality and inferiority are fundamental only to the extent that they prevent mental and moral assimilation." ^ Now no human mind can tell in advance of the event whether and to what extent mental and moral assimilation is impossible. To find out by actual trial is the nation's central task. V. THE UNDERLYING STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY In the problem of assimilating the various groups of incomplete Americans we touch an acute phase of the pro- foundest of human issues — the struggle for and against democracy. " In this warfare there is no discharge." With the growth of wealth and luxury there are daily more people who do not anticipate nor desire the assimila- Fundamental ^^^^ ^^ alien groups into the national life on Democracy in democratic terms. Many will thoughtlessly Danger deny this, some will deliberately resist the charge, yet the fact remains : the democracy in which ' Commons, Races and Immigrants in America, p. 20. _ TEMPERING THE BODY TOGETHER we believe is rather a democracy of the descendants of the races of the temperate zone or of northern Europeans or of long-headed blondes — not the democracy of all Amer- icans. This is positively not a sectional phenomenon. Its most outspoken profession is in the South, but its preva- lent spirit is national. We are not without explicit exhortations as well as subtle temptations to choose the easier task of tempering The Tempta- the diverse American groups together on a tion to adjust non-democratic basis. Mr. Alfred Holt Groups within ^^ i f^j. example, recently warned and the Nation on ' i i i • i • a Non-demo- urged the assembled sociologists of the na- cratic Basis tion that the alleged lower races should be taught by precept, law, and social convention to accept a permanent caste status ; that they should be left uncor- rupted by the American spirit, content in the unalterable lot of the peasant. He thinks that the alternative is a devastating race war, the responsibility for which will be theirs who have taught the masses to aspire and to struggle. On the other hand, we have recently had many a persuasive setting forth of the beauty of the social sys- tem of the old South. Looking at it as it seems to those who hold it in memories mellowed and softened by time, it strongly appeals to those of us who are daily irritated by the struggle with household servants, or nagged into mean- ness by endless labor controversies. How natural the thought, " If we could only have a recognized servile class which knew and kept its place all would be peace " ! Com- pared with this pleasing vision how stubborn the reality to which actual conditions destine us ! How aggravating the incomplete American as neighbor or employee ; how " up- pity ! " the new negro ; how socially difficult any man who ' Studies in the American Race Problem, ch. vi. 3 [sT] CHRISTIAN EECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH stumbles upward, but half appreciating the inner standards and sense of fitness of a more favored group ! What lack of gratitude, what frequent contempt, repays him who would help ! Against such difficulties shall we not cease to strive ? Well, democracy as a social policy is not likely long to continue unless reenforced by some profounder sanction. Democracy "a " ^^ ^^ ^ ^^^^ "^ rehgion," says Professor Sort of Reii- James, " and we are bound not to admit its S^o^ failure." Specifically it is an expression of the characteristic Christian passion for " the more feeble, the less honorable, the unlovely." " God tempered the body together, giving more abundant honor to the part which lacked." The defense of this paradox is possible only on religious grounds, and intelligible only to those for whom these grounds are good. To be sure the political and economic tendencies of the present age have given vast opportunity to the democratic spirit. Many under favorable conditions are capable of accepting it imita- tively. But its continued mastery of men depends upon its power to reproduce the inner certainty and incorrupt- ible zeal of an original spiritual insight. Old Aunt Dinah died the other day down in Alabama. She was a delightful example of the old-fashioned negro type, numbers of which have survived in connection with almost all the older schools of the American Missionary Association in the South. They transferred the affection which they had for their former masters, unblemished and undiminished, and lavished it upon those who now stood to them for power and kindliness. They never compre- hended what was sought in the freeing of their race. For themselves they passionately repudiated any act or senti- ment which disturbed their inbred sense of inferiority. [m] TEMPERING THE BODY TOGETHER They wanted only to serve, to cling, to fulfil life on the level of subjection to some white master. Few fulfil so appropriately the role which they inwardly accept. It is difficult for the mind without an innate democratic pas- sion to see that all this is after all less beautiful than the too frequent representative of the new order — obnoxious in dress, in voice, in manners, an unsatisfactory worker and still less satisfactory enjoyer of the means of life, an irresponsible member of the state and a potential men- ace to it. Yet the most perfect slave is lower than the most imperfect freeman. However admirable the choice fruit of the old order, " he that is least in the new king- dom is greater than he." May one count on the ratification of this judgment by men as the years fulfil their present tendencies and bring forth their certain surprises.'' We do believe so, and will risk the outcome. The inner springs of democracy may be trusted. There will not fail a line of men who have seen the vision of human brotherhood and who will storm the universe to make the vision good. "Speak it boldly, 'These are Gods,' All besides are ghosts." VI. COMPETENCY OF MISSIONARY JUDGMENT ON NATIONAL PROBLEMS It is the fashion to discount the testimony of the man on the hilltop in favor of that of the man on the ground. ,p, ,j In judging the prospects of our unassimi- the Ground vs. lated American groups the near view is pre- the Man on ferred to the far view. " Their neighbors the Hilltop ^^^^^ ^j^g^ ^^^^„ jg ^j^g ^j,^ rpj^g ^^^g^ understands the Chinaman ; the Plains the Indian ; the CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH South the negro. Especially in the latter case is there passionate insistence that the " outsider " keep his hands off and leave practical adjustments to the immediately re- sponsible parties. Especially if the outsider be pohtician — or missionary ! I do not doubt that the South has suffered at times from both. It happens, therefore, that testimony proceeding from missionary sources, this book for example, has to ™, . meet a certain presumption of unreliability, against Mis- The missionary, it is first alleged, is not in sionary Com- contact with a full and representative range petency ^^ ^^^^^^ « rpj^^ trouble is that in the schools they see the best specimens of the race, at an impression- able period of their lives, and under abnormal condi- tions." ^ Their good showing is possible because they " work only with stringently sifted material." ^ They do not touch the masses. Again, the missionary is a sentimentalist. No more damning charge, it is assumed, can be laid against any man in this practical and scientific age. In view of the first charge it will be illuminating to consider the range and character of the contacts which Extent and In- a representative missionary organization has timacy of Mis- with the materials of its problem. The Amer- lonary on ican Missionary Association has carried on Significant religious or educational work for the negro Facts at from two to three hundred points in twelve Southern states during a period of sixty years. During all this time it has touched the life of the race in all its phases and extremes. Its work at Fessenden Academy in central Florida, for * Kelsey, The Negro Farmer, p. 6. ^ Tillinghast, The Negro in Africa and America, p. 214. [S6] 2 t« w ^ O TEMPERING THE BODY TOGETHER example, began with a people nearer Africa than any other group of American negroes. In this semi-tropical The Ne»ro of climate, life was possible without stove or the Turpentine shoes. Cooking was done the year round in ^^™P the open air. When at length capital came in to hew the forest, drain off the turpentine, and strip the phosphate beds, these lowest of negroes were the crude recruits who rushed blindly into the hardest of industrial fates — that of unskilled transient laborers, living in tem- porary camps and continually moving on as industry de- spoils one place after another. " North Carolina nigger " is a generic term for turpentine worker; and Principal Wiley of the Fessenden school finds out by statistical in- vestigation that a large proportion of such workers in his community are actually immigrants from the " old North state." This shows what the exploiting industries do for their workers. Migration becomes a habit. The material product is lumber and naval stores ; the human products irresponsible, homeless men, criminals, and vagrants. The typical camp consists of parallel rows of company houses, generally single-roomed, battened cabins, with tight shutters at the windows, and mud or brick fireplaces. Rarely they are whitewashed. A company commissary, aptly called " the grab " (where supplies are bought at upwards of thirty per cent above ordinary figures), and a turpentine-still complete the picture. Now, " single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints," nor ebony either. Turpentine workers are mostly young. Vice is their amusement — drinking, gambling, lewdness. Women camp-followers cook and wash for and live with successive men. There are always exceptions — • decent men with families, who have caught the migratory CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH habit but try to protect their wives and children. They seek to rent Kttle cabins apart from the quarters. A few rise to be bosses or succeed financially by sub-letting tur- pentine rights, but wages are paid infrequently and often in checks on the company store, which contrives to keep the employee generally in debt. The " gentleman's agree- ment " between employers, and sometimes the rifle and bloodhound, keeps him from running away. It is not an attractive life. Yet the lure of it, its wandering and gre- garious irresponsibility, attracts many a boy from the farm. Thus the turpentine, lumber, and phosphate in- dustries are educational institutions. They teach succes- sive generations of illiterates to know nothing better. If these are exceptional negroes, the best specimens of their race, what is the average life? Yet, in spite of the fact that the saloon party enfranchised a thousand negroes in the county (by paying their poll-taxes), the influence of Fessenden Academy carried its precinct for no license in the late local option campaign ; and now and then even from the turpentine huts a boy or girl and sometimes a family is redeemed to better things. Recently there has been erected at Fessenden a modest Carnegie building. Not only was the gift secured by a Experience negro principal, but the building was de- with the Negro signed by a negro architect, whose pro- in Industry fessional training was had at a mission school, and erected entirely by negro labor at a cost of some $8000. The master builder acquired his trade under his slave-trained father, now a prosperous contractor in Alabama. Two industrial teachers — one trained at Hampton and one at Talledega — shared the direction of the work. The two other regular carpenters were products of the Brick School at Enfield, N. C. Their [3S] TEMPERING THE BODY TOGETHER work was supplemented by that of the Fessenden school- boys. The chief mason, a slave-trained artisan, was aided by a Baptist preacher and a nondescript who had "just picked up his trade." The mortar-maker was taught his job in the United States army. The plasterer, an Ohio negro and fine workman, regularly commanding $5 per day, stipulated that he be allowed two half-days per week to get drunk. His assistants had less ability but like habits. The painting contractor, the son of a free negro, and much above the average in ability and character, is one of the leading craftsmen in his line in a neighboring Florida city. He uses neither tobacco nor liquor, has a good education and genuine artistic gifts as a decorator. He employs at times as many as ten men, and his work on the Carnegie building was an excellent job. Indeed the building as a whole was the most satisfactory of some ten or a dozen built by the Association in various parts of the South during the same year, part under white contractors and a few with white labor exclusively. On most of the buildings white and negro laborers worked side by side at the same trades, making immediate comparison possible. The fortunes of the work were not all joyous. The principal complained that most of the men continually asked to draw pay faster than it was earned and added: Some of my other workmen that had not been trained would go off after pay-day, and the next thing I would hear was that they were in the lock-up at Ocala charged with drunken brawls or fighting. One was charged with gambling and had to flee. The trouble with some was that they did not keep their word. I would scour the country for a man, and get his promise, and the promise would not be kept. I had more trouble and quite as much disap- [39] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH pointment in digging the basement as the United States will have in digging the canal. Hot weather and hard work, even with good pay, did not mix. Of course we got the basement, but it was with the dis-operation of the ox, the nag, the boys, the physical labor, and planning of your servant, and, more than all, the power of God. This certainly does not prove that negro labor is fault- less ; it does prove that a missionary agency in its indus- Exnerience trial experience has opportunity to discover with the Negro the faults of its average representatives. The in Other Lines Association erects ten or a dozen buildings every year. Negro hands have built property for it worth millions of dollars. The Association knows the agri- cultural negro through a dozen school farms and some scores of tenants, whose successes and failures are matters of record ; and this experience happens to cover all the chief agricultural provinces of the South. It knows the negro in domestic service through the necessity of pro- viding three meals each day and beds every night for two and a half regiments of colored pupils. It has employed many more artisans, farmers, and cooks than it ever has teachers and preachers. It knows the negro upper classes too, the educated and select. Edgar Gardner Murphy shows that the South's chief ignorance of the race is at this point. ^ Representatives of the Association are ad- mitted into hearts and homes where only friends can enter. Thus through vital contacts at all significant parts of the race's life, in tAvelve states through forty years, it has been acquiring information. If it is ignorant, it is not because of aloofness from the heart of the problem. » Present South, p. 168. [lo] TEMPERING THE BODY TOGETHER On the contrary Mr. A. H. Stone, one of the most meri- torious and candid of recent Southern writers, illustrates the fact that the man on the ground may Critic uS^Orig- have his gaze fixed on his own feet. He ex- inal Muck- pends considerable sarcasm on the assump- ^^^^ tion of a Northern radical editor that a man in New York may understand the negro better than a man in Mississippi. In many respects Mr. Stone's survey of negro conditions is very broad and illuminating, but no syllable in his voluminous book indicates that he at all recognizes the experience or attaches any weight to the testimony of another distinguished Mississippian, Major R. W. Millsaps. Mr. Stone's plantation experiment leaves him with a very poor impression of negro labor. Major Millsaps owns a plantation of five hundred acres within a few miles of Mr. Stone's. On it he has twenty negro families, including seventy-five people in all. With them he has tried the daring experiment of trusting tenants without an overseer. His own version of its results is thus reported by Mr. Baker: " Did it work? " I asked. " I have never lost one cent," said Major Millsaps ; " no negro has ever failed to pay up, and you could n't drive them off the place. When other farm- ers complain of shortage of labor and tenants, I never have had any trouble." Every negro on the place owns his own mules and wagons, and is out of debt. Nearly every family has bought or is buying a home in the little town of Le- land, near by, some of which are comfortably fur- nished. They are all prosperous and contented. " How do you do it? " I asked. " The secret," he said, " i s to treat the negro well CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH and give him a chance. I have found that a negro, hke a white man, is most responsive to good treat- ment. Even a dog responds to kindness ! The trouble is that most planters want to make too much money out of the negro ; they charge him too much rent ; they make too large profits on the supplies they fur- nish. I know merchants who expect a return of fifty per cent on supplies alone. The best negroes I have known are those who are educated. Negroes need more education of the right kind — not less — and it will repay us well if we give it to them. It makes better, not worse, workers.^ The contrast between Major Millsaps and Mr. Stone seems to suggest that the physical nearness of a fact does not guarantee its recognition. John Bunyan's original muck-raker was oblivious to the surrounding glory because his eyes were fixed upon the ground. The charge that the missionary is a sentimentalist jmpHes that there are different states of mind in which Need of the ^^ approach facts ; that different clues may Man with the be brought to their interpretation. Prox- ^^"® imity is no guaranty of knowledge to liim who lacks the clue. Prof. G. N. Carver of the agricultural department of Tuskegee is one of the most competent graduates of a leading Northern agricultural college. In his profes- sional capacity he is often called upon to advise Southern planters as to the development of their farms. Recently on such a tour of inspection the Colonel said, " Well, Pro- fessor, what should we do with such soil.'' " Sifting a little of it through his thin, black fingers. Carver replied, " You ought n't to plow this farm ; you ought to can it ! This * Following the Color-Line, p. 103. [42] wm xn CQ TEMPERING THE BODY TOGETHER is mineral paint." Now the Southerner had been treading those clods for fifty years, yet he knew less about them than a negro found out in ten minutes. Fifty years more would n't have added wisdom. A glance sufficed the ex- pert, the man with the clue. Now there are experts in humanity. Of one such it was said, " He knew what was in man," Some have his clue and others lack it. Being geographically next to a human problem does not help the latter. Proximity ought to mean spiritual nearness. The missionary must indeed es- tablish his adequate contact with the facts, and can. The unbeliever's actual difficulty is with the missionary point of view. The issue essentially involves the competency of the Christian solution of human problems. In having his judgment challenged the servant merely shares the lot of his Master. 43] II. THE SOUTH AS MISSIONARY GROUND I. SECTIONAL vs. NATIONAL PROBLEMS THE primary responsibility for any unassimilated group within the nation belongs to whatever old and established American population happens to The Conges- be its immediate neighbor. But this origi- tion of Incom- nal Americanism varies greatly in different pee men- sections, both as to its material and insti- cans in the , ' Least Favored tutional resources for assimilation and in Sections mental attitude toward the whole problem. In fact the greatest masses of incomplete Americans are congested in those sections of the nation wliich in these respects are least favored. The first question of practical policy must be, Can the geographical neighbors of an un-Americanized group reasonably assimilate it.? Have they enough civilizing leaven within them to leaven the lump.'' Will the national need be equally and adequately met if each section builds " over against its own house " ? The answer is emphatic- ally, No. Because of vastly unequal local resources the Americanizing of each unassimilated group is a national problem, and all sections are missionary ground. The East and North, where the new immigration is chiefly located, have largely succeeded, so far as education is concerned, and the children of the aliens congested in cities there are better provided with school facilities than the children of Americans throughout the country at large. Less than one per cent of their children, from ten to four- [44] THE SOUTH AS MISSIONARY GROUND teen years of age, are illiterate, while the proportion of such illiterates of native parentage is over four per cent. Th F t d ^^^ ^^^^ urban success is largely counter- North as Mis- balanced by the rural failure. Away from sionary the forcing process of city life the clan spirit of the newcomer yields slowly, and the substi- tution of foreign stock for American country popu- lation makes the maintenance of New England's rural institutions increasingly dependent upon money and leader- ship from more favored communities. Deserted farms and decaying churches create an acute problem. The burden of domestic missionary agencies is double that of fifty years ago. Two at least of the great Christian bodies have recently established national agencies to meet the problem of immigration, chiefly congested in this section. As never before the nation must help the East and North. The rural West with its thin population owes the vigor and tone of its civilization largely to the frontier mis- The West as sionary and college builder, supported by re- Missionary hgious and educational Boards drawing their Ground funds from the East. Even if they had not regarded the Indian as an enemy, the struggling pioneer population could not have done for him what the paternal- ism of the government and the zeal of the evangelist have rather blunderingly done. The Oriental immigrant bears an almost negligible proportion to the population of the Pacific coast, yet money is every year sent from other sections to teach him to read the primer and the Bible. By these tokens the West is missionary ground. In the South, however, is massed the greatest number of incomplete Americans, with the fewest resources for making them fully fit for citizenship. In the geography of assimilation this is the unfavored section. It is im- _ CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH possible to make a statistical statement as to the backward whites of the South, but there were more illiterate white Proportionate children there in 1900 than the total num- Magnitudeof j^gj. ^f reservation Indians and of Orientals pendence on ^^ ^^^ United States. Add the fact of more the Nation illiterate negroes than there were when the Emancipation Proclamation was penned! This meas- ures the proportionate magnitude of sectional dependence upon the nation. II. THE SOUTH AS MISSIONARY GROUND The main current of American civilization is based on the assumption that a common school education is the irreducible minimum of preparation for worthy citizen- ship. The South cannot adequately furnish even this to vast masses of her people. The twelve proud Southern states are in a distinct class with New Mexico, Arizona, and what was Indian Terri- S til Tll't- ^o^J' ^^ ^^^ bottom of the illiteracy list, and eracyand they would still be there if there were no Educational negro this side of Africa. Their native white ac war ness iHi^^ej-acy at the last census ranged from 8^/10 per cent to I8V10 per cent, being greatest in North Carolina, where every sixth white child is illiterate. The average was 11 per cent. Negro illiteracy in the sixteen former slave states stood at 27 per cent in Missouri, then increased from 41 per cent in Arkansas to 61 per cent in Louisiana, or 51 per cent on the average. In the best state of the South thirteen men out of every one hundred cannot write their own names ; in the worst state, thirty- eight. This is distinctly a sectional phenomenon ; it marks the South off from the rest of the nation, and indeed from _ THE SOUTH AS MISSIONARY GROUND all the more enlightened portions of Christendom.^ The Southern child goes to school but a fraction over one-half as many days per year as the Northern child. There is no compulsory educational system except in Kentucky.^ The enrolment is only 64 per cent of the school population (nearly 10 per cent less than in the North), and that part attends 10 per cent less regularly than school chil- dren do in the more advanced section. Male teachers get an average monthly salary of $16 less than in the North and female teachers $9 less ; but the salary is not so much behind as the Southern teachers' prepara- tion. The number of college or normal graduates among them is painfully small. Eighty per cent have had only a common-school education. They do their work with one dollar's worth of buildings and equipment where their Northern brethren have eight. Tliis means overcrowded quarters, consequently relatively poor teaching. The North spends $254,000,000 annually for schools as against the South's $39,000,000 ; or $17.65 per pupil against the South's $4.54 per pupil ; or $4.65 per inhab- itant against the South's $1,59. The extremes are Mas- sachusetts spending $26.42 per pupil and Alabama but $2,39 ; yet the latter state, of its poverty, has sometimes devoted to education one-half of its total revenue. No one claims that the Massachusetts product is better in proportion to the money spent upon it. Yet the difference is not wholly due to the relative wealth of the sections, for, taking their general average, the South spends for * The statistical comparisons of this chapter are chiefly based on the Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1906. ^ A few cities elsewhere have compulsory education under special "local option " legislation. [47] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH education twenty cents on every $100 of taxable property ; the North twenty-six cents.^ Two generations ago a Scotch family separated itself from the parent clan on the Cumberland Plateau in Ten- rp. rp nessee and its children colonized in several Child vs. his Northern states, including Iowa. This state Iowa Cousin j^^s a population slightly larger than Ten- nessee and of about the same relative density, but has somewhat fewer children, the Southern mountain stock being notoriously prolific. It is interesting to compare the lot of the cousins who grew up in Iowa with those who remained in the Tennessee cabins. Ten per cent more children of school age attend school in Iowa than in Ten- nessee. Teachers number 29,650 in Iowa to 9189 in Tennessee; schoolhouses number 13,947 against 7354. Teachers' salaries average nearly one-third more in Iowa, which expends $10,898,030 for education against $1,751,- 047 spent by Tennessee; this being $4.49 per inhabitant and $16.43 for each child of school age in Iowa against $1.49 per inhabitant and $4.52 per child of school age in Tennessee. In other words, Iowa's child has over three times as many teachers, and more than three times as much money spent on him as his Tennessee cousin. He always has two seats in school to the other's one ; he goes to school more than twice as many days each year, and his state gives him double the training to fit him for citi- zenship which the other receives — and all this because • of the accident of his birth north rather than south of Mason and Dixon's line. Yet Tennessee is by no means the least progressive state in the South. * See Coon, Twenty-five Years' Progress of Public Education in North Carolina: A Comparative Statistical Study of School Maintenance in the South, etc. National Educational Association, Report of Committee on Taxation, 1905. [48] THE SOUTH AS MISSIONARY GROUND These facts are indisputable, but it is delicate business to say why they exist. The most thorough diagnosis is that of a Southerner, Professor Rose, of the University of Tennessee.-^ He enumerates five reasons for the South's educational backwardness. Each of these reasons merits our comment. 1. An aristocratic tradition unfavorable to popu- lar education. 2. Poverty. 3. Excessive individualism which sets narrow limits to public activity. 4. A scattered rural population. 5. The fact of the two races necessitating a double school system. We noted above that the North has been successful in educating the foreigner because he lives chiefly in the The South cities with their magnificent school systems. Five-sixths Massachusetts alone had in 1900 forty-seven ^^^^ cities with above 10,000 inhabitants, their combined population being 2,050,862. The nine seaboard states of the South had only forty-nine such cities, with a population of but 1,525,564. Five-sixths of the Southern population is widely scattered over mountain and plain, through swamp and forest. Such a sparse population is difficult to gather into schools. This makes the physical problem of education serious, and helps to explain the low standing of the section. Again, the South is poor. Its chief resource is agricul- ture, and its most natural comparison is with the agricultural portion of the North, namely, the North Central states. These have a wealth * Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1903, vol. i, pp. 359 ff. 4 [49] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH in agricultural land and buildings of nine and a half bil- lion dollars. The South Central states, of about equal area, have a similar wealth of but two billion dollars. Iowa alone, with an area and population about those of Ten- nessee, has farm values of over two billions, or more than that of all the South Central states. All this is graphically revealed on maps in the Special Report of the Census Of- fice on Wealth, Debt, and Taxation. These show that no Southern state has relatively as much taxable real estate as the poorest Northern state, and that the taxable real estate per family is two and a half times as large in the North as in the South. Only rarely do taxable values in the South exceed $300 per acre ; while in the North they fall below this only here and there. The scientific study of national resources by our gov- ernment has revealed almost unimaginable theoretical pos- TheSoiith's sibilities of increased production of wealth Amazing Nat- in the South, as in every other part of the ural Resources continent. Inflamed by this vision and daz- zled by the marvelous absolute gains of their section in almost every line, recent Southern champions have talked as though the handicap of sectional poverty would be quickly overcome, and the South furnished equally with Americanizing forces, at least with respect to its white population. As President Alderman puts it, their jubi- lation of spirit at this prospect " verges on something like hilarity." Now no one who has traveled the South so as to know its land and people intimately can doubt that many of Will the South ^^^^^e dreams will come true along with many overtake the others yet undreamed. Other sections have North? their dreams of wealth. Probably under sci- entific objective measurement the South as a wealth pro- [50] THE SOUTH AS MISSIONARY GROUND ducing section would be discovered to be decidedly inferior in possibilities to an equal area of the great upper Missis- sippi plains. Materials for such an accurate comparison do not yet exist, and if they did they would be beside the point ; for the effective wealth of any land depends upon the use which is made of it. We have to consider, therefore, whether, on other grounds, it is likely that the relative gap between the progress of the sections will soon be closed and the South cease to be missionary ground. Of course if the hare lies down to sleep the tortoise will over- take and pass him ; but is the hare going to sleep ? The slightest reflection shows that proportionate gains of a section which is just beginning development along RateofEduca- new lines cannot keep up. It is easy to im- tional Progress prove on little or nothing. The educational progress of the South looms up impressively on the back- ground of its previous lack. The same progress elsewhere would almost be taken for granted. Nor are the propor- tionate gains all on the side of the South. It is not in- creasing the number of its teachers in proportion to school population as fast as the North is.^ Now effective teach- ing means individual teaching. The crying evil of the Southern schools is that they are overcrowded ; there are too many pupils for each teacher. Consequently they do not progress in quahty as fast as in numbers. Again, the common school was long ago pretty completely established in the North. This section already had universal ele- mentary schools and could not possibly show great pro- portionate gains in that direction. The high school, on the contrary, as the " people's university " has almost limitless possibilities of development before it throughout the nation, but the proportion of high school enrolment ' Report of Commissioner of Education, 1906, vol. ii, p. 696. [5l] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH is increasing faster in the North than in the South.* Also there is a larger proportion of boys in the Northern high. School, and a smaller proportion of its pupils are preparing for college. These are indications of a more democratic character of the secondary public education in the North. It is not only developing faster, but in a more promising direction. Turning now to the probable increase of wealth — which, is the ultimate guaranty of education — we find Probable In- that the farm values of the United States, crease of according to the estimate of the Department Wealth of Agriculture, increased in the five years from 1900 to 1905 over six billions of dollars. Considerably over half of this gain was to the credit of the North Cen- tral states, with an average gain in value of $11.25 per acre. About one-fifth of the increased value was in the South Central states, with an average increase of $4<.66 per acre. Values in the South Atlantic and Western states increased about equally. The increase is explained as fol- lows ; " Subj ect to some qualifications the general principle is that the land itself has become more highly capitalized by a larger amount of net profit per acre." ^ Now net profit per acre does not depend upon the theo- retical fertility of the soil, but upon population, markets, c ., . . transportation, and ag-riculture. In its efforts southern Agri- . culture caught to help the South realize the best from its in a Vicious resources, the agents of the government re- peatedly find and record two great difficul- ties — first, the character of the people ; second, the so- cial system under which they live. Reports in the Year » Report of Commissioner of Education, 1902, p. 1651. Cf. Ibid., 1906, p. 507. '^ Year Book, Department of Agriculture, 1905, p. 512. [52] THE SOUTH AS MISSIONARY GROUND Book of the Department of Agriculture for 1905, while recording much progress, complain that the farmers of the South are conservative and the available agricultural labor not intelhgent enough to use improved methods of agriculture. The conclusion is, " In order to make any radical change in the type of farming which prevails over most of the cotton growing section, it is necessary to train the available labor in new channels and to give it a sense of responsibility not heretofore necessary." ^ This does not refer solely to negro labor, for the reporter for Arkan- sas and Louisiana writes, "White labor is very scarce and much of it is looked on as inferior to negro labor." ^ Moreover most of the Southern farmers, white or black, are slaves to the credit system, which is based on cotton as the traditional " money crop " in the South. Only by agreeing to put a specified number of acres into cotton can a tenant get his " rashuns " advanced while his crop is growing ; accordingly he could not diversify his produce if he would. Southern agriculture is thus caught in a vicious circle. To get out at all it must educate its people to better methods, but the money necessary to pay for that education cannot be had till the net profit per acre in the South is greatly increased, nor can the gap between the Americanizing forces of North and South be bridged till this profit increases very much faster in the South than in the North. Of this there is no immediate prospect. Praises of the " South of to-morrow " invariably read : When all our land is brought into cultivation and our "The South of agriculture rationalized; when immigration To-morrow" has increased our numbers and given us a new laboring population ; when the engineer has done his > Year Book, Department of Agriculture, 1905, p. 194. 2 Ibid., p. 211. ___^ """ 753] " CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH work for our forest and swamp, and when the prejudice which now prevents most of the civihzed world from re- garding the South as a desirable home is overcome, we shall be able to take care of our own problems. But how soon are these things likely to happen? The government expert sees that there are many handicaps to the speedy change of the Southern agricultural system. The Charles- ton News and Courier just now confesses, " There appears to be no present prospect of direct immigration to South Carolina or to any of the other Southern states." The Italian government has recently diverted all its immigra- tion from the state of Mississippi to save them from what looks to it like peonage. Of the need of an Appalachian forest reserve, Professor Brigham wrote in 1903: More than $10,000,000 was .the sum of flood losses in the Appalachian states during the year 1901. With the abundant rains, wherever a slope of any steepness is cleared, it is cropped but for a few years, the soil is washed into the streams, tillage is given up, and the field is abandoned to ever-deepening gullies. Meantime the rich bottom lands below are either exca- vated and removed bodily by the torrents, or they are deluged with five, eight, or ten feet of stony waste, and become as useless as a gravelly river-bed. Ten years of delay would be fatal. The single states can- not do the work.^ Now five of these years of grace have gone by and The World's Work says, " The problem is to save one of the most valuable and attractive parts of the nation — liter- ally to save it; for it is going to waste with a rapidity which is fairly astounding." ^ That the South will catch * Geographical Influences in American History, p. 285. « The World's Work, vol. xvi, p. 10300. THE SOUTH AS MISSIONARY GROUND up is possibly one of the may-bes, but it is certainly still one of the not-yets. Every other Southern handicap pales before the fact that a third of its population are negroes but forty years The Burden of out of slavery and one-half of them illiterate, the Negro There are some eight millions of them, in- creasing from ISVio per cent of the population of Ken- tucky to 58^10 per cent in Mississippi ; they constitute a majority also in South Carolina. Though declining in numbers relative to the general population of the section they increased more rapidly in the last decade than did the whiteis in six Southern states. Their poverty does not permit them to bear a proportionate share of the bur- dens of taxation, and from the standpoint of the South their race must have separate educational and charitable institutions. It would be neither safe nor just to leave to so handicapped a section so massive a national problem. Excessive individualism and the aristocratic tradition unfavorable to general education remain, but are waning TheSouth's factors in the South's attitude; especially Half Loaf Un- they are no longer politically dominant. The evenly Divided achievement of her people in popularizing their institutions fairly merits President Alderman's words : " They have developed an overwhelming public sentiment, with the social and political agencies necessary to sustain that sentiment, in favor of the education of all the people at public expense, thus making a social system, semifeudal in nature, a democracy in social usage, as well as in political philosophy." ^ This is fully true as far as the white population is concerned. It is not true as relates to the black third of the South's children. Judged by deeds the prevailing sentiment favors giving them an in- 1 The World's Work, "The Growing South," vol. xvl p. 10375. [55] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH ferior and class type of education, unequally supported by public resources. Only $2.21 is spent on the negro child to $4.92 for the white, while the most catholic minds of the South are definitely committed to the prior claim of the belated white. The cry is, " Let the children first be fed." " The lot of the Piedmont and Appalachian white man has been forgetfulness and neglect. The world might as well understand that the Southerner is done with this neglect forever. He sees that the redemption of his com- munity lies primarily in the restoration and development of the white population." ^ Now with the South's present and probable resources the broadest and heartiest democ- racy could not adequately supply the needs of all its people. The lack of such democracy means the uneven distribution of the half loaf, which is all the South has. The plain confession of this situation is the final demon- stration that the South is missionary ground. III. THE DIVISION OF LABOR BETWEEN ASSIMILATING FORCES To insist that the congestion of unassimilated popula- tion in that section makes the Americanizing of the South a national problem is not to deny that the big end of the work belongs to the South. In the division of labor be- tween cooperating forces. Southern agencies and resources have the greater burden and glory. To the very limit of his strength and will, the belated white man and the negro are each the Southerner's problem. To be specific, there are five cooperating agencies trying to Americanize the South — three of which are Southern. ' The World's Work, " The Growing South," vol. xvi, p. 10378. [56] THE SOUTH AS MISSIONARY GROUND Primarily the responsibility rests with the state as the agency of democratic society ; and no amount of philan- Cooneratine thropy from any source can undo the wrong Agencies: The of the state's failure in full and equal jus- S*^*® tice to its citizens. In judging the success or failure of the Southern states one must avoid two errors. Much fulsome praise has been lavished on them for be- latedly undertaking what in the eyes of civilization is the plain and self-evident duty of the state, namely, the ele- mentary education of all its citizens. But equally one must not fail to appreciate the grave handicap against which the Southern people have struggled even so far. They have " had the political patience and equipoise not to disturb the only good thing decreed to them by a carpet- bag government, namely, the provision for popular educa- tion placed in their organic law." Out of this they have developed a general school system " fairly complete as to its machinery and methods." They are now spending forty-five per cent of all their public revenue upon educa- tion; fifty-one per cent of negro children (a trifle more than one-half!) and sixty-seven per cent of white children are in school ; and this without state compulsion. Twenty per cent of all educational spending goes to the negro. This is not equitable, for he comprises thirty-two per cent of the school population. Yet every attempt to limit the support of the negro school to what the negro himself pays in direct taxation has been defeated, and the South stands theoretically committed to elementary education for all its people. And all this is far less significant than the fact that a TheEduca- new spirit has possessed the Southern people, tional Revival The building of their schools has had the character of a popular crusade, and constitutes one [5r\ CHRISTIAN RECONSTEUCTION IN THE SOUTH of the most notable idealistic movements of the day. No- where else in the Union have recent public campaigns been waged and governors elected on educational issues. No- where has the vital connection so quickly been grasped between education and the deeper problems of social re- form. In brief, educational enthusiasm and consecration is the South's peculiar response to that social spirit which is the most vital and creative movement of our time. There have been no greater heroes in American history than the little handful of educational zealots of Southern birth who fought their section single-handed to perpetuate the carpetbagger's common school. There has been no edu- cational philanthropy half so praiseworthy as the Southern taxpayer's at its best. The whole movement merits the most exalted eulogy. "For that the leaders took the lead in Israel, For that the people offered themselves willingly, Bless ye the Lord." The Southern church shares the recognized conserva- tism of ecclesiastical institutions and has an additional Cooperating measure of its own. It is not to discredit its Agencies: The ardent piety to say that it has shown itself Church j-j^g least adaptive of the reconstructive fac- tors of its section. With a few shining exceptions, leader- ship has not been in it. Before the war education was chiefly in its hands, and afterward the intense denominational spirit kept alive too many poorly supported and struggling schools, under the burden of which the impoverished sects well-nigh sank. Add to this that its type of education was polite and aris- tocratic, not popular and democratic, and it is clear that little outreach could be expected toward the less privileged elements of society. [5S] THE SOUTH AS MISSIONARY GROUND As regards the negro, the church fell more deeply the prey to mingled resentment and despair than did the secular educational forces. From the standpoint of states- manship some measure of education for him was under the new regime clearly inevitable; but the church did not rise even to that plane. It could not bring itself to teach the recent slave, and when the Northern teachers came (seem- ingly in the spirit of a new army of invasion bent rather on demonstrating the high capacities of the exceptional negro than on preparing the mass for practical and pro- ductive citizenship), Southern organized Christianity in the main withdrew from the task. This is not to forget nor minimize millions of helpful contacts with the negro in his upward struggle. Much personal sympathy, moral sup- port, and advice, and even money in no small measure, was given him. Especially fruitful have been the traditions of responsibility carried over by those Southern churches which had a large colored membership before the war — notably the Southern Presbyterian, the Methodist Epis- copal, South, and the Episcopal. Many faithful ministers have continued to preach to black Christians. But con- fessed, direct, and systematic efforts for the education and uplift of negroes have been largely lacking. The state has found less embarrassment, for Its operations have been official and its contacts have not Involved any social implications. But evangehzation and education at first hand clearly involve a degree of personal Christian fellowship which the Southern church in the main has hitherto been unwilling to grant. It has therefore with- held its hand from the work, partly from pique that the Northerner had undertaken it from what was Interpreted as a sectional standpoint, and partly because It was un- willing to do it from its own standpoint. This Is truth CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH in the large as the broadest Southern churchmen now con- fess. Thus Rev. Charles E. Bowman, d.d., of Georgia, recently said : " Assistance in the education of the negro has been practically monopolized by boards, societies, churches, and philanthropists of the North, and we have been disposed to let them have it, excusing ourselves with the claim that more is being done for the negro than for the poor white children of the South, and that we have more than we can do to look after our own." ^ There have been exceptions, and just now indications multiply of the coming of a better mind. In admitting that the Americanizing of the South is primarily the Southerner's problem one must not forget Cooperatinff ^^^ Southerner most deeply concerned ; Agencies: the namely, the negro himself. The rise of this JNegro Himself unprivileged race to bring salvation with its own arm is an unparalleled phenomenon. Beyond all its helpers it has helped itself. It has expended nearly ten million dollars for education besides its share of taxation. It has multiplied schools almost beyond number. The result in many details show great crudity and inexperi- ence, though in inadequacy and wastefulness the educa- tional policy of the negro churches is scarcely worse than that of sectarian education throughout the country at large. They have simply been imitating their supposed superiors. Both in bulk and in worthy accomplishment the negro's successes in elevating himself rise to colossal dimensions. If the South is to be praised for rapid prog- ress in public education, how much more the negro for the zeal which has built his hundreds of schools ! In the divi- * Annual Report of the Board of Education for the M. E. Church, South, 1907, p. 128. THE SOUTH AS MISSIONARY GROUND sion of labor betAveen cooperating forces he bears not the least honorable and responsible part. Long before either of the Southern forces was ready or able to do a dominant or central work for the redemption Cooperating of the South, there had been in the field a Agencies: group of great nationaUzing agencies which Christian originated the ideal of the Americanizing of Philanthropy all Americans and set a standard for all suc- ceeding efforts for its reaHzation. The relative place of their work to-day is smaller, but their absolute burden is greater; for, all told, the assimilating resources have not increased as fast as unassimilated population, especially in view of the sterner demands of life in this age of rapid social transitions. The money and personality which they are now putting into the situation were never more essen- tial. Yet, after all, their chief contribution has been, and is, the maintenance of a national view-point. It has been their function to correct the emphasis of those who have attacked the problem with local prejudice, so that the general outcome should be balanced. They have not them- selves been free from all provincialism of method, but they have viewed national problems steadily and viewed them as a whole. This is the spirit of prophecy. The prophet has a strange and moving role in human history. From his far hilltop he looks down on the march- ing and countermarching of nations. He does not im- mediately belong to their problem, and its outcome seems none of his business. Yet somehow he turns out to have a better grasp of the situation than any participant has. He has a more unhindered access to the deepest sources of information than the man who has a personal in- terest in the fray. The strange outcome is that " whom he curses is cursed and whom he blesses is blest." He CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH thinks that his judgment of the tendencies of his day is based upon insight into the purposes of God. Our nation has had such men, who have definitely at- tempted to reaHze the divine purpose in America. Out of the strange human stuff providentially gathered they have tried to temper the national body together as it pleases God. Sometimes the nationalizing agencies used by such prophetic hearts have disguised their true function by callins; themselves denominational Boards. Sometimes the nominal character of these Boards has swamped their higher function ; but at the worst they comprise the most single-hearted and Christian factor which has entered into the problem. They have been essentially popular agencies, administering chiefly the genuine and unosten- tatious philanthropy of the " common folk " of the North. The American Missionary Association is typical of them. Founded in 1846, it gathered up several local organiza- The American ^^ons which had a common missionary impulse Missionary toward less privileged peoples. It had other Association work for the pioneer in the South and West ; for the Indian tribes, then counted as foreign ; for recently emancipated slaves in Jamaica and negro refugees in Canada, and for the heathen in half a dozen foreign lands. This shows the scope of the original idea as not sectional nor even exclusively national. Gradually, however, its foreign work was assigned to more specialized agencies, and the outcome of the Civil War gave the Association its chief burden in the persons of four and a half million of freedmen. Fraternal cooperation in the uplift of their nine million descendants still remains its first concern as also incomparably the greatest assimilating task before the nation. This Association discovered the Southern Highlander as a distinct type demanding a special Amer- A. F. Beaui). D.D. Corresponding Secretary American Missionary Association, 1887-1903 THE SOUTH AS MISSIONARY GROUND icanizing effort. Its essential national character is re- vealed by its successive assumptions of responsibility for new and unexpected peoples which have come to us by con- quest or annexation. Its present work includes an evan- gelizing and educating ministry to all the non-European and mixed groups under our flag, and by a happy excep- tion which proves the rule, to the largest group of unas- similated white population, the mountaineer of the South- ern Appalachians. Thus it tries to perform its office in the midst of its brethren in a spirit of confessed cooperation. A tragic misunderstanding, the fruit of decades of sec- tional conflict, embittered by war and made doubly diffi- Cooperating ^ult by the blunders of Reconstruction, long Agencies: sundered the forces of uplift in the South. JomtEcIuca- rpj^^ ^^^ sections were temporarily incapable North and of ^ mutual trust, while the conservative South South, represented by the church, did not appreciate the ideals of the more advanced educators. The negro had aspirations sundering him even from his would-be helpers. It is a thrilling story how they all came together at last; how the carpetbag governments laid the foundation of popular education ; how in every state there arose a little handful of educational zealots of Southern birth who fought incredibly lonely, heroic fights to make good, after so long, Jefferson's \asion of a common school ; how before, and especially after the disbanding of the Freedman's Bureau, Northern Christian philanthropy undertook the education of the negro and later of the poor white; how its teachers toiled in fearful isolation, often ostracized, slowly learning the true needs of both races as only time can teach them; how the joint admin- istration by high-minded men of North and South, of the CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH splendid benefactions of George Peabody and others taught new possibiHties of cooperation and raised philan- thropy to the plane of constructive statesmanship ; how finally it dawned on men that there was a great unity of aim underneath all the separate agencies, and they drew together in a practical cooperation and good understand- ing which is the dominant character of Southern educa- tional effort to-day. The chief platform on which this good understanding has been reached is the Conference for Education in the Conference for South, organized in 1898. Here representa- Educationin tives of all interests met through a series of the South years, face to face, and worked out a common policy. To an unprecedented degree it appealed to a varied constituency, to politicians, to the press, to women's clubs, and somewhat to the clergy, as well as to the philan- thropist and the professional educator. It initiated a great and successful educational cam- paign in behalf of education throughout the entire section. Agreement on As a result of such cooperative effort a num- Ideals ber of ideals may be counted as established in the South. First, the development of popular education as a function of a democratic state is at once the highest philanthropy and the simplest justice. Agitation and organization must not cease until this is fully accom- plished throughout the section. To encourage this move- ment is the finest exercise of the nationalizing spirit. Its success is the basis for all other ministries to the unpriv- ileged classes. On the other hand, the clear lack of suffi- cient resources in the South as a section, and the inevi- table gaps in its educational program, must be met by help from the more favored sections operating through nation- alizing agencies, the cooperative spirit of whose work is [64] THE SOUTH AS MISSIONARY GROUND to be appreciated by all. The disorganization and waste of the past must cease. The well-meaning competition of half-starved institutions, ill-advised duplication of agen- cies, and congestion of unnecessary schools, especially for negroes (as in Atlanta), must give way to the great prin- ciples of order and efficiency. Benevolence must study each institution which appeals for aid ; whether it is wisely founded, strategically located, well conducted. The auxil- iary forces of Northern philanthropy must have a special strategy so as not to complicate injuriously the move- ment of the whole. Most of all, perhaps, the denomina- tional education of the Southern sects needs readjusting to an era of dominant public education. This requires a self-denying merging or abandonment of many institu- tions, preliminary to the strategic development of all the others. The educational policy of the negro churches, made aggressive by race consciousness and ecclesiastical pride, especially needs tempering by a sense of the whole situation and expert direction. Such economizing of re- sources through the application of the " trust " idea to Southern education has recently been attempted by the General Educational Board, administering Mr. Rocke- feller's endowments, and by affiliated agencies. These are by no means likely to be the controlling force of the future: neither the Southern states, the negro schools, nor the missionary Boards will submit to it. Yet their moral influence will be wide, and the lesson they empha- size is in hopeful process of being learned by all the educa- tional forces concerned. A well-understood division of labor is thus being achieved. All agencies are submitting to the test of efficiency. There are backward eddies, but this is the direction of the main current. 65] III. THE SIFTING OF THE SOUTH I. THE TWO SOUTHS AND THE TWO SOUTHERNERS THE most outstanding fact about the South is that there are two Souths, lowland and highland. Once there was no South except the mountains. Beginning with New Jerse}'^, the Atlantic seaboard south to Florida, the lower half of the Gulf states, and the ^ , . Mississippi Valley as far north as the Geographic ^^ i /-.i • Separation of mouth of the Ohio, were at the bottom oi theSouth's the sea. The waters lapped the feet of the wo ro ems mountains on the west, covering what is now the Blue Grass regions of Kentucky. This most ancient highland South — the South of Lincoln and Judge Hargis — looked out upon the ocean. Its most southern point was what is now central Alabama. Later the characteris- tic lowland South — the South of Jefferson Davis and of Lee — rose out of the waters as a level coastal plain, through which the broad wedge of the mountains thrust its rough fist far down through soft stretches of recent sea bottom toward the present waters of the Gulf. In these two strikingly distinct geographic provinces the two great human problems of the South are congested. The prob- lem of the belated white man is chiefly the problem of the highlands ; the problem of the negro is almost exclusively one of the plains. From their first settlement these two sections of the South have differed in temper and been antagonistic in Highland vs. politics. Historically the earliest associa- Lowland: tions of the uplands were with the North- Population The movement of population was southwest rather than directly west. The bulk of their immigration, [66] THE SIFTING OF THE SOUTH Scotch-Irish by birth, entered by way of Philadelphia and Baltimore, and worked down the great Appalachian valley rather than across the coastal plain from Atlantic ports. Cut off from tide-water not only by the falls of the rivers — the head of navigation — but also by a parallel strip of pine barrens through much of its length, this region was in many respects a projection of the Pennsylvania type into the very midst of the South. It was settled in the middle of the eighteenth century largely by migration from Pennsylvania of Scotch-Irish, Germans, and English pioneers, having Kttle contact with, or resemblance at first to, the sea- board life, either economically, politically, or socially. It was the first distinctively western region, non- slaveholding, grain and cattle raising, a land of dis- senting sects, of primitive democratic conditions, re- mote from the coast, and finding the connection with Baltimore, Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania valley, both in spiritual and economic life, more intimate than with the tide-waters of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, within whose boundary lines it chiefly lay.-*- The diverse civilization of mountain and plain thus root in their different origins. The first habitat of the upland Southerner was the Appa- lachian foot-hills rather than the true mountains. Later The Struggle ^^ ^^^ driven back into the mountains as a for the result of the unsuccessful struggle, political Piedmont g^^^ economic, with the lowlands. This struggle of up-country against tide-water is a significant clue of the earlier history of the six southern states crossed * Turner, "Is Sectionalism in America Dying Away?" American Journal of Sociology, vol. xiii, p. 665. [671 CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH by the Piedmont Belt. " In every one the tide-water min- ority area, where wealth and slaves preponderated, ruled the more populous primitive interior counties by apportion- ment of the legislatures so as to secure the effective major- ity of the representatives. Unjustly taxed, deprived of due participation in government, their rights neglected, they protested, vainly for the most part, in each of these colonies and states." ^ Central North CaroUna, for ex- ample, previous to 1830, had a magnificent normal devel- opment as a region of small farms and diverse domestic industries supporting a prosperous yeomanry of Scotch- Irish, German, and Quaker descent. The plantation sys- tem crept up into it against the economic grain. The slave- holders wanted to rule the Piedmont more than they wanted to farm it. The uplands vainly resisted with an intense antislavery agitation. When finally they were over- come, their people emigrated wholesale, especially between 1830 and 1840, into the mountains and beyond. " During that decade the white population of the state increased only 2.54 per cent compared with 12.79 per cent for the preceding period." ^ Thus the most virile and democratic part of the population was dispossessed of the better land and forced back into the poor and thinly populated moun- tain region. As a natural barrier the Southern Appalachians pre- sented no such absolute physical diflficulty as the Rocky The Fixing of Mountains, which civilization so triumphantly the Mountain crossed later. But their great width — some TyP® three hundred miles — and the unbroken length of their parallel ranges, proved too much for the ' Turner, "Is Sectionalism in America Dying Away ? " American Journal of Sociology, vol. xiii, p. 666. 2 Thompson, From Cotton Field to Cotton Mill, p. 30. [68] THE SIFTING OF THE SOUTH slight resources of the earlier pioneer. Their coves and narrow valleys caught him, and still hold his children in the civilization of a hundred years ago. Meanwhile the militant slaveholding South followed the coastal plains, added the new empire of the Southwest to its domain, and developed the peculiar mental and social aggressiveness which hurried the two great sections of the nation toward irrepressible conflict. But it is never to be forgotten that the first conflict of the South was within itself, and that the North fought with and for a consistent Southern minority. The crisis of war revealed still further the dominance of physiographic over political divisions. The lowlander Highland vs. stuck to his state against the nation ; the Lowland: the mountaineer clung to his region against his Civil War state. West Virginia was rent from the mother state and became a separate commonwealth. North Carolina slowly and reluctantly seceded. Kentucky, though south of the Ohio, remained within the Union. Ten- nessee sent a larger proportion of soldiers into the Federal armies than any Union state. Even in Alabama the com- paratively slight but rough upland region remained per- sistently Unionist, and contributed its regiments to the Northern cause. It is not too much to say that the moun- tains held the balance of power and turned the scales of war. Throughout the awful struggle the bitterest ani- mosity and cruelest deeds were between Southerner and Southerner, — mountaineer and lowlander, — in the border states. After the war the mountains remained stubbornly Re- pubhcan in politics. After 1876 the negro vote disap- peared and the South became seemingly solid. Yet through all political fluctuations the mountains stand fixed [69] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH and maintain the " geographical distribution of politics." ^ Except in national politics the South has never been solid, Highland vs. ^^^ there only by the arbitrary inclusion Lowland: within common state bounds of radically di- Politics verse populations. I am often asked by curi- ous Northern friends if I am not a Democrat in the South. My answer is that I have lived in the South for eight years, and in two different states, but always in a Republican county and in a congressional district which has been Re- publican most of the time since the war. State boundaries disregard physiographic barriers ; and under our Federal system it is the fate of persistent minorities to be forgotten in national politics. Thus from the beginning to the present time the two Souths have sifted their peoples. There are and always have been two Southerners, — each a splendid and appeal- ing type. Their characters have been molded by the inter- play of influences from the land and the social institutions built upon it. The land originated, the institutions accel- erated, their characteristic differences. Then the land and the institutions together fixed the respective types of mountain-men and lowlander. This distinction is the first clue to the understanding of the South. II. THE VARIED SOUTH By all natural rights the region of our country which ought to show sectional solidity in political opinion and The Land of typical civilization is that heart of the North, Contrast the thousand miles of plains which continue the gentle westward slope of the Alleghany plateau, across * See Plates II and III (1, 2, and 3) in Turner, "Is Sectionalism in America Dying Away ?" American Journal of Sociology, vol. xiii, pp. 664 ff. [70] THE SIFTING OF THE SOUTH the lake and p.rairie region, to where the great plains meet the bases of the Rocky Mountains. The ice-sheet anciently ground the soil of most of this region into virtual homo- geneity. To-day it dominates the nation with that same- ness of life which Mr. Bryce thinks characteristic of America. The South, on the contrary, exhibits a greater range of physical diversity than any other part of our domain. It is the geographically predestined land of contrasts. Not only does it present the great contrasts of mountain and' plain, but within each of these characteristic areas it shows a most intricate variety — in the form and contouB of the land, the quality and composition of the soil, and the consequent economic adaptations of its minor areas. This great variety of natural wealth means in the long run equal variety in human work and consequent diversity in population. Illustrations of these physical varieties are endless. Our national Department of Agriculture recognizes thirteen Physiographic physiographic belts between the Atlantic and and Soil the great plains. Five of these are crossed Provinces -j^ going westward from New York, eleven in going westward from Charleston. The soil-augur and laboratory tell a like tale. Of the nine soil provinces west of the great plains discriminated by the Soil Survey, six are almost wholly within the South, while on the contrary nine-tenths of the area north- of the Ohio and Missouri rivers belongs to a single soil province. So far as the soils of the North and South have been locally explored the results show greater unevenness of productivity in the characteristic Southern types. Detailed study of the wide- spread " Cotton Kingdom " discovers, that it ought to be peculiarly a realm* of diversified agriculture. Again, the broad coastal plain from Virginia to Missis- CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH sippi shows a virtually continuous division into parallel belts. The pine levels merge into the pine hills and an Black and infertile ridge of sand hills interposes itself, White "Belts" for much of the distance, between them and the Piedmont. The influences of these minor physiographic regions are as clear and permanent as those of the moun- tains and lowlands themselves. Indeed the distribution of population is minutely determined by them. In every state the negroes are found mostly in the pine hills between the plains and the Piedmont. They also hold the narrow fringe of alluvial coast lands and the alluvial regions of the lower Mississippi valley.^ Thus throughout its length the South is crossed by alternate population-belts of black and white. The familiar term " black belt " applied first to the black-colored soil of the landward portion of the " belted coastal plain " which crosses the center of Alabama. It was only secondarily applied to the massing of the negro population in this and similar regions of the South. In general it is the low-lying, moist and rich areas which are overwhelmingly colored, while the whites tend to the higher, dryer, and less fertile lands. These belts of population constitute a natural geographical basis for the further segregation of the races which is going on under social impetus. Now there have been from the beginning throughout the South persistent differences of population, whether white jy-a ■ or black, due to these diverse local environ- Population due ments ; but only intimate study of local his- to Local tory, state by state, reveals them. Older Environment j. • £ o i.\, ui i i. discussions or Southern problems almost en- tirely ignore them, and only recently has the work of a notable group of Southern state historians enabled us to ' Kelsey, The Negro Farmer, pp. 14, 15. _ THE SIFTING OF THE SOUTH trace their influence.^ The general truth is that the South has included many peculiar areas each with its peculiar people. This is interestingly illustrated in the difficulty which the American* Missionary Association finds in classi- fying some of its institutions. In north central Alabama, for example, is an institution usually reckoned as a " mountain school." It is at the center of a group of Piedmont counties having less than one per cent of negro population, yet surrounded by others in which the negro population ranges from twenty-five to fifty per cent. This white island in the midst of a colored ocean is due to the fact that the Tennessee River cuts through the mountains at Chattanooga and isolates the lower end of the Piedmont region in the midst of surrounding lowlands. Its broken sand ridges are not too rough for the raising of cotton, which is the chief product. Yet there is scarcely a negro in the country. Many of the natives have never seen one. The driver who carries one over to the school comes from the " Valley." He is outraged to see white women and children picking cotton ; this is " niggers' " work. Thus the lowlander.does not recognize cotton without the negro. The mountaineer would not recognize cotton at all. In brief, the ordinary distinctions between southern types do not fit the people of this region. They are an intermedi- ate group, representing many similar ones — the products of limited local environments. The great physiographic groupings of population within the several states are easily discerned. North Caro- lina, Tennessee, and Georgia have each three clearly dis- tinguishable sections of about equal area; biit the more intricate diversities of this land of contrasts, which are ' E. g. Fleming. Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama. See pp. 108 fF. [73] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH the true clue to Southern history, can only be realized by patient study. They have been almost totally concealed Th S th ^^ ^^® great struggle which compelled men to Naturally the forego their minor differences and join to- Least "Solid" gether in great contending armies. Except ^ '°^ for the negro, the South would be the least solid section of America ; and in the long run geographical diversities will have their way, especially as industry and agriculture, following the lead of science, seek out the specific adaptation of each small area for the production of wealth. Only misunderstanding and injustice can result when this natural basis of persistent human differences is forgotten. So ■ 1 1 ft - There cannot be and there never was any uni- tions Colored formity of social conditions throughout the by Local En- South — even under the immense pressure of its sectional institutions. The local char- acter of slavery was economically determined, and the insti- tution everywhere colored by the varying fortunes of the master class. The condition of the slave was not the same on the exhausted seaboard soils as in the still prosperous middle districts. It was still different on the frontier. The varying reports which vexed the nation through all the period of the antislavery agitation were due to varying facts. Within the slave population too there were distinct economic classes. The status of the field-hand was practi- cally different from that of the skilled mechanic or of the household servant and petty overseer.^ Then there was a considerable minority of freed negroes, many of whom had considerable wealth and some culture, and some- times an organized and recognized distinction between the mulatto and the black negro. In Charleston a mu- ' Hart, Slavery and Abolition, pp. 96 ff. _ THE SIFTING OF THE SOUTH latto society, the " Brown Fellowship," has existed for over a hundred years, maintaining its social exclusive- ness and its private cemetery. For many years it operated select schools for mulattoes only. The public records of that city still recognize a distinction between the mulatto and negro. Naturally, too, there was a difference between city and country, affecting both races. Back of these antebellum distinctions stretch dim vistas of African his- tory, the untold story of long mingled races whose varie- ties only the most recent writers are adequately recogniz- ing.^ The differences developed in the negro by these an- cient siftings go far toward explaining his unequal response to the demands and needs of the present day. It is equally true that the ordinary versions of the state of white society in the South before the war are altogether more simple than the facts. It was the general tendency of slavery to push the non-slaveholding white man down into the " poor white " class, and out into the less fertile agricultural regions. Still, even in the lower South, the middle class did ^not wholly disappear, and considerable areas in every state maintained a characteristically democratic organi- zation of society. If such differences could maintain them- selves then, how little cause to expect uniform conditions now.'' The fact is that social conditions in the South are, like the land itself, infinitely complex. There is, therefore, but one generalization which it Is safe to make about the South ; namely, that one must not The Evil of generalize at all. This is particularly true Generalization of all attempted judgments upon its belated and unassimilated populations. The negro does not show any uniform " race tendency " throughout the South. He is not generally given to an abnormal death-rate or to ex- ' See Dowd, The Negro Races, p. 415. CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH cessive crime ; neither is he uniformly successful in acquir- ing property or education. There is no equal development of race consciousness or pride. All attempts to show per- manent race tendency in these matters are futile. Existing statistics are deceptive. They seem to admit of an accurate comparison of the negro with the white ; but they are not compiled separately for that part of the white population with which it is fair to compare the negro, namely, that belonging to the same economic and social status ; and therefore they are practically worthless unless corrected by a knowledge of the local conditions which they attempt to generalize. The newer sociology is righting itself in this matter. It is continually narrowing its " unit of in- vestigation " and seeking to do justice to the many human varieties molded by the diversity of natural environment and of work.^ Meanwhile the bitterest injustice of gen- eralization still characterizes popular judgments. The mountaineer, newly sensitive to the world's opinion, is justly resentful of sweeping alien statements as to his condition and his needs. His group is by no means homo- geneous. Where there are mountains there are valleys, and these have been the ancient routes of travel and early seats of civilization. At the head waters of the Clinch and Holston, Sevier and his companions founded the " State of Franklin," which was in 1790, and has always continued to be one of the most thickly populated regions in the Union. The " Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains " can literally look down on the domes of colleges a hundred years old. The mountaineer of fiction and romance is but the most isolated and least progressive class within the larger mountain province. Highland as well as lowland, the South is a region of variety. * See Ross, The Foundations of Sociology, ch. iv. Also pp. 79 and 311 fif. _ THE SIFTING OF THE SOUTH And now under the mighty and exuberant forces of the freed and awakened South, the future tends to bring forth still greater variety of human life. Uniform progress is not to be expected either in the lowlands or in the high- lands — on the part of the negro or of the backward white man. III. THE CRISIS OF THE SIFTING To-day finds the South at the crisis of its sifting. It is characteristically a " growing South." It has become part The "Growing of a new age which is silently resifting all South " civilized peoples. Vast forces — with which none of us are quite at home, so suddenly have they come into play — have gripped the South with revolutionary violence. An anciently primitive, rural, and agricultural section, feudally organized, is rapidly becoming modern, urban, and industrial. For the first time its fatal pre- occupation with the race problem has been broken in upon by a whole new group of urgent social questions. The rise of the industrial labor problem, with the gradual evo- lution of modern organized labor and of a new class of Southern industrial masters, compels in the whole section a new attitude toward work. The fact of woman as an economic producer in the mills of the South and as a com- petitor with men in its business offices challenges the whole Southern ideal of the relation of the sexes. With this totter a thousand social conventions of the old regime, beautiful but doomed. With the new growth of wealth the old aristocracy of birth is threatened and often sub- merged. The invasion of the South by the Hebrew mer- chant has been eventful almost beyond that of the North- ern armies. In every Southern state dominant poHtical power has come into the hands of the " poor whites." This ' TttT " CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH is almost as revolutionary as was the carpetbag era.^ Southern education, which was studiously polite and apart from the practicalities of life, has leaped to the other extreme and leads the nation in its industrial and voca- tional tendencies. More slowly, yet significantly, the new habit of scientific candor attacks the theological and social dogmas of the South. The struggle for independent judgment — a characteristic feature of this age of tran- sition — against the peculiar tyranny of sectional tra- ditionalism, creates a new type of Southern leaders, heroic beyond their peers. For the first time in a century the South is developing, not on a tangent to, but in direct line with the choicest currents of Western civilization. Yet however we may glorify the process we must remember and regret its human wreckage and debris — the thousand " men of yesterday " whom the age is sifting out as un- equal to its strenuous demands and its speedy ascent. These mighty changes cannot but be especially crucial for the backward and unassimilated peoples. To them m, T. 1 . they mean life or death. The belated moun- People's "Bad taineer and the undeveloped negro stand Quarter of an to-day in an acute stage of what the sociolo- gist calls the selective process. Never before and perhaps not again for a century will the test of fitness be so insistent and so searching. It is not to be expected that either group should come off whole. No race was ever saved wholesale, least of all the Anglo-Saxon. By migration, war, pestilence, and economic stress he has been sifted and resifted ; he has been tried in a furnace seven times heated. His salvation is the salvation of the rem- nant. The negro lacks thousands of years of the Saxons' sifting. The selective forces, which have made the Ameri- ^ See Brown, Lower South in American History, p. 256. Old Memphis Negro tenants in attics and basements of white homes New Jackson Real estate office and advertisement of negro residential subdivision THE SIFTING OF THE SOUTH can of to-day what he is, were suspended for the moun- taineer a century ago. The test which the rest of the nation has gradually met, these must undergo suddenly and without preparation. Each is having just now his "bad quarter of an hour." Every so-called " problem " of these backward stocks is just some phase or other of this selective process and as such must be judged. The participation of the mountains in the rapid tran- sitions of the new South is manifest chiefly in three movements. First, the exodus of mountain population to the cotton- mills and industrial cities. This is part of the world move- Exodus from ment from country to city. In the case of the Mountains the mountaineer it is particularly pathetic because of his ignorance, his ingrained individualism and his lack of moral preparedness for city life. Whole coun- ties are being well-nigh depopulated by emigration, and the problem of some sections of the mountains is whether there will be any people left in them. This transition is in itself a radical sifting. Under urban conditions the incapable sink into a singularly inert and hopeless class, well known to the charity organizations of the Southern cities. The capable, on the other hand, with marvelous rapidity become complete Americans and themselves mas- ters of material progress. Second, the invasion of the mountains by industry. When the mountaineer will not come to the mill the mill Invasion of the S^es after the mountaineer. The insatiable Mountains by demand of modem industry for new and un- Industry exploited labor power has resulted in a mar- velously interesting movement of industrial enterprise into the mountains. Their inaccessibility was such that all of Europe and even Asia were ransacked for workers before 79] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH their fastnesses were attacked; but now the most unHkely places are invaded. No more violent test can be forced upon a primitive population than this of becoming indus- trialized ; and the mountaineer is bearing it unequally. To one man, or family, it means not only a better wage, but an enlarged outlook on life and an escape from petty and narrow tradition ; to another it means only exploit- ation, degradation, and vice. Third, the invasion of the mountains by leisure. Less massive, yet deeply significant, is the change coming over Invasion of the ^^^ mountaineer through the exploitation of Mountains by his region by wealth in search of rest and Leisure recreation. Situated as the Southern Appa- lachians are between North and lowland South, their mild climate and beauty of scenery makes them increasingly the natural playground and the meeting-place of leisure for both sections. Not only are there much-frequented health resorts like Asheville, but new armies of invading tourists and seasonal residents keep breaking in upon the moun- tain people with alien customs and standards of life. They make an even more subtle and dangerous attack than in- dustry does upon the essential genius and spirit of this our most democratic and peculiarly American remnant. The native is outclassed and is often reduced to servile attendance upon the pleasure-seeker, whose manners and dress set new fashions and whose freely-spent money rapidly overturns all local standards of value. The result is frequently a certain loss of independence and of that staunch self-respect which is the most wholesome and at- tractive heritage of the mountain people. Yet this same tourist invasion brings also ideals of culture and refine- ment and opens possibilities of life which create new worlds to many an aspiring mountain youth. THE SIFTING OF THE SOUTH Thus the sifting of the mountain goes on, and intensely, even as we read these lines. The present crisis of the negro's sifting is outwardly shown in five significant aspects : First, the redistribution of population.^ The present movements of the negro are more general and massive Two Move- than at any other time since his coming to ments of Negro America. They take two directions — first, Population ^Q ^}^g Southern and, more recently, espe- cially to the Northern cities. On the whole his city-ward movement is not as rapid as that of population in general, but he is less equal to city life, and the result of the urban sifting is terribly acute. Scarcely less important is the fact of the negro's massing in the Black Belt. In our pre- vious discussion we have seen that he was carried up into the Appalachian foot-hills against the natural economic grain of that region. The present movement is a revul- sion from the Piedmont and a massing in the valleys, the low prairies, and coast lands. From the standpoint of state boundaries this means that the ratio of negroes in several border states is rapidly diminishing with a corre- sponding increase in the lower South. Of ninety-seven counties in Virginia, sixty actually lost negro population between 1890 and 1900. The coming census will probably show still farther movements in this direction. Whatever may be the minor significance of this movement it in gen- eral indicates the affinity of the negro for the lower, hotter, and, as it happens, the more fertile regions of the South. Second, the newly mobile negro population is increas- ingly subject to alarming social evils. Such transitional maladies always attack people who are undergoing violent ' Kelsey, The Negro Farmer, pp. 12 ff; Commons, Races and Immi- grants in America, pp. 54 ff. [81] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH social changes. The negro seems to show new physical weakness. His death-rate is, roughly speaking, double Transitional that of the white population. On the face Maladies of the returns he seems to be far and away the least promising element of our people morally. His crime rate is especially excessive. Yet sociological insight pro- nounces these to be the usual traits of peoples in like circumstances. They are acute phases of the selective process. Third, there has come to be a marked differentiation of elements within the negro population. The negro has dis- ^.„ . . tributed himself throughout all of the eco- Differentiation , ,• •■• /• * • ••!•■• a nomic activities or American civilization. A magazine writer puts the case rather jauntily as follows: A large city could be formed without a single white man in it, and yet lack for no trade or profession. There are 21,268 negro teachers and college profes- sors in the United States, and 15,530 clergymen. The negroes could finance a railroad through their 82 bankers and brokers, lay it out with their 120 civil engineers and surveyors, condemn the right of way with their 728 lawyers, make the rails with their 12,327 iron and steel workers, build the road with their 545,980 laborers, construct its telegraph system with their 185 electricians and their 529 linemen, and operate it with their 55,327 railway employes. Colored people complain that they have to sit in the gallery in white theaters, but their 2043 actors and showmen might give them theaters of their own in which they could occupy the boxes in solitary gran- deur. They have 52 architects, designers, and drafts- men, 236 artists and teachers of art, 1734 phy- sicians and surgeons, 212 dentists, 210 journalists, 3921 musicians and teachers of music, and 99 literary THE SIFTING OF THE SOUTH and scientific persons. The colored baby can be in- troduced to the world by negro physicians and nurses, instructed in every accomplishment by negro teachers, supplied with every requisite of life by negro mer- chants, housed by negro builders, and buried by a negro undertaker. There are negro bookkeepers and accountants, clerks and copyists, commercial travelers, merchants, salesmen, stenographers and telegraph operators. Negroes are in every manual trade, — carpenters, masons, painters, paper-hangers, plasterers, plumbers, steam-fitters, chemical workers, marble-cutters, glass- workers, fishermen, bakers, butchers, confectioners, millers, shoemakers, tanners, watchmakers, gold and silversmiths, bookbinders, engravers, printers, tailors, engineers, photographers, glove-makers, — everything that statisticians think it worth while to count. And the curious thing is that in whatever line a negro man is at work there also is a negro woman. The only oc- cupation which the colored women have allowed their men folk to monopolize are those of the architect and banker and broker, the telegraph and telephone line- men, the boiler-maker, the trunk-maker, and the pat- tern-maker. You can hire a negro civil engineeress and an electricienne. There are 164 colored clergy women, 262 black actresses, and 10 Afro- American female lawyers. One negro woman works as a roofer, another as a plumber, and 45 of them are blacksmiths, iron and steel workers, and machinists. Three are wholesale, and 860 are retail merchants. Others are journal- ists, literary persons, artists, musicians, government officials, and practitioners of an infinite variety of skilled and unskilled trades. Such achievement is the result of a brief and imperfect sifting. There was an infinitely wider range of capacity CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH and possible usefulness within the race than the most sanguine could have imagined when the slave was freed. A full quota of social classes has also appeared, and the stratification of negro society has proceeded almost as fast as that of white. Every considerable Southern community now shows a complete and almost sclf-sufHcient negro group life, with its separate institutions and ideals, within that of the general population. The organized life of the American negro is fast becoming an imperium in imperio. Fourth, there is an increasing segregation of the negro population from the white. Its development from within and its new habit of self-dependence, results in a growing loss of contact with the general life. This is necessarily so in those geographically dis- tinct Black Belts in which the negro is massing. Within the cities, too, the races tend increasingly to occupy sepa- rate sections ; while the social ban and barrier on the whole certainly grow more rigid. This means the tem- porary withholding of great untouched masses of the race from the acute sifting which their city-going brethren are experiencing. It is certain to prolong indefinitely the problem of the complete assimilation of the negro. Cut off from the stimulus of white civilization, he fre- quently shows reversionary tendencies toward African conditions. On the other hand, segregation in the rural regions tends to hold in reserve the sounder element of the race, from which capacity and moral health may be supplied to the future. All peoples need such a reserve force from which recruits can come, not too rapidly, under the strenuous demands of civilization. Thus the withhold- ing of the Black Belt from the acute sifting of the present has an important and favorable bearing on the ultimate prospects of the American negro. [84] THE SIFTING OF THE SOUTH Fifth, as a result of the partial and incomplete sifting of the immediate past, a negro minority has emerged fully Emergence of prepared for participation in American civ- the"New ilization. This emerged class, the "talented ^^S^o tenth," is a new human type, bearing the characters of freedom and demonstrating the immense ad- vantage of even the limited democratic opportunity which the race has had since emancipation. It had a certain his- toric basis in the attainments of the free negro of the old regime and the privileges of certain upper classes of slaves ; yet its essential traits have never before been attained by the negro. For the first time in his history there is the firm establishment of monogamous marriage and the ideals of the Christian home. The first generation of children born, of such homes are just entering upon independent life. This group, too, has developed a genuine culture, includ- ing distinctive esthetic and ethical marks of negro genius, which constitutes a yet unmeasured contribution to the ideal life of the world, yet sharing the best thought, feel- ing, and activity of Western civilization. It has developed manifold organs of social control and reached a magnifi- cent place of leadership over the general negro mass. On the other hand there are manifest tendencies for the emerged class to break away from that mass. Hitherto it has consisted largely of mulattoes, and one of the most fateful questions for the American negro is whether the mulatto group will attempt to regard itself as an inter- mediate race between the white and black, or accept that identification with the negro to which white sentiment assigns it. This is the deepest issue within the higher negro classes to-day.-^ Upon this issue race leaders are divided and by it race sentiment is being sifted. Whatever ' Baker, " Following the Color-Line," The Mulatto, ch. viii. CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH else the emergence of such a group signifies, it is clear that among those socially classified as negroes there was a considerable minority who are not unfit for the compe- titions and achievements of white civilization. Under slavery its members were socially suppressed. So far, at least, the inferior status of the race was not due to inferior capacity. Now that part — and only part — of the pres- sure has been removed their fitness manifests itself, and they take their natural place of successful leadership. The progress of the negro under this leadership has already been marvelous, and is a reliable indication of still wider capacity and potential worth awaiting to be revealed when opportunity is more perfectly equalized. Such are some of the phases of the great process of social selection working in the South. To illustrate and interpretate them still further will be the work of subse- quent discussions. IV. STUDY OF THE WELL-SIFTED NEGRO COMMUNITY What the process of selection concretely means and how it actually works out is best realized through the study of the particular population. Thomasville, Georgia, shows such a well-sifted negro community. The facts relating to it here summarized were gathered by Rev. William H. Hol- loway, pastor of the local Congregational church. In 1900, Thomasville was a city of 3296 colored and 2026 white population. It has grown to probably 8000 people, about the same relative proportion between the races being maintained. The county had at the last census 17,4*50 negroes and 13,626 whites. It is part of the " Black Belt " lying in Southwestern Georgia, about twenty miles above the Florida line. THE SIFTING OF THE SOUTH An investigation of the distribution of the two races within the city Hmits of Thomasville shows clearly the Segregation of tendency to segregation. The negroes the Races occupy solidly four distinct areas lying in general toward the outskirts of the city. Some of their better homes are near the center, and, in fact, they are well represented on the best streets, but such property was acquired before the recent growth in population. Con- tiguity between the races is due largely to the filling in of population between. A negro would not now easily find a central location. There is a marked tendency, and one vigorously encouraged by both races, toward geographical separation. On this account the most extensive of recent movements of negro population have been suburban. Within five Suburban years three distinct sections beyond the city Development limits have been developed as exclusive resi- dential sections for the race. In them the acquirement of property and the building of homes has gone on most extensively. These developments have been modern, fur- nished with streets and drainage. Trees have been planted, and in one of the new additions a children's playground established. The district adjoining the American Missionary Association school, called the Normal School Annex, has seen the erection of thirty- five comfortable little homes and half as many more lots sold to prospective builders. In " Dewey City " twenty or more cottages have been built, while in a single season over a hundred lots were bought and several homes built in Normal School Park. Similar develop- ments of exclusive residential sections for negroes are going on in most of the South Georgia cities. They are partly due to the activity of real estate promoters [87] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH but rest back upon the community building spirit of the race. The development of these residential sections means not merely the geographical separation of the negro from the Segregation white population, but also the geographical within the separation of the better from the poorer Negro Race classes of negroes. It means segregation within the race. Whole streets and blocks of negro homes stand in sharp contrast to equal areas of tenant prop- erty. The houses are invariably painted, the yards neatly fenced, the surroundings generally beautified by shrubs and flowers. Within these homes are mothers and daugh- ters who are primarily home makers. Frequently they em- ploy servants. Such negroes maintain their own social distinction as strictly as do any American group. The tenant quarters, on the other hand, show long rows of bare, decrepit, unkempt cabins where turbaned Amazons may be seen washing over fires built in the front yards, or cut- ting their own fuel from the log, fences and door-steps frequently being used for kindling. These external con- trasts stand for deep differences between negro groups. They are evidences of the sifting of the race. It has been found impossible to collect complete infor- mation as to the ownership of homes by Thomasville negroes. Large areas within the city limits have been built up, and the negroes almost invariably own the prop- erty which they occupy, while the suburban developments just described are virtually all extensions of home owner- ship. " It is rare," says Mr. Holloway, " to find a colored man who has lived any number of years in Thomasville, who does not wholly or in part own his own home." City taxes in 1907 were paid by negroes on $189,000 worth of property — undoubtedly a conservative estimate, for fssl Home of Negro Landlord, Tho>iasvii,le, Ga. Tenant houses adjoining Negro Artisan and Street of Artisans' Homes, Thomasville, Ga. THE SIFTING OF THE SOUTH the colored man has learned from his white neighbor how to return as small a tax Hst as possible. Eighteen business enterprises carried on by negroes are housed in property owned by members of the race. These Business range in value from $2500 to $7500 and are Property situated in all parts of the town. Near the business center on Broad Street is a two-story brick build- ing in which the negro owner conducts a first-class shoe business. On Jackson Street, the second business street of Thomasville, is a $3000 building in which the negro owner carries on his own grocery business. Another negro owns unimproved property worth $3000. The most surprising extension of ownership by Thomas- ville negroes is, however, in the Hne of property for rental Rental purposes. Mr. Holloway has tabulated 207 Property separate dwellings, valued at from $75 to $1000, owned and rented by them. Ten of them are rented to whites. The most extensive negro landlord is a widow, Mrs. Toomer Hamilton. In a single block she has sixteen tenements, and in all twenty-six pieces of rented property, bringing her in a comfortable monthly income. The prop- erty was first acquired by her late husband, a successful liveryman, but has been added to by the shrewdness of his widow. Another negro landlord has twelve rental houses, another seven, and many others own from one to five. All told this makes an impressive showing of property ownership by the Thomasville negro. To be sure the value of his property averages much less than that of the whites, but as representing the acquirement of the race within forty years it is most creditable. Moreover, as indicating a tendency toward ownership it is highly significant. Prob- ably as many negroes own property in Thomasville in CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH proportion to their numbers as whites do, and according to the real estate agents they are now building homes twice as fast as the white population. Appended to this paragraph is a table showing that there are eighty professional negroes in Thomasville, rep- Occupations: resenting fifteen different professions. A Professional very disproportionate number of them are preachers. The list indicates, however, that the Thomas- ville negro group is almost self-sufficient in the matter of professional service. It carefully limits itself, moreover, to those only whose professional standing is commonly called first-class. Thus there are many nurses able to command as much as $10 per week for their services, but only the two who are graduates of nurse-training schools are listed. The two physicians have each an extensive practise. Both are graduates of reputable medical colleges and have licenses from the Georgia Medical Association. One has practised in Thomasville eight years, the other five. They receive all professional courtesies from the white physicians and have equal privileges in the use of the city hospital. The colored dentist is also a graduate of a first-class institution. His well-appointed office has the latest type of pneumatic chair and a cabinet of modern instruments. The colored community gives him an almost exclusive patronage. The entire force of mail-carriers, numbering four, is colored. All happen to be graduates of schools of the American Missionary Association and members of the Con- gregational church. The positions were of course secured by competitive examination. Of the fourteen negro pastors of Thomasville, five are college graduates, two of whom hold also diplomas from [90] THE SIFTING OF THE SOUTH Northern divinity schools. These five serve the largest and most intelligent congregations. In thoughtfulness and careful preparation their preaching is in striking con- trast to the emotionalism of the old-fashioned negro ex- horter. They are men of good character, whose chief shortcoming is parochial narrowness and blindness to the large mission of the church to the community. The nine other preachers represent the older type. With one or two exceptions they are ignorant and most of them are immoral. Nowhere indeed is the moral sifting of the race more strongly marked than in its church life. The Thomasville negro has an almost undisputed monop- oly in skilled industry. The statistics of the appended Occupations; table are compiled from the books of the Industrial labor-unions and list only first-class work- men, who constitute only about one-fourth of the mem- bership. In the Carpenters' Union, for example, out of a membership of seventy-four only about twenty command the highest wage, $2.50 to $3 per day. Many of the palatial winter homes of the Northerners, some costing upward of $100,000, were almost entirely built by Thomas- ville negro workmen. All the white contractors of the city have negro foremen and there are three licensed colored contractors. At the time of Mr. Holloway's investigation the city had just given to a colored man a $30,000 contract for an addition to the sewer system. Negro contractors had also secured the brick work for the new city hall and for the two brick business buildings then being erected. The negroes say there are no first-class white carpenters or masons in Thomasville. The same question put to a white contractor brought the answer that perhaps three white carpenters were first-class and two masons. This [91] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH shows the dominant place of the negro in the building industries. Many of the skilled negro workmen live in comfortable homes and bear the highest reputation for character in the community. The appended table shows that in the whole range of skilled industry the Thomasville negro holds a command- ing position. There is not a single occupation in which he is not found, and in which he does not compete success- fully with white workmen. This, however, has led to little industrial friction, white and colored laborers working side by side on almost all jobs. Indeed this is usual in the smaller places throughout the South. In a recent car- penters' strike for a nine-hour day, white and colored unions met in conference, and when their demands were refused all stuck together. The three blocks of Jackson Street leading up from the railroad station to Broad Street are in importance the Occupations: second business center of Thomasville; the Business street, a paved thoroughfare with electric lights, good water and sewerage facilities, and lined with substantial brick stores. In these three blocks there are twenty-six different enterprises conducted by negroes. Their patronage is, naturally, chiefly within the race, but the better firms have also considerable white trade. In fact whenever the negro store is believed to carry a high grade of stock and to furnish first-class service it is favorably regarded by a large number of Southern white patrons. This fact has been the means of raising the standard in a considerable number of enterprises. While many of the twenty-six are businesses with small stocks and poor fix- tures, an increasing number are thoroughly equipped and in every way creditable. Mr. H. Daniels, for example, in [9^] Negro Business Men's Homes, Tho.masvii.le, Ga. Negro Drug Store and Proprietor, Thojiasvili.e, Ga. THE SIFTING OF THE SOUTH twelve years of business, has come to own a fine grocery- store, occupying his own two-story brick building. He also conducts a first-class colored restaurant and a barber shop, runs a woodyard, and has considerable real estate which he rents to whites as well as negroes. In ten years Robert Mitchell, formerly an itinerant fishmonger, has acquired the largest stock of general merchandise of any colored business man. He has a branch store in the sub- urbs and owns five rental houses. Of the seven grocery firms on Jackson Street, five have been in the business for over seven years and one boasts a fifteen years' record. In addition to the Jackson Street business center, there are fifteen suburban stores run by negroes. The Local Busi- ness Men's League claims that at least two-thirds of the colored grocery patronage of Thomasville is held by negro merchants. The strong tendency thus revealed toward a self- sufficient group life is of comparatively recent origin. It Development ^^ interesting to note the circumstances which of Race have brought race consciousness to light and Consciousness hastened its development. For example, the colored physician had but a precarious practise until a well-to-do negro called in a young white doctor to attend his wife. The doctor walked into the patient's room with his hat on and sat down on the bed with a smoking cigarette in his mouth. The husband leaned upon the bedside, as he said, " mad enough to fight a cross-cut saw." He made no remonstrance, but later tore up the white doctor's prescription and called in a colored doctor. Probably no other white doctor in Thomasville would have been guilty of such discourtesy ; yet, under the strained condition of race feeling, the incident set the negro community against all white doctors. CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH Now the tendency is strong to favor physicians of their own race. The case of the negro dentist was similar. For years a prominent white dentist had held practically all the pat- ronage of the negro population, making no discrimination in his treatment of them. Whites were made to wait their turn when negro patients were in the chair. When this man retired from active practise, new white dentists came in, who set up second-hand chairs for negroes in their back storerooms. The same prices, however, were charged, and in response to this discrimination, the negro community imported and now exclusively patronizes its own dentist. Similarly a leading millinery store inaugurated the cus- tom of not allowing any negro customer to try on a hat. She must be satisfied with viewing it on the head of the white clerk. When a colored minister's wife was refused this privilege the minister took the incident to his con- gregation. As a result the firm lost all its colored pat- ronage and soon went into the hands of a receiver. These incidents indicate two things : on the part of the negro, a new sensitiveness as to his rights and a new con- sciousness of racial resources ; on the part of the later generation of whites, new tendencies to discrimination. Between seven and ten colored insurance employees make daily rounds to the homes of the negro community, collect- NeffTo Institu- ^^S ^^^ small dues which secure sick and acci- tions: dent benefits. They represent three com- Economic panics, one with headquarters in New York, the other two large Georgia institutions, organized and operated by negroes. Three years ago the legislature enacted some undoubtedly necessary laws to regulate such companies. Probably, however, their immediate instiga- tion was by white insurance companies in the hope of put- _ THE SIFTING OF THE SOUTH ting their negro rivals out of business. The result was ' that a large number of local companies combined and three negro insurance enterprises were able to make the deposit of $5000 required by state law. Almost every negro home in Thomasville carries policies in some one of these companies. A weekly premium of five cents secures a sick benefit of $2 per week and a death benefit of $10. Ten cents secures a sick benefit of $3 and a death benefit of $15. Twenty-five cents secures a sick benefit of $5 and a death benefit of $25. In addition to this humbler type of insurance, Mr. Holloway reports that a number of families carry policies in regular " old- line " companies. Georgia has also two negro fire insur- ance companies, one of which maintains an office in Thomas- ville and secures a large share of negro patronage. Besides their churches already enumerated, the Thomas- ville negro community has a full quota of social institu- Negrolnstitu- tions. An organization of colored women tions of the called the " How to Live Club " has a mem- High Life bership of about forty. Besides literary features, it has undertaken as its particular work the sup- port of the colored ward in the city hospital. The Women's Federation is building a negro " Old Folks' Home." Some thousand dollars have been collected for this purpose, and the race is thus attempting to keep its aged members from the hardship of the county poorhouse. Besides a public school, poorly housed, and with almost no playground, there are two schools for Thomasville negroes supported by philanthropy. One is a small parochial enterprise attached to an Episcopal Church and taught by its minister. The other, Allen Normal Insti- tute, a well-equipped and growing girls' seminary, admits boys also as day pupils. This institution is described at CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH length in another connection. These private schools are patronized almost exclusively by the better class of negroes. Thus segregation within the race is expressed also in its education. The relations between negro and white in Thomasville are on the whole kindly and mutually helpful. There are _, ^ occasional frictions, but they have never been Race Contacts . -p. . . . , . , i ii serious. Discrimmations are met by the negroes by the withdrawal upon their own resources in- stead of by active resentment. There has never been a lynching in the city and only one in the county, which was universally condemned by the better element of white citizens. Mr. Holloway writes, " There seems to be a growing conviction among both races that not all negroes are bad and that not all white men are good. There are evidences on every hand that good white people are lending a helping hand to the good negro in his efforts to rise, and the negro in turn is striving to make good his citizen- ship in the community where his rights are so secure and his opportunities so numerous." The whole story means that the negroes of Thomasville constitute a fairly typical American group. If they do not quite reach it, they at least closely approximate the national average of attainment. Their deficiencies are mere backwardness, not abnormal or unwholesome. They are practising a relatively complete group economy, yet without bitterness or practical antagonism to or from the dominant white population. From every reasonable human standpoint the black citizens of this typical city have made good. [96] THE SIFTING OF THE SOUTH APPENDIX TO CHAPTER III TABLE I OCCUPATIONS (professional) Physicians 2 Pharmacist 1 Dentist 1 Chiropodists 2 Graduate Nurses 2 Graduate Hair Dresser 1 Preachers 15 Teachers (male) 5 Teachers (female) 30 Civil Service 5 Rural Free Delivery 3 Government Service 1 Insurance 9 Editors 2 Musician 1 TABLE n OCCUPATIONS (industrial) Licensed Contractors 4 Carpenters, first-class (Union-men) 20 Brick Masons, first-class (Union-men) 18 Plasterers 11 Painters 6 Tinners and Plumbers 4 Skilled Mechanists 2 Pressman 1 "Wheelwrights 2 Blacksmiths 4 Bakers 2 Paper-hangers 2 Carriage Painter 1 7 foT] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH TABLE m NEGRO BUSINESS ENTERPRISES KINDS OF BUSINESS EACH VALUE MEN EM- PLOYED OCCUPY OWN PEOPERTY UP- TOWN SUB- URBS 1 1 2 4 15 1 1 1 6 1 3 1 3 1 Drugstore Grocery Groceries Groceries Groceries Undertaker .... Harness shop . . . Tailor Barber Shops . . . Hotel Pressing Clubs . . Butcher First-class restaurant Dairy $4000 3000 2000 500 2000 300 200 250 300 2 12 3 7 3 15 1 10-11 4 2 10 2-8 2 3-5 1 15 I [98] IV. THE SIFTING OF SOUTHERN SENTIMENT I. SIFTING THE HEARTS OF MEN HOW shall a dominant social group respond to the partial sifting of any backward population in its midst? How shall it treat the emerged minority of such a backward population which approximates its own normative standards? The backward group simply cannot be treated according to any single policy ; for its members are not alike, and its extremes lie far apart. This necessitates discriminative changes in the social policy of the dominant group. We found the Thomasville (Ga.) negro, for example, showing marked differentiation, physical, social, and moral, accord- ing to which segregation was progressing within the race. Shall the responsible, property owning, home making negro be treated as the transient, tenant, and pauper class? Manifestly not. But this introduces new com- plexity into the race problem ; indeed, it raises the whole group of modern social problems. This the South vaguely feels and variously acknowledges. For the first time it is awake to the varying intellectual and moral moods of the age. The hearts of men are being sifted for practical re- sponses to the changing facts. Underneath the super- ficial unanimity of Southern sentiment surge currents of perplexing variety. 99 CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH Border States vs. Lower South The general causes of these varying attitudes and prac- tises are easily traced. They are partly geographical. ^ , . , The neero population, as we have shown, is Geographical i i- -i i ^ i Causes of by no means evenly distributed throughout Variation in the South. In the border states where his n imen numbers are proportionately few, race pres- sure is less acute than in the lower South where he is felt to threaten white civilization by the sheer weight of num- bers. In Lexington, Kentucky, for example, the coopera- tion of colored citizens was especially invited in recent movements for civic betterment. They were invited to public gatherings, announcement of which was made in the negro schools. As a result members of that race have been frequent prize winners in competitions for the neatest home garden or the best kept lawn. Louisville supports a public high school for negroes, in which the classics are taught. This public institution has been probably the chief feeder of Fisk University. Indeed almost the only decently sustained public secondary schools for negroes in the South are in these states. Nearly two-thirds of all pupils in public colored high schools are in the five border states and Texas. The other eight combined enroll but a trifle more than eleven hundred.^ The recent attack upon the negro's franchise rights has been less violent in these states. North Carolina, for example, refused to extend the time limit of the " grandfather clause " for the benefit of the white in the very year that Georgia and Mississippi were planning the complete disfranchisement of the negro. Both North Carolina and Tennessee have with Kentucky been carried by the Republican party in recent years and 1 Report of Com. of Education, 1906, vol. 2, p. 1151. __ THE SIFTING OF SOUTHERN SENTIMENT are by many regarded as among the permanently doubtful states of the near future. Jim Crow regulations, while not absent from the border states, are not carried out in their more rigorous detail. In other words, these states tend rather to treat the negro as part of the general popu- lation, as the North does, than to make him a separate class. Old South vs. Southwest There are clearly marked differences in the race situa- tion between the old slavery regions and those settled since The Negro as the war. On soil never stained by the sweat Pioneer and blood of the slave, where men of both races have pioneered together, the inevitable democracy of the frontier has modified race contacts. The Texas and Oklahoma negro clearly shows a certain initiative and re- sourcefulness and an independence of spirit which are the marks of the West rather than the South. It is a proverb of the mission schools that elsewhere the negro boy will take a whipping from a white teacher more graciously than from one of his own race. He has been used to white whippings. In the West it is not so, and he resents them. There the negro teacher has an advantage in discipline. Within a few years a negro has been elected by a majority of white votes to the Texas legislature.^ Public provision for the schooling of the race in these Western states tends to be equable and ample, and to include high schools. On the other hand the husthng Westerner is less patient with the negro's deficiencies than is the easy-going Southerner. The West puts him under sterner tests of fitness for eco- nomic competition. • See Smith, " Village Improvement," etc.. The Outlook, Mar. 31, 1900. fioTl CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH Aristocrat vs. Poor White Other divergence of practises have an historical expla- nation. The former slaveholder and his children gencr- „. . ally put a far higher estimate upon negro Causes of capacity and social usefulness than do the Variations in descendants of the poor whites. The former en imen knows that slave energy and intelligence, as well as slave muscle, conducted many an old plantation. He has intimate personal ties linking him to the freedman. He appreciates the virtues of the negro, depends upon his services and " likes to have him 'round." He continues largely his sense of responsibility for the negro in need. In hunger, sickness, grief, and struggle, the old-time Southerner has been the negro's most frequent friend, and has shown toward him a million kindnesses to every one which has come from the long-distance philanthropy of the North. And he takes his own superiority so much for granted that he feels no need of asserting it aggressively. The white masses, on the other hand, hate the negro, who anciently shared his master's contempt for them as a land- Racial Bitter- ^^^^ class. Now the tables are turned, and ness of "Poor the poor whites of former days are in politi- Whites g^l power throughout almost the entire South. Tillman, Vardaman, and Jeff Davis of Arkansas are their prophets. Theirs are the policies which are now drawing the color-line more rigidly and are increas- ingly narrowing political privileges by law. The man who cannot get his superiority taken for granted feels that he must shake his fist in the negro's face and vocifer- ate, " He's got to respect my color." The conflicting practises of these two classes are every- where apparent throughout the South. The daughter of [102] THE SIFTING OF SOUTHERN SENTIMENT the " first family " may greet her colored maid with a kiss in the sight of the whole city. Athens, the seat of the State University of Georgia — a state which generally is degrading its colored schools — supports a negro high school with a curriculum identical with that of the white, including Latin. The Northern critic of Tillman will find nothing to add to what the Southern conservative journals say about him. Witness the following from the leading paper of South Carolina, The Columbia State: If there is more ill feeling between the races in South Carolina than there was ten years ago, those that have done most to create ill feeling and suspicion are responsible, and Tillman is chief of that class. The negroes have in ten years made no opposition, offered no resistance to the white man's absolute con- trol of every department of government. None ex- cept Tillman fears that they will ever attempt to dominate in the South. But Tillman's speeches and Tom Dixon's play, " The Clansman," are breeders of race hatred. They incite the more ignorant and vicious of both races to greater antagonism. That real trouble has not resulted is that intelligent public sentiment condemns the agitation. John Sharp WilHams says that ninety out of a hun- dred negroes are peaceable, law-abiding, and work. Is it unnatural that these should feel aggrieved and discouraged when classed, by men having the ear of the country, with vagrants, thieves, and ravishers.? Injustice is certain to beget animosity. Do the people of the South in town or country court animosity be- tween the races.'' From the beginning the best friends and helpers of NortheiTi missionary enterprise in the South have been CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH men of such views, the choice representatives of its old regime, its " high men." The Southern churches most faithful to the negro's spiritual interest have been those reputed most aristocratic. To this day the Episcopal Church refuses to recognize the ecclesiastical segregation of the races. In conservative Charleston the colored patron may still occupy a seat anywhere in a street car if he gets it first. It is in the new cities developed by Northern capital and dominated by the laboring class that the color-line becomes brutally aggressive. I am personally familiar with a group of communities in the Southwest, where for years no negro has been allowed to stay over night: without exception they are railroad or mining centers or else Northern settlements. This familiarity and liking between the old-time South- erner and the negro has its bad side, in that it is the con- Systematic tinning ground of permanent and systematic Miscegenation but illicit unions between white men and colored women. In the more conservative communities concubinage is still frequent. Of more than one great planter have I heard it said, " Why, he has children in every cabin on the place." Within a few years a distin- guished Charlestonian — a member of the school board — died and was buried from the home of the negro mother of his children. It was the only domicile he had. The children were called out of the mission school to attend his death-bed, but the white schools closed for his funeral. The mission schools have hundreds of cases annually where white men recognize their responsibility for the children of their negro families and pay their educational bills. Not infrequently they send letters full of parental concern and admonition. Such relations are perfectly well known and widely condoned, the possession of a colored family __ THE SIFTING OF SOUTHERN SENTIMENT often being no bar to honorable church-membership nor frequently to subsequent marriage into the best white families. The one alien widely scattered throughout the South is the Jew. He lacks something of the Anglo-Saxon's RaceMbcture strong race feeling and, partly for commer- with Semite cial reasons, often draws the color-line and Latin loosely. In a Mississippi negro school of three hundred pupils I found by actual count that a full tenth were manifestly of Hebrew blood. In regions settled by the Latin races too — notably New Orleans — race mixture has gone further than in the Anglo-Saxon South. The fear that Italian and other immigration from the South of Europe would lead to still more excessive admix- ture is one of the deepest grounds of Southern dread of their coming. In Charleston and New Orleans I have even seen Chinese negroes. Now animosity and dislike between the masses of both races is a bar to such miscegenation, and thus has its useful side. It makes rude place for those ideals of race purity which may come to have personal sanction and moral meaning both for negro and white. The clergy and press are plucking up new courage for bold speech on this matter. Mr. Ray Stannard Baker tells me that his recent searching treatment of sex relations between the races ^ has brought him commendation, especially from Southern correspondents. Thus though the stream of illicit blood mixture flows steadily on, it Is somewhat checked by these new eddies and cross currents. In indiscriminate bounty, too, and his lax patience with inefficient labor, the tender mercies of the old-time South- erner have been cruel to the negro. After all, the sterner ' See Following the Color-Line, p. 164 ff. fiosl CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH demands of the new South are more honorable to man- hood. The hurhng of the race back on itself by means The Color- °^ ^^^ tightly drawn color-line has taught it line and the that great lesson of self-help. Within his own Lesson of Self- people the negro has made hopeful progress ^ in capacity for leadership. He is beginning to catch the knack of cooperation and to learn the art of group strength, which, rather than individual capacity, is the secret of white race superiority. The plebeian South has imposed these tests upon him in no pedagogical spirit. In a thousand ways its demands are unequal, arbitrary, and too severe, yet the wrath of men still praises God. Each of the contradictory class policies toward the negro is contributing good as well as evil to the race problem. Em'ployer vs. Competitor These class attitudes are crossed and complicated by others of economic origin. It is the general law that race Bitterness on a antagonism is bitterest between people on a Common Com- common competitive level. The present land- petitive Level holder or employer not only frequently car- ries over the kindly spirit of the old master class, but he naturally regards the negro as an economic asset from which he derives profit. On the contrary, the white laborer frequently covets the negro's job on the farm or in the factory. He envies his rapidly acquired prosperity ; or hates him as an industrial disturber and strike breaker. It has been frequently noted that the relations of the races are most amicable in the blackest belts where the white laboring class is totally absent. The political and social attitude of the poor whites described in the previous sec- tion has an historical origin. Its chief and growing root — - THE SIFTING OF SOUTHERN SENTIMENT of bitterness is the actual progress of the negro and his new importance as an economic factor receiving a coveted share of the wealth of the South. And this economic jealousy will grow tenser as the ambitions of either race are quickened. Industrial Employer vs. Planter There are also different attitudes within the master classes. A great struggle for labor is going on between ^ ^.^. the mine and factory and the Southern farm. Competition . . . » between Em- The negro is a new industrial factor. His ployers for employer likes him because he is an able- egro a or bodied and good-natured laborer to whom the color-line permits the payment of less than current ■wages, and who can frequently be played against the labor unions. The negro laborer was defended by an over- whelming majority of speakers at the great Immigration Congress at Nashville as superior to any class of immi- grants now available in America. Contractor Oliver de- clared that he could take the chain-gangs of the South and build the Panama Canal. The negro in agriculture on the other hand is an old factor. Now that he has heard the call of the city he demands more than the former agri- cultural wage. The demand for him in industry has seri- ously disturbed agricultural conditions. The planter re- sents this and tries to fix him to the soil by securing his perpetual ignorance, by intimidation and violence and repressive law; or else by unwilling, childish concessions, — extra holidays, a mule to ride, whisky — poor substi- tutes for the real betterment of rural conditions. Thus the feud between industry and agriculture over the negro is very deep and with the growth of Southern cities tends -— CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH to merge into a permanent difference of opinion and policy between the urban and rural districts. Already it has taken deep hold of politics. Business Interests vs. Politician The money-making element in the South to-day strongly desires racial peace. It wants to exploit the natural and human resources of its section for its own maker's profit undisturbed by sentimental consider- Denunciation ations of any sort. Its class-consciousness ^ "^^ subdues its race-consciousness. For its pur- pose the white laborer frequently is inferior to the colored and gets no superior treatment. As the manager of a Louisiana sugar plantation put it to me, " The white man who works down here is the same as the nigger." On the contrary, the average politician gets office in the South by appealing to the race prejudice of the poor white who holds the power of the ballot. Negrophobia is his chief stock in trade. The ordinary political campaign is a contest to see who can best abuse the race. Fre- quently the political bark is worse than its bite, but generally the animosity stirred by it leads to some new anti-negro measure or other. The man of practical com- mercial interest detects the selfishness and insincerity of all this and resents the preoccupation of the South by it to the detriment of its material progress. One finds therefore the meetings of manufacturers' or commercial clubs loud with the denunciation of the " demagogue " as a chief dis- turber of Israel. Undoubtedly he has done much to ag- gravate and distort the race situation. Yet the case has another side; for what is politics but — - THE SIFTING OF SOUTHERN SENTIMENT the natural and inevitable arena for the expression of the aspirations and struggles of any unprivileged group in p J-,. ., a democracy? The poor white himself is Inevitable such a struggler against the ancient aristo- Arena of Race cratic organization of Southern society. He ^^ has virtually won his victory, but has not yet got his eyes clear of the dust of battle, and in its brutal heat does not consider that it is unworthy to rise by crowding another class down. Yet his example to the negro to-day is wiser than the conciliatory counsel and somewhat faint praise of the employing and commercial classes. Class struggle must get into politics. It is futile to forbid it. The negro cannot long be kept out. Till- man's " Organize ! organize ! " applies to him, too. The poor white marks his upward struggle by asserting his superiority to the negro, but for all that he is fighting a common battle for democracy. Humanity, it seems, must go forward by detachments and the unprivileged Anglo- Saxon blazes the way for all. Man vs. Woman Women generally draw the color-line tighter than men. Perhaps one sex is temperamentally given to applying its Q , p J convictions more rigidly than the other. In Social Inter- the South women have abundant motives course for- for rigidity, as appeared in the discussion of miscegenation. At any rate the relations between white and colored men, in matters which do not involve the other sex, are surprisingly unrestrained and often intimate. All sorts of business dealings are every- where recognized, and " business " frequently is made to cover the comradeship of minds and hearts in other com- " [Too] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH mon interests. I have known a Southern gentleman who by preference frequently spends the evenings in his office in conversation with a colored friend. This companion- ship is manifestly more congenial than those of the society functions from which he gladly escapes. It is not called " social equality," but it goes deeper than much that is. In accordance with this tendency to limit the ban to formal social intercourse, I have heard a white Federal office-holder try to explain away the objectionable features of the fa- mous White House luncheon. According to his version it occurred not in the White House proper but in the execu- tive offices. Mr. Washington happened to be calling when the President's luncheon time came. Mr. Roosevelt ac- cordingly sent out for two trays of food. The two ate simultaneously, but not at the same table ! Now thousands of Southern working men and farmers daily sit on curbs or in fence corners and dine out of dinner-pails along with their negro fellow workers. The Washington incident was held to be a parallel case having no social implications. The Rational vs. the Passionate These are the familiar temperamental classes of any population, and the race issue has emphasized their diver- Tempera- gence in the South. To the Northern mental Classes stranger Southerners naturally fall into two classes — those who can discuss the negro rationally and those who cannot. The latter is much the larger class. An habitual tendency to look backward and an abnormal tension of mind, frequently bordering on hysteria, has char- acterized the popular attitude on this matter. It has been a prolonged case of nerves. Yet the other class is surely growing. With the cooling of passion and the fresh prac- -_ THE SIFTING OF SOUTHERN SENTIMENT tical achievements of the South a new type of leader is emerging. He is marked by a certain scientific mindedness in intellectual approach and mental habit. I mean by the scientific minded man, one who observes closely, who has mental patience, who thinks with his brain and not with his emotions, who is satisfied with the whole truth and nothing less. His reverence is for the past, but it is tempered with the common-sense patriotism which gives him enthusiasm for the future. He is at home in the republic, and a sense of mastery of the methods of his age, and perception of his kin- ship to all the world, have freed his energies and widened his vision. He has not attained wholly the ideal mental condition. He would be rather lonesome in America, if he had reached it; but he is moving that way.^ This attitude is sometimes associated and sometimes con- fused with those preoccupations of the commercial spirit which cares little for any struggle for ideals. Yet it is itself essentially founded on ideals and supported by patient faith that time will show the right. Its broadest representatives confess its religious basis. " Good " vs. Good It is not fair to judge the South by those whom It already recognizes and repudiates as bad. The moral Conscience tragedy of the race situation is rather that draws the the conscience of the average good man is two- Color-Iine colored. This is always the case when a " su- perior " group of population erects social barriers against » Alderman, "The Growing South," The World's Work, June, 1908, p. 10382. CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH an " inferior " one ; it is doubly serious when the inferior group also belongs to another and a despised race. A double moral standard is then inevitable. Right becomes one thing within and another without the racial pale. Sanctions which protect the members of one class fail for the other. Thus in the South " Thou shalt not kill," " Thou shalt not commit adultery," " Thou shalt not steal," " Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor," mean one thing as between white and white and another as be- tween white and black. The negro's misdemeanors become crimes ; the white's crimes shrink into misdemeanors. Con- science itself fails to operate equally as between the races. Worst of all, perhaps, the boasted Anglo-Saxon sense of fair play is largely obliterated by race prejudice. Blunting of Bryce notes that Characteristic Anglo-Saxon Even between civilized peoples, such as Vi^^u^s Germans and Russians, or Spaniards and Frenchmen, there is a disposition to be unduly an- noyed by traits and habits which are not so much culpable in themselves as distasteful to men con- structed on different lines. This sense of annoyance is naturally more intense toward a race so widely re- moved from the modern European as the Kafirs are. Whoever has traveled among people of a race greatly weaker than his own must have sometimes been con- scious of an impatience or irritation which arises when the native fails to understand or neglects to obey the command given. The sense of his superior intelli- gence and energy of will produces in the European a sort of tyrannous spirit, which will not condescend to argue with the native, but overbears him by sheer force, and is prone to resort to physical coercion. Even just men, who have the deepest theoretical re- [in] THE SIFTING OF SOUTHERN SENTIMENT spect for human rights are apt to be carried away by the consciousness of superior strength, and to become despotic if not harsh.^ President Alderman claims that the South's dealings with the negro since the war have shown " a juster and larger policy than was ever before pursued by higher groups toward backward and lower groups in any civiliza- tion." This may be true. The fact remains that the South in the large has treated the negro just as other superior groups have treated their alleged inferiors, namely, according to a distinct and lower moral code than pertains between equals. Only the aggressive and vital goodness of a small minority has been able to make its moral practises universalistic and democratic. I recall once being in conversation with a courteous gentleman on a Florida railway platform. A careless negro driver threw a horse in crossing the track. Instantly the courteous gentleman became a raging fiend. " If that was my horse I 'd get a revolver and beat that nigger within an inch of his life, and if he resisted I 'd shoot him." Note the moral splendor of it ! He would take bodily ven- geance for a casual error. The law calls that criminal as- sault. He would use the advantage of his weapon against an unarmed man. Anglo-Saxon instincts call that contempt- ible cowardice. He would kill the negro if he resisted. The Ten Commandments call that murder. Yet this is not an exceptional incident. It represents the attitude of thou- sands of Southern whites, particularly of the younger gen- eration. That it allows and perpetuates such moral con- tradictions in the lives of average good men is probably the most disastrous thing about the Southern racial policy. * Bryce, Impressions of South Africa, p. 442. 8 [113] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH " The Negro a Beast " vs. " Our Brother in Black " These divergent attitudes and practises naturally jfind formulation and justification in various theoretical esti- -.. . mates of the negro and the ultimate meaning Divergent . . ° '=' Views of of his existence. Some seven years ago an Negro agent brought a book to my door entitled Capacity „ r^j^^ "^egvo a Beast." Since then I have found it from Virginia to Texas. It is a strange mixture of Darwinism and Biblical arguments in justification of the most brutal racial antipathy. During the opening years of the twentieth century it has become the Scripture of tens of thousands of poor whites, and its doctrine is maintained with an appalling stubbornness and persistence. Of course this is not the traditional, nor is it by any means the dominant, Southern view of the negro. The com- moner thought is that he is a man, but radically inferior to the white in certain crucial capacities, especially those for practical achievement and for ideal aspiration and fel- lowship. For the higher realms of culture, for the more refined contacts of human intercourse and for political authority he is held to be naturally unfit. Probably few Southerners could be found willing to confess so favorable an estimate of negro racial capacity as that proclaimed by the typical Northern idealist and now defended by eminently respectable sociological author- ity. Nevertheless there is a group of men of commanding influence whose point of emphasis makes their statement of Southern doctrine take a radically new sound and sig- nificance. Whatever their conception of the negro's natu- ral deficiencies, in respect to the things xchich count for most they assert his fitness for full participation in the highest life of man. He is religiously capable ; his Chris- [nJ] THE SIFTING OF SOUTHERN SENTIMENT tian experience entitles him to Christian fellowship. This is the true clue to any present or future policy toward him. Bishop Bratten puts it thus : " The negro is capable of development to a point whose limit I have not yet discov- ered " ; while the late Bishop Galloway said, " As the negro is a man and a brother, embraced in the divine scheme of human redemption, we cannot exclude him from any of the privileges and agencies that may fit him for service in the Kingdom of God." Just because they are so sound on the main issue, it is possible for men of such views to accede to the popular practises of their section in non-essentials Hke formal racial recognition. Their essential rightness of spirit should be recognized — and is — both by negroes and their less hampered Northern friends. Dr. Du Bois certainly does not doubt that Bishop Galloway accorded him the full rights of spiritual man- hood, freely and without condescension, and that the bishop showed it beyond peradventure — whatever his habits as to eating with negroes. No essential barrier separates the men of different color or section who view the race situation from the standpoint of this common emphasis. Practically speaking, the emphasis is the doctrine. When all classifications are exhausted it remains to be said that the characteristic Southerner is full of surprising Individual and often charming inconsistencies. What- Exceptions ever his natural or theoretical attitude his color-line weaves itself into complex patterns which are the despair of the alien. I recall the perplexity of a Northern minister who had recently taken a Southern church. " They tell me," he complained, " that I must n't shake hands with a negro lest I lose caste; yet here comes Dr. B from Charleston and shakes hands with a col- ored woman in the middle of Main Street. He pinches her CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH baby's cheeks and talks with her for ten minutes, and I don't understand it." Indeed it is just those aliens who lack the inner sense of fitness in interracial conduct who are most apt to fall back upon a rigid observance of an arbitrary code. Because they have no other guide to con- duct, the " spoiled Yankee " and the poor white draw the color-line the tighter. II. THE COLOR-LINE We have persisted through the tedious story of how geo- graphical, historical, economic, and vocational differences The Conven- enter into the race situation ; how sex, char- tional Creed of acter, and theory make a difference in the the South practical attitudes of Southerners toward the negro. This was necessary because it is loudly proclaimed that the South is absolutely unanimous on this subject. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is a con- ventional creed to which most Southerners subscribe. No legitimate blood mixture of the races is to be tolerated. There is to be complete non-intercourse between them in the ideal interests of life. In the home, the church, the school, which are the central shrines of these ideal inter- ests, they are to remain separate. To enforce these sepa- rations political power must remain in the hands of the whites. The vast practical authority of this creed is not to be denied. It makes an immense psychological impression on both races. On the one hand there is that wide-spread loss of the The Negro's white man's keener sense of justice and social Subjective purity in the presence of an inferior popu- Handicap lation, which has already been illustrated; on the other, the negro's " resultant self-contempt and THE SIFTING OF SOUTHERN SENTIMENT despair. In the presence of the arrogant white, flaunting insultingly his superior powers, the despised blacks de- generate into baser beings than they would otherwise be- come. ' Dirt in his eyes, they soon become as dirt in their own.' And they become positively enfeebled by their consciousness of inferiority." ^ This description of the South African situation absolutely fits our own color-line. Its existence is an insidious attack upon the foundations of manhood in the negro man and of virtue in the negro woman. For in spite of all denials a good part of the South's policy is not a single-hearted attempt at racial separation for the protection of white civilization, but a deliberate purpose to humiliate the negro. It is aimed all too accurately at his self-respect. Over against this the South sometimes pleads the negro's narrower economic opportunity in the North — as though the two things were comparable ! " We will not play with him," it says ; " you will not work with him." But man does not live by bread alone. It is just the refusal of fellowship in the ideal interests of life — symbolized by the social color-line — which is the bitterness of the negro's cup. The denial of equality in these spheres chokes the very breath of freedom and moral life. That it has not strangled it alto- gether; that indeed the negro's race pride has shown rapid and hopeful increase is due partly to his encourage- ment by individual Southerners, but chiefly to the fact that he knew that a great section of the nation was backing his struggle as a freeman. However Utopian its faith and practically remote its help, it has been an immeasurable reenforcement of the negro's inner resources that the North believed in him — that Abraham Lincoln's picture was looking down from the dark walls of his hundred thousand ^ Alston, White Man's Work in Asia and Africa, p. 88. CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH cabins. The backing of the moral sentiment of the nation's idealists is psychologically crucial ; and never more so than now. Again, the unequal dealing of the state between the races in practical matters — a difference everywhere con- fessed and excused — puts an almost impos- Ihe Negro s sible handicap on the negro. Apart from all Handicap atrocities and exceptionally oppressive deal- ings — in the whole realm of social better- ment, the color-line condemns the negro to take the leav- ings. What disadvantage has the negro? Much every way ; chiefly perhaps in sewers and sidewalks ; in schools and security. His health is socially penalized by a com- parative and sometimes absolute lack of sanitary provision for him. His schools are " good enough for a nigger." His property and his life suffer a higher risk than that of the average white citizen. This goes deeper than the withholding of specially granted franchise privileges ; it limits common justice. Now the sociologist teaches us that in a democratic state the little more and the little less of opportunity, working out their results through long periods, produce the vastest social changes.^ The ultimate result of the Southerner's policy cannot but be fatal to millions of American negroes who might otherwise have been saved to the nation. These are matters, too, which the state alone can control. Private philanthropy, near or remote, is virtually helpless. Absolutely the only ground of hope for him is the conviction that the South's better spirit of justice and humanity will come to the kingdom in time to save him. Yet no creed is so practically significant as the behavior of those who hold it. In spite of the impressive sentimental * Ross, Foundation of Sociology, p. 202. [ns] THE SIFTING OF SOUTHERN SENTIMENT unity of the South, the general race situation is actually dominated by profound and far-reaching differences in its A Margin of conduct which our previous discussion has Opportunity discovered. Here and there exceptions to the creed have become the local or individual rule ; whole classes and areas have signally modified it ; while almost everywhere it is so tempered in daily application as to leave wide margins of opportunity not admitted on the face of it. in. CLUES TO PROPHECY These differences of conduct, moreover, are the working out of certain large tendencies which in turn are reliable clues to prophecy. Of course the omens are not all agreed. It would be at variance with human experience if they were. Indeed some of them are distinctively adverse to the hope of interracial prosperity and peace, and indicate that in many respects the situation will be worse before it is better. On the one hand, time is rapidly sundering the kindlier ties brought over from the old regime and the good under- Seoregation standing based upon the past is dying out. estranges the Physical segregation and mental estrange- "^^^® ment will certainly go further. Both races will develop an even more extreme measure of irritability and touchiness. Over against this evil tendency stands the prospect that national ideals will be more and more adequately inter- But creates a preted to the negro masses by their own Demand for leaders. The negro's native capacity, for Negro Leaders loyalty and his splendid patriotism may then be relied on. In spite of the color-line he may still share CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH the inspirations and ideals of our best life through the intermediation of the exceptional minority of his race. We have noted a new willingness in the South to recognize the opportunity and responsibility of the exceptional negro and so to cooperate with him for social peace as to preserve his racial pride and self-respect. No social class nor struggling race " can reach equality with other classes and races until its leaders can meet theirs on equal terms." In all its substantial aspects this is being admitted. White men of standing are associated with negroes on the Jeanes Board and as trustees of many colored schools. The ex- ceptional negro is widely accorded exceptional treatment, and his representative character is felt by his race. Re- cently a Southern guest protested at the presence of Booker Washington at the Belmont Hotel Cafe in New York. Reporters rushed to interview the head waiter. " No," he said, " negroes are not allowed to dine here, but with Mr. Washington it is different." This particular exception is not met with in the South, but others of more practical importance are. After all, the children of the mind are more important than the children of the body, as old Plato said. Thus the psychical assimilation of the negro to the national type Is hopefully possible. By the mainte- nance of the moral and spiritual contacts of the races at the top, the masses need not fail of the better incentives of American life. Their hope and self-respect may feed on the recognition and privileges accorded to the excep- tional few. The negro must expect a waning of the favor of the employing classes just so far as he ceases as a race to be tractable under industrial exploitation. He has already shown remarkable mobility as a laborer and a capacity for quick response to economic opportunity. He has [1201 THE SIFTING OF SOUTHERN SENTIMENT shown some hopeful evidence of capacity for cooperation and organization. In other words, he gives evidence of Economic De- two of the chief economic virtues. It is just bseSe^o* his previous lack of these which has endeared the Employer's ^im to the employer. Perhaps he has a per- Favor manent temperamental advantage in his char- acteristic good nature, and undoubtedly his superior adap- tability to the cHmate of the lower and hotter regions of the South gives him a certain permanent advantage over white labor. Nevertheless, his newly learned virtues will lead the employer to seek to displace him with an alien labor force, helpless through its lack of economic experi- ence. This means bitter competition between the negro and the newly awakened white masses of the South. Exten- sive foreign immigration, though not immediately prob- able, must be expected in the long run. The undeveloped areas of the lower South will become industrialized, and the whole labor problem reach the acute stage to which it has come in all the more progressive sections of civilization. Hitherto the negro has had a practical monopoly as a laborer in the South. President Alderman is now un- doubtedly right in saying that " he is yet to undergo the fiercest trials that come to backward races striving to forge to the front in an old civihzation." What will be the outcome of this sterner competition? It seems inevitable that in the long run the negro must be recognized and enlisted on the side of labor. As the class struggle proceeds, new lines will be drawn But will force which will include the negro on the side of the White the white masses. They will have to make Laborer to imite common cause with him. They must or lose their battle. It will be easier than in the case of any other ahen race; for the negro already approxi- ' fiiTl CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH mates to the current standard of living of his section. He spends freely, like a good American, and readily expands his scale of wants. The chief economic difficulty to his in- clusion on the side of labor is thus absent. When the gap between diverse standards of living is once surmounted, racial animosities have repeatedly given way before the mighty unifying force of class consciousness. Labor or- g"anization has been one of the most important assimilative agencies in American life and, in spite of its errors, a chief adjunct of democracy. Already it has marshaled thou- sands across the color-line. Socialism, too, has undertaken a distinct propaganda among negroes. I do not anticipate great practical results from it, but it shows how the wind blows. Thus the vastest movement of Southern civiliza- tion — the struggle of the white masses for equal oppor- tunity, merges with the world-wide cause of the unprivi- leged. Sooner or later it will discover that it must in- clude the negro as well.^ The further curtailment of negro political privileges in the South is to be expected. From the standpoint of white P If 1 P ■ ■- supremacy he is tenfold more dangerous now leges will be that he has acquired education and property. Further now that he has developed race conscience, competent leadership and organs of public opinion, than when he was first enfranchised. The cry is now widely raised that the older disqualifying legislation does not go far enough. For many years Georgia thought the negro sufficiently out of politics through moral suasion and the poll-tax requirement ; but Hoke Smith became governor on the plea that legal disfranchisement was still necessary. Mr. Baker quotes an argument from the editor of the Huntsville, Alabama, Tribune. ' Cf. Commons, Races and Immigrants in America, p. 115. [122] THE SIFTING OF SOUTHERN SENTIMENT We thought (in 1901, when the new Alabama Con- stitution disfranchising the negro was under discus- sion), as we do now, that the menace to peace, the danger to society and white supremacy was not in the ilHterate negro, but in the upper branches of negro society, the educated, the man who after ascertaining his political rights, forced the way to assert them. He continues: We, the Southern people, entertain no prejudice toward the ignorant per se inoffensive negro. It is because we know him, and for him we entertain a compassion. But our blood boils when the educated negro asserts himself politically. We regard each assertion as an unfriendly encroachment upon our native superior rights, and a daredevil menace to our control of the affairs of the state. In this are we not speaking the truth? Does not every Southern Cau- casian " to the manor born " bear witness to this ver- sion? Hence we present that the way to dampen racial prejudice, avert the impending horrors, is to emasculate the negro politically, by repealing the fifteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United States. Now there is not the slightest likelihood that the fifteenth amendment will ever be repealed, yet there is a general desire throughout the nation to guard the suffrage more strictly, and under cover of this feehng the South will undoubtedly devise new legal barriers for the negro. Yet even on this point the tides do not all run in one direction. There are elements in Southern life which may yet feel the need of the negro's political assistance. Even in Georgia the argument has recently been heard that dis- [123] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH franchisement may go too fast; it may take the negro's well-known conservatism to defeat the destructive radical- rrn, XT 11 ism of the poor whites at the ballot-box. The The Negro will . • t • j. i i yet be Called industrialization of the upland South and the Back into decreasing proportion of negroes in it, al- ^ '^^ ready result in franker political divisions within its borders along the lines of economic interests, and promises its final detachment from the lower South in national politics. There will yet be selfish efforts there to get the negro into politics and to use him as a balance of power as in the North. There are Southerners, too, who rest the political future of the negro on deeper theoretical and moral grounds. Witness ex-Congressman Fleming's notable address at the University of Georgia. He said, " Without some access to the ballot, present or prospec- tive, some participation in the government, no inferior race in an elective republic could long protect itself against reduction to slavery in many of its substantial forms." The present South is not wholly deaf to this appeal and time cannot fail to bring other recruits to its standard. With the increase of wealth and luxury comes a weak- ening of the democratic instincts and a new willingness to Plutocracv anticipate the existence of a permanently ser- adds New vile class in the Republic. We must frankly Burdens confess the fact that there are daily more people who want other human beings to be conveniences rather than men, and who are glad to use the race which traditionally bears the badge of servitude. In the South a new plutocratic version of social inequality puts rigidity and harshness into the color-line. One would indeed despair of his country if he saw this only ; if he could not discern in varied phases the progress of democracy, of which the unifying work of organized labor noted above is [124] THE SIFTING OF SOUTHERN SENTIMENT part. This movement is seen in the new interest in social questions, in the widespread awakening of social conscience and in manifold concrete reforms. So strong is its mo- mentum in the South that that section finds itself educating the negro, in apparent contradiction to its deepest racial convictions. The more democratic conceptions of the present day in regard to the family and social intercourse ■R t • O t ^^^^ ^^^^ *^^^^ racial applications to-morrow, weighed by a Already the organized womanhood of the Widening South is showing great interest in social bet- Democracy terment. Movements like those of scientific charity, prison and sanitary reforms assume the solidarity of communities and ignore the color-line. The sphere of public activity constantly widens and brings the impersonal justice of the state more largely to bear; and these out- weigh the new burden of plutocracy added to old prejudice. Finally, the present moral crisis of the race question is certain to discover the apostasy of some professed ideal- The Apostasy '^^^^' Secure in the sense of the negroes im- of some mense practical handicap, and the conviction Idealists ^f j^js inferior capacity, there were some who encouraged him to hope and virtually said, " Of course if you ever prove yourself our equal we will then recognize you as such." Time has brought these men face to face with negro success and has called upon them to pay up the debt of their previous professions. A negro minority has emerged which by all the white men's tests has demon- strated its fitness for full participation in human privilege. How should it be treated? What if all negroes were Booker Washingtons? That this issue is actually upon the South, Thomas Nelson Page confesses in a recent notable article. His answer is, " If all negroes were Booker T. Washingtons the color-line must exist unrelaxed." To CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH moral diagnosis this looks curiously like what theologians have called a " sin against the light." It is a deliberate refusal to adjust conduct to admitted facts. But there is another side. On the whole the most en- couraging aspect of the situation is the driving of true The Separa- idealists into the open by this very moral tion of Sheep crisis and enforced separation of sheep and and Goats goats. There is " nothing covered that shall not be revealed " was first spoken as a word of confidence, and as such it is justified in this case. In the face of the rising tide of race animosity, of the growing bitterness of competition, of political self-seeking at the expense of the negro, of unworthy and cowardly willingness to surrender still further the fundamentals of democracy, the best men of the South simply cannot hold their peace. And they have not done so. The last five years have probably heard more brave and candid discussions of the race problem and seen more deliberate moral choices than the thirty-five previous. Thus the ultimate just solution of this vast issue was never so assured as now that conscience has ex- hausted its conventional excuses and is forced to meet the situation on ethical grounds. Of the ultimate happy ending of the race problem there is no more assurance than there is that democracy will succeed or that any portion of the human race will find a " golden harbor " ; but, also, no less. For the race prob- lem is simply a bit of the human problem with the same solution, if there is any. We feel the doubtful ebb and flow of the tide, but the strongest currents of the present are not so adverse as to deny to the brave man all he asks — a fighting chance. 126] V. WHAT THE NEGRO HAS DONE FOR HIMSELF I. SUCCESS WITH A MINIMUM OF ASSISTANCE THEY will call this title question-begging who believe that the negro can do nothing for himself. That certain gains in the way of landownership, annual production of wealth, education, and organization are credited to him in the columns of the census is admitted. . .j^g It is explained, however, that these are not Negro's Gains proper race achievements, because made un- His Own ? ^er white stimulus. All the negro's substan- tial gains, it is said, have been compulsory. Necessity and the constant efforts of his neighbors have prodded him to work. For his worthy victories, thank the South. His showier achievements have been imitative, under artificial stimulus from his sentimental alHes. For his beatings of the air, thank the North. The negro himself thank for nothing, or if for anything, thank only the white blood in his veins. His progress in America is not genuinely his own. The following is a typical utterance of this view; The civilization of any people is the slow and toil- some growth of centuries, an unfolding of the peo- ple's spirit itself. Its virtue, its essence lies in this very fact. How then shall such a product be imposed upon an alien and inferior race? They cannot receive it; they can put it on only as an outer garment; it can never become truly theirs, the efflorescence of their own souls. . . . Generation after generation of cod- [127] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH dling and sympathy in the North has not effaced a single racial trait nor raised by a single notch the average character, moral or mental or physical.^ He has had an abnormal degree of help. The good side of his record must therefore bear a heavy discount. So far as this is true may it not apply to the bad side of his record as well.'* But is it true? Has the negro experienced anything ■Mr- J c • 1 other than the ordinary conditions of prog- Misread oociol- . i • i ,, ogy; the ress in a backward race m the present age? Charge of He is petulantly counseled to develop his epen ence ^^^ civilization ; yet the sociologist de- clares, A true social evolution obeying resident forces has nearly disappeared from the face of the earth, seeing that to-day the germs of every new social arrange- ment are blown throughout the world, and peoples at the most diverse stages of culture are discarding their native institutions and eagerly adopting the jurisprudence, the laws, and the organization of the most advanced societies.^ The stimulus of a more advanced civilization, therefore, far from being unique, is the natural, normal, and inevi- table condition of progress in any less favored race or group. So much for bad sociology. The negro has also been the victim of equally bad psy- chology. The attempt to apply the principles of indivi- dual development to the case of a backward race has been one-sided and marred by loose thinking ; besides it has not » W. B. Smith, The Color-Line, pp. 259, 260. * Ross, Foundations of Sociology, p. 234. [128] WHAT THE NEGRO HAS DONE FOR HIMSELF allowed for the imperfect analogy between the two. It Is perfectly true that culture must be the unfolding of inner ^. J p . capacities ; but it is equally true that the chology; the means of their awakening is imitation. The Charge of child instinctively imitates the ways of his ^^ ^^ surroundings ; only after he has done so is the sense of their inner significance aroused. He does not first learn why a thing should be done, and then do it ; he first does it, and thereby becomes inwardly aware why it should be done. What the critic probably means to charge is that the negro, when he imitates the white man's ways, does not get an adequate inner sense of their meaning. But imitation itself as the means of mental progress is the only way for even the Caucasian genius to enter into the gains of his race. The most original and spontaneous of gifts comes this way. No people could be excessively imi- tative except as their imitation might fail to fructify in the awakening of a self-explanatory and justifying feeling. Is there any evidence that the negro is deficient in such inner responsiveness? This is the heart of the issue. Un- T r> doubtedlv some members of his race are; lust Inner Ke- -^ . . sponse to as some of a company of ostensible worship- Things ers of God or votaries of fashion manifestly do not enter into the meaning of the acts they share. We see nothing laughable when an Arizona mil- lionaire painfully speaks by the book, although his spon- taneous utterance is picturesquely ungrammatical ; but the negro's gravity in speech stirs our risibilities. We suspect him of posing ; possibly he is. It is not to be expected that a general inner responsiveness to lately imitated ways will be acquired by the majority of a race in one genera- tion — especially by those of its number whose mental 9 r 129 1 CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH habits are no longer plastic. But that the negro as a race is in America following the ways of a civilization which is essentially meaningless to him, to which his outward con- formity signifies no inner response, is sheer assumption. Whether he would ever have developed anything like it if left to himself is beside the issue. What he would now do if deprived of the social pressure of his nation and age is equally so. Forgotten, the pure American stock in the Southern Appalachians degenerated. Races were not meant to live in isolation. Civilizations have never been independent creations. This is a world of human inter- course and mutual service. Unnatural it is, and unneces- sary, to suppose that the American negro will ever be called to take the part of a racial Robinson Crusoe. Who dares to call the sunderings of the Ice Age the law of Christian civilization ? But, it is said, after all the black man does not respond to the forms of our life with exactly the same sense of The Selfsame meaning that we get. Precisely ; here the Response not principle of originality comes in. We imi- Desirable tate ; we are thereby initiated into the mean- ing of acts ; but we are colorless souls if we do not read something unique in them. The individual is never a du- plicate. Speaking of inner experience " the same " never means "just the same." The judgment which condemns the negro as imitative frequently adds, " But whatever he does, he still remains a ' nigger.' " There cannot be higher praise. To imitate, to become enlightened thereby, and to impart some large measure of one's own peculiar mental contour into shared experience is the formula for normal human growth. It is desirable that inner meanings have only enough generic resemblance to enable men to co- operate in the large. The meaning of religion, for ex- WHAT THE NEGRO HAS DONE FOR HIMSELF ample, to an average negro congregation is too remote from its meaning to certain types of whites to allow them to mix comfortably in a conmion service ; it is not so re- mote as to put the negro church out of the fellowship of the churches of America. If men are sufficiently alike to participate in a common civiHzation, it is well to have them sufficiently unlike to give that civilization interesting variety and esthetic and moral enrichment. This the negro and his institutions help to do. Well, then, admit that the negro has genuinely acquired whatever the facts show him outwardly to possess. Has it No Contempo- not been disproportionately through others' rary American efforts? Emphatically, No ! Through slav- Much for ^^y^ ^* ^^ said, the South " gave " the negro Himself the English language, Christianity, the rudi- mentary arts. So it did — after a fashion. So it does to its white men of to-day. Each generation of children takes for granted that it should receive an inheritance of wealth, culture, and opportunity; of material and social capital. No one charges it with inordinate dependence on this account. The negro has never had a thousandth part of the help the more prosperous classes of whites have had. It is not the fact nor degree of assistance that causes remark, but the surprise that it should have been held out at all to a despised race. That race, too, is identified by its color, set apart by social barriers and advertised as an object of charity. But just this fact of its isolation en- ables us to measure its comparative achievement and to say positively that no group of contemporary Americans has so largely created its own successes as has the negro of the last two generations. Whatever service the nation renders her children has been reduced to the minimum for [TsT] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH him. He has had less help and more hindrance than any other. Over the record of his gains we may justly write, What the negro has done for himself. II. WITHIN THE NATIONAL LIFE We are first to consider how largely the negro bulks in his more external relations to the nation as mere phy- Comparative sical presence and as economic producer. Place: Speaking numerically, first of all, he has Numerical doubled his numbers since emancipation and now comprises one-third of the population of the South and eleven per cent of that of the entire nation. The negro has greatly extended his habitat and range. While only one-tenth of his people live outside of the South, there are to-day more negroes in New York than in Richmond ; more in Chicago than in Charleston ; while Washington, not New Orleans, is the negro metropohs. Mississippi has a town composed ex- clusively of negroes, but so has Iowa. Into Montana and Idaho, and even the Canadian northwest, the negro miner has gone. The students of missionary schools share in a systematic and periodic industrial movement of the race. There is an annual summer exodus of boys from Brick School, North Carolina, to the truck farms of Connecticut, and of Fisk students to city jobs in Chicago. A washer- woman in Montclair, New Jersey, turns out to be a gradu- ate of an American Missionary Association school in Jonesboro, Tennessee. • A barber in Florida will discourse famiharly of the Pacific coast cities. I know of Oklahoma cotton growers who return every winter to their old homes in North Carolina, and can afford to do it. Read at large in census statistics such facts indicate a gradual redistri- [132] WHAT THE NEGRO HAS DONE FOR HIMSELF bution of negro population throughout the North and West, showing increasing capacity for long-distance mi- gration in response to economic opportunity. ^ . The occupations of the American negro in Occupational ^rt/^/-w i- ^^ lyOO were as loUows: Agriculture, fishing, and mining .... 1,757,403 or 57% Domestic and personal service 963,080 or 31% Manufacturing and mechanical industries 172,970 or 6% Trade and transportation 145,717 or 5% Professional service 22,994 or 1% As compared with native born and foreign born whites the most striking contrast is the excessive proportion of negroes engaged in agriculture, and their great deficiency in trade, transportation, manufacturing, and mechanical industries. In these occupations their proportion is only about one-tenth that of the whites. The census further divides these groups of occupations into twenty-seven special employments. In all but three of these the negro made absolute gains and in thirteen he made relative gains during the last census period. On the other hand he suffered slight losses in some of the skilled industries, the significance of which fact is considered in a later paragraph. In agriculture, to which over one- half of his productive energy is given, the negro operates one-third of the improved acreage of the South and pro- duces one -third of the annual crop values. This is prob- ably not because he is as good a farmer as the white man (his deficiency in the use of fertilizers, for example, shows that he is not), but because in the main he occupies the better land. Yet whatever his deficiencies he exercises a tremendous productive function in his section, and annu- ally adds untold millions to the national wealth. If he is a fiiil CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH problem he is also an economic asset to the South of im- measurable value. Of the homes in which he lived in 1900 the negro owned 21.8 per cent, a gain of over 3 per cent in the decade. Ownership of '^^^ white population owns 50 per cent of its Property: homes. But three-quarters of the negro's Homes homes were owned unencumbered by mortgage against only two-thirds of the whites. Something like this ratio would hold for a row of negro business places. Be- cause of the lack of credit facilities the negro merchant ordinarily owns a greater proportion and borrows less of an invested capital than does the white. Personal prop- erty is often bought on deferred payments, yet even the negro's spring suit or Easter bonnet is more likely to be paid for than if they were on white bodies. Of the farms which he operated in 1900 the negro owned 25 per cent, numbering in all 173,552. Their combined acreage was above 12,000,000 or more than the total area of Belgium and Holland. His proportionate ownership was lowest in Georgia where he owned but 14 per cent of the farms, but this had risen to 20 per cent in 1906. His holdings in that state then numbered 82,822 farms, the value of which had increased in the six years from $14,196,735 to $23,750,219 — an enormous gain of 67.3 per cent. These holdings are divided as follows : 72 negroes own more than 1000 acres each. 368 negroes own between 500 and 1000 acres each. 1475 negroes own between 200 and 500 acres each. 3540 negroes own between 175 and 260 acres each. 10,392 negroes own between 100 and 175 acres each. 19,076 negroes own between 50 and 100 acres each. 39,652 negroes own between 20 and 50 acres each. __ ^^fSi^^ •* > .>»^3ik' "''^.'-V J', Negro Rural Home, Piedmont Region Negro Business Street, Thojiasville, Ga. WHAT THE NEGRO HAS DONE FOR HIMSELF The highest proportion of farm ownership in 1900 was in Virginia, where the negro owns over 58 per cent of the farms he occupies. Prosperity perhaps reached its high- water mark in Gloucester County. ^ This county has a population of 12,832, more than one-half of which is col- ored. Here 90 per cent of negro farmers own their land, and there is probably the best housed negro rural community in America. Under these conditions the race shows somewhat less crime proportionally than do the whites of Gloucester County. The moral stimulus which has made such gains possible is due largely to the proxim- ity of Hampton and to the presence at Cappahosic of the excellent Institute and model farm of the American Mis- sionary Association. The economic basis of Gloucester County prosperity is, however, the Chesapeake Bay oyster industry, furnish- ing the negro a winter occupation and a cash wage which has largely been put into property. It is not by the land that land was chiefly acquired ; and this, according to my observation, is the rule throughout the South. How then do negroes acquire land, and what sort do they ordinarily acquire.? Is it an easy thing to do? How Negroes There is, to be sure, plenty of unimproved Acquire Land and waste land in the South, yet Professor DuBois is quite right in insisting that it is not now easy for the negro to become an owner except of poor and agri- culturally impossible land, which he gets because no one else wants it. The general law throughout the South is that the blacks own the poorer but rent and occupy the better land. For acquiring ownership five methods chiefly have been open to him: * Williams, "Study of Local Conditions," etc., Southern Workman, vol. 35, pp. 103 ff. CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH (1) Through a supplementary income from industry. I have repeatedly investigated the communities adj acent to mission schools and found land ownership proportionate to the local opportunities for winter work at a cash wage. In Gloucester County it is oystering; elsewhere, lumbering, the turpentine industry, tie cutting or rail- road and " public " work. Large areas of the Black Belt have no such opportunities, and this lack consti- tutes their peculiar hopelessness. The unique industrial settlement at Kowaliga, Alabama, has for its central idea the supplementing of agriculture by industrial op- portunities. Often land is bought by a son or brother working for wages in the North; or a whole family migrates there, expecting to return to the South when enough money has been saved to acquire land. Only rarely by agriculture does ownership come without a cash wage supplementing, for at least part of the year, the system of advances. (2) Of course exceptions are numerous. The excep- tional man, or the average man in an exceptional year, has been able to show a cash surplus from the sale of his produce, usually, of course, cotton. A " bumper " crop or possibly a market manipulation like the famous Sully cotton corner will disarrange the landlord's plan to take all the tenant makes, and perhaps leave a balance which the negro is sometimes wise enough to invest in land. (3) A small but appreciable amount of property has come to the negro by inheritance. This seems strange in a race whose fathers were all slaves. The explanation is that often its fathers were not slaves but masters, who started their newly emancipated or more recently born sons with a farm each. I know of many cases where such __ WHAT THE NEGRO HAS DONE FOR HIMSELF inheritance has been the beginning of exceptional negro prosperity. (4) Philanthropy, too, has 'had a part in helping the negro to acquire land. Sometimes the patron was not ful- filing blood obligations, but merely expressing the gratitude of a former master or present well-wisher. Naturally, how- ever, the giving of farms as gifts outright has been rare. (5) Endeavors on the part of Northern philanthropy to assist the negro to acquire land have generally in- volved a sense of the virtue of self-help. They have there- fore tried to combine philanthropy and business. Land has been set apart and sold to negroes on easy terms. Frequently the method has been too easy. The reputation for philanthropy has doomed the enterprise in advance. Northern inexperience with the negro has complicated the problem. Such experiments in connection with many mission schools have given opportunity to hundreds of negro families, yet few of them have been conspicuous successes from the economic standpoint. Just now a carefully guarded experiment in connection with the Cal- houn School, Alabama, is in process of successful consum- mation, and North Carolina furnishes a recent interesting example of a frankly commercial venture undertaken by a Southern lawyer, Hon. James E. Pou of Raleigh. Mr. Pou's account of the experiment follows: In 1897 my brother and I bought a large tract of practically run-down and abandoned farm land in Johnston County about five miles from the railroad. This land was naturally good, but had been cultivated by tenants for a great many years, and was in a thoroughly run-down, dilapidated condition, fences, houses, and everything. Much of the land was grown up in broom sedge and second-growth pines. CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH We cut the land up into small farms, usually from 80 to 100 acres, trying to give each farm a road front, some upland, some forest and some meadow, running back to a creek. We then undertook to sell a portion of this land to colored people, as there had been a very large negro population on this land be- fore; some still remained and were attached to the old farm. When they heard it was to be cut up and sold, they seemed very anxious to acquire a foothold. My brother and I found that not one could pay cash for the land, but we decided to give them a chance. We said to them that if they would go to work on the land, we would give them a chance to work it out. A considerable number accepted the proposition, and they began trying to work out their land in the year 1898. At the present time nearly all of them have paid for their land, and I do not know of a single one who has not either entirely paid for his land or so nearly done so that the debt against it is a small proportion of its cash value. Besides paying for this land, in most instances, and paying nearly all for it in other instances, these people have greatly improved their farms. They have all built comparatively comfortable houses, some with four or more rooms. They have cleared land, and a large number have good live stock. They all live com- fortably and their credit with the stores is good. Besides the land they bought from us, I understand that some have bought land from other people. I understand that Hezekiah Watson and his boys own land easily worth from three to five thousand dollars, and it is nearly, if not quite, all paid for. These men were tenants in 1897, and hardly ever expected to own land. I have taken a great deal of interest in the out- [138] WHAT THE NEGRO HAS DONE FOR HIMSELF come of this experiment (for it was an experiment to sell land on credit to colored people) and I have watched the conduct of these people closely. I do not think that one of these men has been in court since they bargained for the land. I have heard of no trouble in their community. Their white neighbors speak well of them and they are regarded by everybody as a use- ful addition to the community. I think the determin- ation to own their homes has nerved these people up to unusual effort and their success shows what an in- dustrious man can do when he tries. I do not think that a single person that bought land from us has thrown his part up. One of these men moved away, but some other colored man of the community took his trade and carried it out. I think every one of the men now lives on his own land, most of them clear of incumbrance. This community has its own church and schoolhouse and the young ones can generally read and write. No general or complete statistics of negro ownership of city property exists, but their assessments in many Southern communities are impressive and their rent-rolls ^. „ long. Some indication is furnished by the City Property i. /r ^ - .- t.- i- ^u results 01 recent investigation oi the prop- erty holdings of ninety former students of Tougaloo University. Forty-nine own 5,896 acres of land valued at $26,430 ; seventy-two own 239 houses, mostly in towns and cities, valued at $118,075, and sixty-eight own town and city lots valued at $101,040. The ninety persons in- vestigated represented thirty-six occupations. Such a widespread holding of moderate property, showing suc- cess in such varied lines of livelihood, is more significant of race progress than large acquirements on the part of a few. fiiol CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH Naturally no definite information is available as to the wealth of the negro business and professional classes. We „, ,., , are assured that the wealth of the thirty-six Wealth of , -' Business and delegates at the 1908 meeting of the Negro Professional Business Men's League, who gave talks on how they had succeeded, as well as of most of the five hundred delegates on the convention floor, would have to be represented by five and six figures. A superfi- cial acquaintance with the professional negro in any of the larger Southern cities will discover not a few whose incomes are upwards of $5000. In other words, a fair proportion of the race is, financially speaking, successful beyond the average American. Statistics of government employment show a number of negroes enjoying comfortable Federal salaries. In the (Government District of Columbia alone two hundred and Service ninety-two receive more than $1000 per year. The total number of Federal employees of the race is over 5500. All over the South the " Africanization of the post-office " is a familiar cry. Such Africanization can only take place after competitive examinations shared by white candidates. In so large a city as Mobile, recently, the entire force of mail-carriers was black, as were a large number of other post-ofllce employees. For a series of years this service absorbed all the male graduates of Emerson Institute in that city. III. WITHIN RACIAL LINES However impressive the exhibit of the negro's material progress, the most important thing which he has yet done for himself is to create social agencies and institutions. We shall follow out the story of his quantitative gains, [uol REPRESENTATIVE NEGROES George W. Crawford, Attorney, New Haven, Conn. A. C. Garner, Pastor, Washington, D. C. H. H. Proctor, D.D., Pastor, Atlanta, Ga. J. W. Work, Professor, Fisk University Wm. N. DeBerry, Pastor, Springfield, Mass Geo. W. Moore, D.D., Supt. of Negro Church Work, American Missionary Association WHAT THE NEGRO HAS DONE FOR HIMSELF but shall from this point attempt to accompany it with an interpretation of that qualitative development within the race which has made them possible. For a study of negro institutional progress reveals a type of organizing ability and instinctive social genius which prophesy immeasurable results. A lady from Virginia, new to a border city, afforded her friends much innocent amusement by the inquiry whether Domestic the wife of a negro janitor could be engaged Institutions to wash dishes on a special occasion. She was dismayed to be told that she herself would be as likely to go out washing dishes as would the janitor's wife. This status of the negro woman as mistress of her own home the Virginian had never met before. Now the transfer of black mothers and daughters since emancipation from the kitchen or field to the fireside, with its privacy, sanctities, and graces, is perhaps the most radical revolution in the structure of negro society. That the creation of the home is a moral gain, all recognize. But popular thought fails to see in it a type of social organization new to the race, an unaccustomed division and specialization of labor. In view of this novelty, the conjugal statistics of the census ought not to be taken just for granted. It is a tremendous fact that the race has ad- justed itself to civilized marriage. This adjustment is indeed imperfect. But, as we shall later discover, its weak- ness is due less to wickedness than to economic conditions. As compared with Africa and slavery, the gain is immeas- urable, and a complete transition is hopefully assured by the material and moral progress of the past. All told, the domestic reorganization of his life is the American negro's most magnificent achievement. The prosperous citizen who chances to overhear his — - CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH cook converse with her kitchen neighbor about " lodge " X, . T and " ten-cent dues " ; who finds that his wife Economic In- . i i stitutions: cannot go to the theater to-night because Fraternal and " Caroline wants to go to the initiation," or nsurance discovers his own way blocked by a procession of a colored " Sir Knights," may dismiss such " nigger organizations " with a smile of indifference and contempt. Not so with the sociological expert. He sees in them pro- found economic originality and wisdom. " The first prac- tical shelter," says Prof. Simon N. Patten, " of every man just over the subsistence line is in a fund for sick, death, or strike benefits, or in building and loan associa- tions." On his humble levels of fraternalism the negro is developing social capacity and husbanding material re- sources ; the results already add greatly to his group- strength, both economic and moral. His institutions of savings and insurance are yet chaotic in character. The strongest bear the names and assume to be legitimate off- shoots of the older secret orders, like Masons, Odd Fel- lows, and Pythians. All told, they own from four to five millions of dollars' worth of property, and collect a milhon and a half annually from their members. The more significant institutions, however, are local. Secret society halls dot the rural South and cities are honey- combed with lodge rooms. Much of the motive behind these enterprises is naive and primitive — a half super- stitious desire to be " buried right," a childish love of display, the convivial instinct; but along with these goes a sound, economic instinct directed to substantial group ends. To be sure, the financial management of the local societies is often lamentably lax, and in some of the pop- ular insurance orders a scientific basis of operations is lacking, yet both are learning by their mistakes and are [142] WHAT THE NEGRO HAS DONE FOR HIMSELF slowly correcting them. As an administrator of charities in a border city, I frequently found low-grade negroes fortified through their lodges against loss through sick- ness and death as the corresponding white class was not. The secret of much of the negro's success in acquiring property lies in modest organizations of the savings and Building and ^^^^ ^^P^' ^ typical example is that of the Loan Associa- Gloucester, Virginia, Land, Loan and Build- *^°°^ ing Association. It was organized under the inspiration of Principal Price of the Cappahosic Insti- tute. It endeavors to aid its members to secure homes or to establish themselves in business, and to provide a profit- able investment for savings. Its charter is an instrument carefully drawn in the light of the best experience and conforming to the state law. Shares are $10 each on a capital stock of $25,000. They are acquired by an advanced payment of $1, which covers the first ten months' dues and ten cents per month thereafter till the entire amount is paid. The expenses of administration are carried by an entrance fee of twenty-five cents and a charge of ten cents on each loan, sale, or transfer. All such transactions must have the approval of a lawyer. Loans pay eight per cent interest. The membership is now over one hundred and seventy, owning from one to twenty-five shares of stock each. Seven per cent annual dividends have been paid for the last three years. Hun- dreds of similar institutions of thrift exist throughout negro society. In many other lines the cooperative impulse has ex- pressed itself. Productive cooperation has been tried in Other Forms enterprises as diverse as cotton-mills, coal- of Cooperation mines, iron-foundries, brick and tile-work, tur- pentine plants, and farms. Negroes have even established CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH three street railways to compete with lines which showed race discrimination. In distribution, hundreds of enter- prises have been established, especially in grocery and drug-stores and in publishing companies. Many of these attempts have been financial failures or at least have not been permanently profitable, but even these have had great educative value. It is not kno^vn whether or not the per- centage of failures has been in excess of those of the business world at large. They simply repeat the story of the first cooperative efforts of any commercially inex- perienced group with small capital. But the discovery of a widespread will to try such methods is deeply significant. They do not impress us because few recognize the possi- bilities of the cooperative system for anybody. It does not seem to harmonize with the general tendencies of the age. Yet the forces of the world never go all in the same direction at once. Varied principles of economic associa- tion may coincide and thrive. In organizing his group resources on lowly levels the negro points the way for other handicapped classes. The ships of Lancashire weavers who began cooperation on these levels now sail all the Seven Seas. Belgian peasants build cooperative palaces of marble. It is an American weakness to despise the day of small things. We ourselves do not succeed that way ; therefore it is not a worthy pathway to success. This, attitude shuts the door to comprehensive and just judgment of the negro's race-gift of group organization. There are no up-to-date statistics on negro trade unionism. In 1902, however, 40,000 negroes were mem- bers of a group of trade-unions aggregating 500,000 members. These were most largely miners, tobacco-workers, longshoremen, masons, painters, and carpenters. The larger group of unions aggregating [144] WHAT THE NEGRO HAS DONE FOR HIMSELF 700,000 members had in all only 1000 scattered negro ex- ceptions ; and in many cases, no negro members at all. This shows on the face of it the comparatively limited part of the race in labor organization. Even in unions where the negro is numerically strong, his practical op- portunities are not uniform. In the South, " locals " are generally, though not invariably, organized separately. In spite of his union card, prejudice often keeps the negro out of opportunity which his white brother receives. Where he has been accepted it is generally because he has fought his way in. He has begun as a strike-breaker and has been afterwards unionized in self-defense by the white trade. Trade unionism, like all ideaHstic movements, finds it extremely hard to make its practises square with its theories. In practise its organization is too often selfish, using every prejudice to keep its own monopoly. It is to be confessed, too, that the inferior efficiency of the negro has often been a heavy load for the union to carry. The leaders of the movement have undoubtedly tried not to draw the color-line. Nevertheless the actual working attitude of organized labor is decidedly adverse to the negro, especially in the North. The situation is not without signs more favorable to him. The recent unparalleled immigration of unskilled laborers has compelled the unionist movement to adopt a more democratic spirit. " The man who has joined one of the unions formed within the last six years learns ' that his lot is bound with that of the whole working class ' and ' that he can no longer advance by building a monopoly of labor within his trade.' The lines of industrial caste must break in order to give the class which has the nu- merical power, free admission into the ranks above it." ^ > Patten, New Basis of Civilization, p. 104. 10 [ 145 ] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH This new attitude gives organized labor a fresh vantage- ground in moral principle and its working out and per- colation into the South may be counted on as one of the most certain and massive forces against race prejudice in the future. The foregoing is an inadequate treatment of the grave problem of the relation of the negro to organized labor. Other Forms ^^ ^^ ^ sufficient answer, however, to the charge of Labor that he has shown himself lacking in or- Organization ganizing capacity. Up to the full measure allowed him, he has used the resource of industrial organ- ization in its highest form. Beyond that he has devised original forms of cooperation, especially to affect agri- cultural wages. Said a Virginia clergyman to me, " The niggers down here are ruining the country. They 've got a secret agreement not to work for less than a dollar a day. We cannot get a man for less," Similar laments fill the South. In the early winter of 1908 a number of negro society halls in southwestern Georgia were dynamited by whites. Local press despatches, explaining the occurrence, showed significant variations. Some charged the secret societies with harboring criminals, others with effecting combinations to raise wages. On September 27, 1908, in the same region (Calhoun, Baker, and Miller Counties) eighteen colored churches and schoolhouses were burned. Again two causes were alleged: that negroes plotted as- saults, and that they had decided to sell cotton at a lower figure than that at which the white planters' association was holding the crop.-^ Thus outside of conventional labor organization, and in the field of agriculture where such organization ordinarily has proved least successful, negro group-action is a grim and mighty fact. > See dispatch. New York Times, September 28, 1908. f 1461 ^a'PIAT THE NEGRO HAS DONE FOR HIMSELF With the growth of negro city groups in wealth and race consciousness a system of regular banks, now num- bering over forty in the United States, has arisen to furnish the facilities of commercial credit to the rapidly increasing business and investing classes. One of the oldest and strongest of these is the Dime Savings Bank in Birmingham, Alabama. Starting with $500 deposits in 1890, it has grown to hold $1,097,224 in 1906-7. This considerable sum belonged to 9112 depositors. Probably the most remarkable negro economic institu- tion is, however, the United Order of the True Reformers ^ , . ^. with headquarters at Richmond, Virginia. It Combination . . ^ . . ... of Activities by is a national organization combining an in- the True surance company with 80,000 members, a e ormers central bank which has done a total business of $16,000,000 (and the only one in Richmond which continually paid specie during the panic of 1893), and a real estate enterprise owning twenty-seven income-bringing buildings, most of which are rented to local lodges. The Washington building cost $100,000 and contains a the- ater, a dozen lodge rooms, an armory, two stores, several offices, and a barber shop. The truly remarkable record of the Order is summarized as follows : '^ 1881. The Grand Fountain organized with 100 mem- bers and $150 cash. 1907. The Grand Fountain membership increased to 80,000. Sick and death benefits paid to date $2,340,389 Paid up capital of the savings-bank 100,000 Deposits in the savings-bank 336,272 > The World's Work, June, 1908, pp. 10, 348. — - CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH Real estate department's holdings 388,000 Value of property of Old Folks' Home .... 36,495 The yearly business of five stores 496,373 The negro church is an intricate and impressive social organization, as well as an institution of the higher life. T rx r- £ It is indeed the chief institutional creation of Institutions of . . the Higher the race and its success is a vast economic Life: the achievement. Its proportionate membership greatly exceeds that of the white churches, in- cluding probably thirty-six per cent of the total negro population and of the population above ten years of age over fifty per cent. This number is distributed through about 25,000 local churches, of which more than four- fifths are in ecclesiastical connections exclusively under negro control. Ninety-eight per cent of all negro church members belong to various Baptist and Methodist bodies. It is noteworthy that, while in the Methodist Episcopal polity authority is highly centralized, the Baptist system Evidence of ^^ extremely democratic. Socially this is sig- Administrative nificant as showing the negro's capacity to Capacity ^gg widely divergent governmental types. He has succeeded about equally well under the two ecclesias- tical extremes. Thirteen bishops of the African Metho- dist Episcopal church, for example, are said to wield the power directly over 750,000 American negroes, and indirectly over two or more millions, administer $10,000,000 worth of property and an annual budget of $500,000. These bishops are elected for life by a General Conference meeting every four years. The member- ship of the General Conference consists of ministerial and lay delegates : the clerical delegates arc elected [US] Ingraji Chapki, J. K. Buick Stiiooi., N. C. Largest A. M. A. school under negro control FlltST CoNGREGATIONAI. ChLTRCH, AtI.ANTA, Ga. Pioneer in the South in institutional work for the race WHAT THE NEGRO HAS DONE FOR HIMSELF from the Annual Conferences, one for every thirty ministers. Two lay delegates for each Annual Con- ference are selected by the representatives of the offi- cial church boards in the Conference. Thus we have a peculiar case of negro government, with elaborate machinery and the experience of a hundred years. How has it succeeded.'^ Its financial and numerical success has been remarkable, as has been shown. Moreover, the bishops elected form a remarkable series of personalities. Together the assembled bishops are perhaps the most striking body of negroes in the world in personal appearance: men of mas- sive physique, clear-cut faces, and undoubted intelli- gence. Altogether the church has elected about thirty bishops. These men fall into about five classes. First, there were those who represented the old type of negro preacher — men of little learning, honest and of fair character, capable of following other leaders. Perhaps five or six of the African Methodist Episco- pal bishops have been of this type, but they have nearly all passed away. From them developed, on the one hand, four men of aggressive, almost riotous energy, who by their personality thrust the church forward. While such men did much for the physical growth of the church, they were often men of ques- tionable character, and in one or two instances ought never to have been raised to the bishopric. On the other hand, in the case of four other bishops, the goodness of the older class developed toward intense, almost ascetic piety, represented preeminently in the late Daniel Payne, a man of almost fanatic enthusi- asm, of simple and pure life and unstained reputation, and of great intellectual ability. The African Metho- dist Episcopal Church owes more to him than to any single man, and the class of bishops he represents is the salt of the organization. Such a business plant [149] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH naturally has called to the front many men of business ability, and perhaps five bishops may be classed as financiers and overseers. The rest of the men who have sat on the bench rose for various reasons as pop- ular leaders — by powerful preaching, by pleasing manners, by impressive personal appearance. They have usually been men of ordinary attainment, with characters neither better nor worse than the middle classes of their race. Once in office they have usually grown in efficiency and character. On the whole, then, this experiment in negro government has been distinctly encouraging. It has brought forward men varying in character, some good and some bad, but on the whole decency and ability have been decidedly in the ascendancy, and the church has prospered.^ Equally significant of administrative capacity are the multifarious denominational activities of the Baptists through their local and state bodies and their General Convention and Missionary Boards. In short, these enormous and complicated social engines actually work under exclusively black control. As human institutions, the churches have made most astounding strides. On the material side, they count M t ■ 1 FT IH- ^o'^^ 25,000 church edifices. Frequently, as ings and in representative cities like Macon and Mo- Business bile, these rank in quality with the better '^ ^^ public buildings. The total property of the negro denominations is probably worth $40,000,000. Their combined annual expenditure approaches $10,000,- 000, at least $250,000 of which goes to education under church control. Negro Baptists support eighty schools, and the largest of the Methodist bodies twenty-five. ' "The Negro Church," Atlanta University Publications, No. 8, p. 130. """ [150] WHAT THE NEGRO HAS DONE FOR HIMSELF Many of these are of extremely low grade, doing but crudely work which the state ought to be doing for its citizens. On the contrary, the best, like Wilberforce Uni- versity, Ohio, rank with the first negro schools in the country. The educational work of the negro churches has of course had much help from white philanthropy, especially that of the North. To counterbalance this, however, it should be noted that many schools supported by Northern missionary agencies show a large tuition income from their negro pupils. About twenty official periodicals of standing and a horde of local sectarian papers constitute probably the most widely influential religious press of America. The Baptist Publication House for the difl^usion of religious and denominational literature is one of the most extensive of race enterprises. It occupies four brick buildings on one of the chief business thoroughfares of Nashville, Tennessee. The plant consists of a large first-class steam- boiler, two engines, a complete electric plant, a com- plete system of telephones, with a well-regulated set of the most improved power printing-presses, a well- regulated bindery, with all the machinery and equip- ment that is commonly attached to the most modern printing and publishing plant, together with a com- plete composing room, with all of the modern para- phernalia, including linotype machines. This plant, with its stock, is fully worth to the denomination $100,000 and if it were in a stock company its stock, if placed at $100,000, would sell in the market at par, and its income would pay a creditable dividend.^ The annual circulation of religious publications through this agency exceeds five and one-half million copies, while ' "The Negro Church," Atlanta University PubHcations, No. 8, p. 114. CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH as employers of labor this and similar ecclesiastical enter- prises furnish a means of support to thousands of negroes. Descriptions of the working status of typical negro Working churches, for the rural district, the town Status of the and the city respectively, are borrowed Negro Church from competent first-hand studies by the Atlanta Conference. Thomas County is situated in extreme southwest Georgia, within twenty miles of the northern boun- The Rural dary line of Florida. According to the Church census of 1900, the negro population was 17,450. Among this population there are ninety- eight churches. These churches represent all denom- inations, Baptist predominating, there being only one Episcopal and two Congregational churches. This number gives the actual churches which we have been able to learn of. It will be a safe estimate to affirm that about twenty per cent of this number may be added, of which we failed to learn. This will give a church for every one hundred and fifty persons, and here it might be said that, unlike much of our American population, the negro is well churched. It is his only institution and forms the center of his public life. He turns to it not only for his spiritual wants, but looks toward it as the center of his civilization. Here he learns the price of cotton or the date of the next circus ; here is given the latest fashion-plates or the announcement for candidates for justice of the peace. In fact, the white office-seeker has long since learned that his campaign among the negroes must be begun in the negro church, and by a negro preacher. These ninety-eight institutions in Thomas County, like those of many other counties, have interesting his- Tin; Ya.machaw Section, Savannah, Ga. ^■1 itilri ■ '^n mI 8 1 liilll Negro Tenements, Charleston, S. C. These and twenty more have as sole water-supply an open dipping well WHAT THE NEGRO HAS DONE FOR HIMSELF tories. About half this number represent the churches whose beginning has been normal, the natural out- growth of expansion. The other half's history is checkered. Their rise can almost invariably be traced to one or two methods. First, there is the proverbial split. A careful study of the roll of membership in many of the churches will reveal the second method. Some brother is called to preach. This call is so thun- derous, and the confidence that he can make a better preacher than the present pastor so obtrusive, that he soon finds that there is little welcome in the sacred rostrum of the old church. He therefore takes his family and his nearest relatives and moves away. Study the rolls, therefore, of many of the churches, and you will find that they are largely family churches, and that the first preacher was some venerable patri- arch. I think one will be perfectly safe in concluding that two-thirds of the growth in churches of the vari- ous denominations has been made in this way ; and that little has been accomplished by the church execu- tives as the result of direct effort at church extension. It will be readily seen that churches having their origin in this way merely duplicate the old institution ; often it is not a creditable duplicate. I know of no rural church in Thomas County whose inception had the careful nursing of an educated, cultured leader. Others have labored and we have entered into their labors. The largest churches and the biggest preach- ers in Thomas County do little home missionary work and organize no new churches.^ Contrasted with its feeble and socially divisive rural The Village influence is the typically central place of Church the church in the small town, as revealed by a study of Farmville, Virginia. * "The Nef^o Church," Atlanta University Publications, No. 8, p. 57. __ CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH The church is much more than a religious organ- ization ; it is the chief organ of social and intellectual intercourse. As such it naturally finds the free demo- cratic organizations of the Baptists and Methodists better suited to its purpose than the strict bonds of the Presbyterians or the more aristocratic and cere- monious Episcopalians. Of the 262 families of Farm- ville, only one is Episcopalian and three are Presby- terian ; of the rest, twenty-six are Methodist and 218 Baptist. In the town of Farmville there are three colored church edifices, and in the surrounding coun- try there are three or four others. The cliief and overshadowing organization is the First Baptist Church of Farmville. It owns a large brick edifice on Main Street. The auditorium, which seats about 500 people, is tastefully furnished in light wood, with carpet, small organ, and stained-glass windows. Beneath this is a large assembly room with benches. This building is really the central club-house of the community, and in greater degree than is true of the country church in New England or the West. Various organizations meet here, entertainments and lectures take place here, the church collects and dis- tributes considerable sums of money, and the whole social life of the town centers here. The unifying and directing force is, however, religious exercises of some sort. The result of this is not so much that recrea- tion and social life have become stiff and austere, but rather that religious exercises have acquired a free and easy expression and in some respects serve as amusement-giving agencies. For instance, the camp- meeting is simply a picnic, with incidental sermon and singing ; the rally of the country churches, called the "big meeting," is the occasion of the pleasantest social intercourse, with a free barbecue; the Sunday-school convention and the various preachers' conventions are [154] WHAT THE NEGRO HAS DONE FOR HIMSELF occasions of reunions and festivities. Even the weekly Sunday service serves as a pleasant meeting and greeting place for working-people, who find little time for visiting during the week. From such facts, however, one must not hastily form the conclusion that the religion of such churches is hollow or their spiritual influence bad. While under present circumstances the negro church cannot be simply a spiritual agency, but must also be a social, intellectual, and economic center, it nevertheless is a spiritual center of wide influence; and in Farmville its influence carries nothing immoral or baneful.^ Atlanta, with a colored population in 1900 of 35,727, had fifty-four negro churches, twenty-nine of which were The City Baptist, twenty-one Methodist, while four be- Church longed to other denominations. The total membership was upwards of 16,000, of which the Bap- tists had over 10,000. The combined value of church property was upwards of $250,000, and their annual in- come nearly $52,000. The most significant thing about the statistics was the fact that the reported active mem- bership averaged little more than one-half the total mem- bership claimed. Detailed investigations discover that the Methodist membership is the most homogenous. It consists of the families of laborers with a sprinkling from the business and professional classes. In education they rank from fair to poor. Most of its ministers are men of charac- ter with moderate degrees of education. The Baptist churches, on the contrary, seem to fall into two extremes. They are either composed of an extremely poor and de- * "The Negro Church," Atlanta University Publications, No. 8, pp. 81-82. CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH graded membership, with unclean, miserably lighted, and unhealthy places of worship, and with pastors to match; or of the more influential classes. Some of the Baptist pastors are men of commanding popular gifts, but they generally tend to display rather than to solid attain- ment. A small and select minority, the intellectual and moral elite of Atlanta, are in the Congregational, Episco- pal, and Northern Methodist churches. ■'^ Passing from its social and economic phases to the central question of the negro churches' efficiency as a Moral and moral and spiritual power, we need in fair- Spiritual ness to confess the shortcomings of most Efficiency white churches in these directions. Human brotherhood is undeniably a chief comer-stone of the Christian religion, but race antipathy has not yet been overcome by the white churches, either South or North. The religious shortcomings of the negro churches have been merely at somewhat different points from those of the white. These points are chiefly five: (1) They have frequently subordinated worship to amusement. Tliis is partly due to the poverty of the race in social institutions. The church, in order to serve its people, has had to be a substitute for theater, lyceum, political club, and general social center. It has truly served in these things as well as in its spiritual ministries, but it has proportionately overdone them. (2) Frequently the negro church has tolerated lax moral standards both among ministry and membership, particularly in financial and sexual matters. This deep stain is as bitterly confessed by the better negroes as it is bitterly charged by the white South. Direct evidence » See "The Negro Church," Atlanta University Publications, No. 8, pp. 78, 79. WHAT THE NEGRO HAS DONE FOR HIMSELF from a wide field of investigation shows that slow gains are being made in these matters. ( 3 ) The negro church has been to a sad degree the field of selfish exploitation by unprincipled leaders, who sought financial or political gains through ecclesiastical power. Success has more largely centered upon the personality of the pastor than in any white denomination. Churches have been known to gain as many as a thousand members under one pastor, only to lose them all when he left. But institutional stability is rapidly growing and is curb- ing such abnormal individual control. (4) Sometimes the negro church has not only failed to sense the best tendencies of race development, but has obstinately opposed and subordinated them. Neither Mr. Washington nor the friends of higher education have found much genuine sympathy in the negro ecclesiastics. The leadership of the race in its larger, more fundamental, and, especially, its national relations has been with the schools rather than with the church. (5) Finally, the negro church has been almost entirely blind to the fundamental social problems of the varied and rapidly developing groups within the race. It has been of very little service in the adjustment of the negro to his peculiar and trying city conditions. The crucial problems of health, for example, and of social betterment in general, have remained almost untouched. Neither has the church been an agent of rural progress. At no point has it led in the more serious attempts to adjust the race to the new conditions of its life in America. The Atlanta Conference collected hundreds of opinions from representative negro laymen and Southern whites on these problems of the moral status of the negro church. __ CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH In general they indicated hopeful progress at all the weak points. A striking feature of them was the frequent recogni- tion of the exceptional character of the small but grow- Exceptional ing group of negro churches affiliated with Character of Northern denominations. These constitute AffiT^t^ ... but two per cent or less of the negro church Northern membership of America, but the testimony Denominations to their greatly disproportionate influence was decisive. A Southern planter, for example, answer- ing " No " to all questions of general improvement in the negro church, made the following exception: We have one good, honest, and reliable negro preacher in our community, and he is trying to raise the standard of living among his race. But he has an up-hill business to do so. The old negroes, as a whole, are a long ways better than the young ones. The negro preacher that I refer to is O. Faduma.^ Mr. Faduma is principal of the American Missionary Association school at Troy, North Carolina, and pastor Limitation to ^^ ^^^ Congregational Church. Naturally and within the type of church life which appeals to the the City masses of the race repels the cultured negro minority which is fully abreast with American civiliza- tion. These have largely affiliated themselves with the Northern denominations which have done the most for negro uplift and education. As class institutions, the churches of this select group have their peculiar weak- nesses and temptations. They lack contact with the com- munity, the masses of which, in turn, denounce them as " stuck up " ; they tend to forget patience and sympathy. * "The Negro Church," Atlanta University Publications, No. 8, p. 168. -_ WHAT THE NEGRO HAS DONE FOR HIMSELF I am acquainted with a considerable number of such churches — small, cultured, sober congregations, but non- aggressive, and tending to be selfish. This is the cen- tral difficulty with all exceptional groups. On the other hand, it is absolutely necessary for the negro church to develop standard-bearers, and the tonic effect of the two per cent has been deeply felt by the 98 per cent. Thus Professor Kelly MUer writes: Presbyterian and Congregational missionary socle- ties have spent many millions of dollars among the freedmen of the South, but the result is seen rather in the intellectual and moral uphft than in religious proselytism. The real advantage consists largely in the reflex influence upon the Methodist and Baptist denominations.^ When therefore the leaders of such select churches happen to be men of popular ability, outreaching zeal and social insight, they frequently reach places of command- ing influence. To them both white and black turn in the hour of clash and crisis, and the higher race-statesmenship is largely of their making. Their memberships are small, their salaries meager ; they are lonely men and the color- line draws cruelly across their hearts, yet many a high- salaried white preacher may well envy them their power. They have social authority such as is rarely given to men of equal ability, and many a Southern community sleeps peacefully to-night because a poorly paid but fully trained and great-hearted negro preacher stands as a daysman between the races. In the interest and esteem of some of the Northern mis- sionary boards this select type of negro church has been » Race Adjustment, p. 137. [159] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH rather an adjunct to educational institutions or an effort to aid groups of graduates to maintain their ideals in the midst of a low-grade society, than an attempt at a general denominational propaganda among the race. This is confessed by the Congregationalists, the attitude of whose missionary agency has been the occasion of sharp dissatisfaction on the part of the more aggressive of their colored ministry. These feel the sting of ecclesias- tical littleness and are ambitious that the best should minister to the average life of the race. Depending or- dinarily, as these churches have done, upon the presence of sufficient groups of cultured negroes, they have cliiefly been limited to the city. Within a few years, however, the extension of educa- tional influences combined with general rural progress has Exceptional created a demand in many country places Cases of Rural for a more intelligent type of religious Success leadership. Movements of revolt from the domination of the old illiterate and immoral ministers have turned to the churches which, under Northern aus- pices, have always maintained the higher standards. Thus there has developed a number of thriving groups of strictly rural Congregational churches. This body has probably the most select membership of any, yet its suc- cess with the rank and file of the race has been proved in limited areas. Such enterprises could now be infinitely multiplied if financial support were provided. Their gen- eral race significance will be more largely proved in the future. The story of almost any one of these rural enterprises shows splendid devotion. Recently, near Rockingham, North Carolina, a little church of eight adult members built a thousand dollar edifice. The pastor, trained in a fl6ol ^^^I^^H^^qK^T^iS w — , r^^'A^ iy ^^y^^^^i T'^^^'^^^^j ^^^K^nnSl^ ^^^Tv. Hit |r,4iB^ ^^J^*^- ' ':'!:;uJ"!ii Ba|i .-:/ ijf^UI IP^HHaHili^^ Servants' Quarters in Rear of a Modern Meaiphis Home The Cotton Levee, New Orleans, with Negro Longshoremen WHAT THE NEGRO HAS DONE FOR HIMSELF mission school, was chief carpenter, and every member had some physical share in the construction. They worked three or four days in each week. A deacon gave forty days' labor, besides working at night till midnight or after. His wife and daughters hauled the lumber from the sawmill. At night the women sawed boards, held lights, and cheered the men at their task by singing plantation melodies. A widow, living by washing and ironing, con- tributed in work and cash $20. The pastor's share was $110. It was a labor of apostolic simplicity and sacrifice. Out of church extension funds, a great denomination gave $200 of the cost, yet the building essentially represents what the negro is doing for himself, and shows how he does it. Since its erection the white neighbors, in appre- ciative and friendly emulation, have repaired and painted their inferior church. Typical of the transmission of influence to the country through the products of the higher schools is the story of a Louisiana pastor, Rev. M. W. Whitt, of Belle Place Congregational Church, New Iberia, Louisiana, as given by Pres. Frank G. Woodworth: Mr. Whitt is a graduate of the Normal Depart- ment of Tougaloo and of Howard Theological Semi- nary. Fifteen years ago he went to Belle Place as pastor of an American Missionary Association church. The record of his early days there is of profound in- terest, but is another story. So also is the history of the religious transformations wrought, though they have economic consequences and value. It is only with the more strictly economic side that we have present concern. When he reached Belle Place in 1892 the church organization was a complete wreck, having gone from one hundred members to three, and n [161] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH two of the three were not in regular standing. The church building was little more than a cow shed, with no ceiling or sashes. There was only one home owner in the parish. To-day there is an edifice that would be an honor to any town or city in the state, paid for, every dollar paid by the people themselves, who keep the property well insured. The church has now eighty-five members — no slight achievement for col- ored Congregationalism, which with its standards must at present grow slowly among the negroes. The families number thirty, and fifteen of these, stimulated by Mr. Whitt's teaching and example, now own their own places. Three of the home owners have about $3000 of property each. Mr. Whitt has a home that cost $1500, owns twenty shares in a building and loan association (valued at $200 dollars a share), paying in twenty dollars a month for nearly the past ten years to secure it, and he and his wife own three lots in New Orleans, for one of which he has refused $650. It is doubtful if many ministers have been of more economic value to the community than this American Missionary Association product, whose thrift has in no wise lessened the earnestness of his study or of his religious life and teaching. The work which he has done in the suppression of vice and intemper- ance has been of very definite economic value. To cite but one example: said a deacon of a neighboring church, " I have been in the church eighteen years, and it seemed to me that if I did n't get drunk Christ- mas I had n't done my duty. I was brought up so. But one Sunday night just before Christmas I went to Brother Whitt's church. I left my flask of whisky under the steps and went in. I listened to him tell- ing what Christmas meant, how it should be kept, and how almost everybody about, including Christians, desecrated the day by drinking and getting beastly [Tm] WHAT THE NEGRO HAS DONE FOR HIMSELF drunk and how families are made to suffer. I said in that church I would go home and stop drinking and stop renting land. To-day I have a home that cost $1000, paid for, and Elder Whitt is the cause of it." This is typical of the economic value of the Associa- tion's work through the men it has trained. To the rule of social complacency and non-aggressive- ness on the part of the select city churches there are bril- A Ex liant exceptions. The most notable in the tional City Congregational fellowship is the First Church Church, Atlanta. It is recognized as in- cluding the best negroes of the city, and probably no col- ored church anywhere has a higher average of character and intelhgence in its ranks. At the same time it has long maintained a slum mission and other persistent activities for the uplift of the more degraded classes. Its pastor, the Rev. H. H. Proctor, D.D., a Fisk University and Yale graduate, is a man of race-wide influence. He has served as assistant moderator of the national body of his denomination. He rendered eminent service in inter- racial efforts for order and justice after the Atlanta riot. The church property occupies a central location in the city, and its main edifice has just been added to the ex- isting chapel. The completed property is worth toward $70,000, and the equipment for institutional work makes the church unique among negro religious enterprises. Such an attempt to meet the social problems of negro city populations in an outreaching spirit of service, besides being eminently Christian, is of fundamental importance to a race which is popularly judged by its worst, for whom its best are held accountable. Indeed, the deepest moral problem before the better negro classes is whether they will withhold themselves from an energizing fellowship [ 163 1 CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH with their weaker brethren, or whether they will put their own strength under the need of those whose fate they so often have to share. Most of the organized philanthropic efforts of the American negro have been in connection with his churches ; Negro though outside of church influence co- Philanthropy operative efforts have established many and varied institutions. In all, the negro is supporting some sixty homes and orphanages, more than thirty hospitals, besides hundreds of cemeteries. Recently a number of commendable enterprises for the protection and redemp- tion of the child-criminal have been undertaken by negro women's clubs in various states. Among the select city groups flourish manifold other institutions of the higher life, expressing its interest in Other Institu- literature, music, art, philanthropy, polite tions of the intercourse and race ideals. The message of Higher Life such a negro poet as Dunbar, of a painter like Tanner, a composer like Coleridge Taylor, actors like Walker and Williams, a scholar and essayist like Professor DuBois or a statesman like Mr. Washington is, of course, far wider than the race. It appeals to the whole nation and indeed to the world. But its first appeal is to the negro minority, their peers. There are thousands of negroes who honor and appreciate the works of eminent genius which their race has produced. There are women's clubs with complete national and state organizations ; dig- nified associations for the discussion of public questions, such as the Sumner Club of Charleston, which has a history of thirty years. The annual musical festivals of the Coler- idge Taylor Club of Washington are superb artistic events. At a banquet of the Strieby Congregational Club one might shut his eyes and never be conscious that he was not -_ . WHAT THE NEGRO HAS DONE FOR HIMSELF attending a similar occasion in Boston. The tone of ser- vice and preaching in the First Congregational Church of Atlanta would appeal to the most exacting mind. In other words, there are select negro groups which not only equal but actually exceed the average of national attainment in many of the ideal realms. They think and feel and enjoy as do other select groups of Americans and live accordingly. To crown all this varied social evolution the negro has developed organs for the control of his further growth. Evolution of These appear as two temperamental parties, Organized — radicals and conservatives — whose chief Group Control respective exponents are the " Niagara Movement " led by Dr. DuBois over against Mr. Wash- ington and his followers. These parties have found mul- tiform agencies of expression and appeal both to the race and to the nation ; a vigorous press, an extremely able controversial literature, devices for public agitation and for bringing political pressure. One may laugh if he will at the squabbles of the negro on his side of the color-line. Yet through them the race is beating into shape a disci- plined and well-officered army, under experienced leader- ship. It is following the universal method of learning democratic efficiency. The temperamental extremes in any group must find themselves, organize, and fight out a bal- ance between themselves. Thus the seethings of negro sentiment are a deep factor in present American history. This " ostracized race in ferment " is fitting itself to play a larger part in the common life. It is forging weapons of group consciousness and control which will some day give its now voiceless power, wisdom, dignity, and weight in the counsels of the Republic. [wT] VI. A BACKGROUND FOR BLACK I. DUBIOUS VERDICTS FROM CONFLICTING FACTS ONE whose lot it is sometimes to address Northern churches in behalf of negro education soon learns to his sorrow to distinguish between an audience interested and an audience convinced, a distinction which Ten Thousand ^^^^^ registers itself in the size of the col- vs. Ten lection. Such a description of varied mis- Milbon sionary activities as we have attempted in the earlier chapter appeals to those who are chiefly moved by concrete situations, but in the minds of the more judi- cious there frequently remain thoughts like this — and sometimes they speak them forth. What is the average daily attendance of these schools you have been telling about.'' Probably ten thousand. How many negroes are at present under the direct influence of your whole group of missionary activities.? Possibly one hundred thousand. What proportion of American negroes have reached a normal standard of character and civilization.'' We speak roughly of the " talented tenth " — possibly one million. And how many negroes are there in America.'' Nearly ten million. Are the things which are true of the ten thousand, the hundred thousand, and the million, true also of the ten million.'' However promising the exception, however suc- cessful the agencies of uplift with the few, however inter- esting and worthy the work for which support is asked, what about general race tendencies.'' Assure us, if you can, that your hopeful story is not related to a mere frag- ment of the race — say, that which shares wliite blood — while the main currents of the American negro's life -— A BACKGROUND FOR BLACK plunge down toward the abyss. In answer to such just and inevitable questions, it is the purpose of this chapter to declare the things which are true of the ten million. The critics and the defenders of the American negro have fought a drawn battle hitherto, and chiefly because Unconvincing of defective tactics on both sides. On the Optimism one hand there is the Booker T. Washington school of optimists, whose chief resource has been the cataloguing of case after case of negro success. Here is this man and that man and another negro who have made good. Every time Mr. Washington comes North he has a new lot of men. Every article he writes has new cases. Stubbornly and truthfully he reiterates from year to year the story of thousands upon thousands of successful ne- groes. The trouble with this method is that over against it one can bring a case of failure to offset each case of success, and probably the failures are in one's own kitchen or barnyard, while the successful ones are far away. The outcome is that this method does not convince. It has not convinced the South where most of the successful negroes are, and the nation at large, though impressed, is unsatis- fied. The mere enumeration of hopeful facts, however massive, cannot justify optimism. It is not enough to enumerate; one must weigh the facts. If it be true that no people less than half a century out of bondage ever made such magnificent gains as the Doubts as to American negro has, it is just as true of Relative Americans in general. There is no such Progress human record as that which our country has made since the Civil War. Has the progress of the negro been in proportion to the general progress? In spite of his tremendous absolute gains, has he really kept pace with the rest of the nation? I confess that I am not so [1671 CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH sure. When, thinking of the negro, we proclaim : " Saul has slain his thousands," must we not also add: "And David his ten thousands " ? As things are now going, would not white America gradually pull ahead of negro America, and forever increase the gap between? But optimism faces a still deeper difficulty, namely: That the present deficiencies of the negro — - which his best friends must measure and confess — are in matters so serious and so fundamental that if present tendencies hold, he is certainly doomed. No amount of progress on other lines could possibly overcome bis deep failure in these fun- damental respects. When the dark charges against him are formulated, they are found to be chiefly three: 1. He is deficient in physical stamina; 2. He lacks the fundamental economic virtues ; 3. He is excessively immoral. Whoever is deficient in these things is doomed, if his de- ficiencies continue. For the first and third charges there exists what looks like authoritative proof. According to the census statis- A Fighting ties, the American negro's death-rate is twice Chance that of the white population ; and his prison population is two and one-half times as great as liis pro- portion in the general population. His economic weakness is supposed to be established by the facts that his numbers have absolutely decreased in some of the skilled trades and relatively decreased in others ; that, especially in the Northern cities, skilled negro workmen are frequently forced out of trades into j anitor's and porter's work ; and that the South widely testifies that as a laborer the negro is deteriorating. These are grave charges and supported by ugly facts. They are frequently and unnecessarily overstated. At best they are bad enough, and nothing but A BACKGROUND FOR BLACK the most adequate answer to them will avail to save pop- ular faith in the negro. No critic of the race can be more anxious to have the nation know how precarious the negro's future is, than his friends should be. It is no easy battle he has before him ; therefore he needs our help the more desperately. The most any one dare contend for him is that he has a fighting chance. II. NEED OF A SOCIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND Whether such a fighting chance will be allowed depends ultimately not upon the naked facts, nor even upon the „, ., , discovery that some of them are seriously ad- rhilosophy '' , , -^ always Present verse to the negro, but upon their interpre- in the Interpre- tation. For, after all is said and done, every tation of Facts .i- i .i ui i. tnmker on the race problem, however scien- tific and unbiased, consciously or unconsciously brings a social philosophy to the interpretation of his facts. He puts them on a certain background, and the background gives them their color. Any woman can testify that a piece of dress goods in the shops does not look as it will when it is made up and worn. Its appearance changes with its setting. In the laboratory, patches of different colors are put upon different backgrounds and are found to take on complementary hues. I recall a story with a plot hke this : A woman desiring to humiliate her social rival set about it by discovering the color of her rival's best frock. Then she invited her to a place of ostensible honor at a social function and set her over against a background which turned her charms into horrors. This is what the popular judgment, and frequently social investigators as well, have done for the negro. They have put the distress- ing facts of his present deficiencies upon the background __ CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH of a racial interpretation which makes them look blacker than they are. The real issue is whether the negro's present deficiencies — which certainly doom him if like tendencies hold — are The Real inevitable and necessarily permanent, or re- Issue mediable and only temporary. Do they be- long to the negro as a negro ? Are they due to hereditary traits, predestined or unescapable tendencies of blood ; or to social handicaps, to conditions which men can control? If the latter the negro has a fighting chance, and it is the duty of just men to help him in his fight. The dominant social doctrine of yesterday held the for- mer view and recent champions of the South, with much The Failure of ^^^^ ^^ belated learning, still reiterate it. Race as an But a revolutionary change meanwhile has Explanation come over the science of sociology by which an ever-narrowing sphere is allotted to heredity, and an ever-increasing sphere ascribed to social control. One of the brilliant younger sociologists. Prof. E. A. Ross of Wisconsin University (the man who coined the term " race suicide," and started a President a-preaching to the nation on that evil), summarizing a world-wide sur- vey of recent tendencies in sociology, puts the case thus : — The superiorities that, at a given time, one people may display over other peoples, are not necessarily racial.^ More and more the time-honored appeal to race is looked upon as the resource of ignorance or indolence. To the scholar the attributing of the mental and moral traits of a population to heredity is a confes- sion of defeat, not to be thought of until he has ' Ross, Foundations of Sociology, p. 353. A BACKGROUND FOR BLACK wrung from every factor of life its last drop of explanation.^ Note the order of explanation ; for this Is the kernel of the thought. We are to cry " race " last of all, after we have reckoned with every other factor, every nearer and more obvious cause. Then if there is something left of the negro's deficiency, which belongs to him as a negro, one must confess it ; but not until from every social factor has been wrung its last drop of significance. In the present issue, merely to set the negro's defi- ciencies against their specific sociological background is to steal away much of their sharpness. This does not mean that the race factor has no influence, but that, when the general charge of malign race traits is forced to be- come explicit, when each alleged hereditary shortcoming is isolated and the nearest and most obvious explanation applied to it, the racial residuum, if any, is harmless. ra. ALLEGED RACIAL TRAITS AND THEIR SOCIO- LOGICAL EXPLANATIONS 1. The Negroes Inferior Physical Stamina Black Americans have a double death-rate. Waiving the facts that the statistics on which this conclusion is based are inadequate (and the census confesses as much), the best conclusion available is that, though the death- rates of both are declining, black Americans are now dying nearly if not quite twice as fast as white.^ This * Ross, Foundations of Sociology, p. 309. * Census Bulletin 8, Negroes in the United States, p. 64 ; Willcox, " Census Statistics of the American Negro," in Stone, Studies in the American Race Problem, pp. 490 ff. [rrT] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH proportion holds for the total population and also for infants. In such cities as Savannah, Georgia, five negroes die to every three whites. Considering the most fatal diseases, it is found that the negro proportion of death from tuber- culosis is three to one ; from marasmus — a wasting dis- ease, generally of children — five to three ; from malarial fever, five to three ; from pneumonia, two to one. On the other hand, it is to be noted that in recent United States army examinations of candidates for enlistment negroes have made a slightly better showing than whites. A South- ern commentator thinks tliis is because military service appeals to the best class of negroes, but only to the poorer class of whites. Again, it is most pertinent to note that extra-excessive mortality is chiefly a city phenome- non. Nothing, however, at present known can obviate the conclusion that the negro's outlook for health, though not hopeless, is extremely dubious. This excessive death-rate is by no means overcome, as some suppose, by the still more excessive negro birth- The Nearo's rate. The birth-rate of both races is declin- Double Death- ing, but that of the negro much more *'^*® rapidly. During the last twenty years of the nineteenth century the decline in the proportion of Southern negro children was 160 and that in the proportion of Southern white children only 75.^ While the black population of the South has doubled since the Civil War, the white population, virtually without ' Willcox, "Census Statistics of the Negro," in Stone, Studies in the American Race Problem, p. 507. [172] A BACKGROUND FOR BLACK the aid of immigration, has tripled. If this ratio continues the negro is doomed to be an ever-diminishing fraction of the population. Between 1890 and 1900 the relative in- crease in the South Atlantic states was, negro 14 per cent, white 20 per cent ; in the South Central states, negro 20 per cent, whites 30 per cent. The final result, as shown in the relative proportion of the race in the South, is, therefore, that the negro is losing Racial Inter- ground. What now is the significance of pretation of the these facts ? Is it that the negro has an Death-rate inferior constitution, that nature made him a weakling, that God is responsible and no one can help it.'' On the assumption that inferior physical stamina is a racial trait. Southern oracles, following a Northerner, Prof. W. F. Willcox of Cornell, have prophesied the ultimate extinction of the negro in America, It is in- teresting, however, to note how vastly the ardor of a prophet enlarges the cautious conclusion of the statisti- cian. Should the present ratio of increase in the two races prevail until 2000 a.d. there would then be in the South thirty-three million negroes to one hundred and fifty-five million whites, but the negro would constitute only 17.6 per cent of the population of which he now constitutes 32.4 per cent. Two thousand a.d. is a long way off, and a negro population of 17.6 per cent might still constitute a race problem of considerable difficulty. No one can safely prophesy whether or not the present ratio of in- crease will continue. A good many things are likely to happen to modify it. Yet to the author of " The Color- Line " it seems certain that " the general movement of the life of a continent is toward the elimination of the African-American."^ Dr. Smith's jubilation at such a ' Smith, The Color-Line, p. 21.5. [ml CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH divinely ordained result is both sincere and ludicrous ; and even a just and generous mind like President Alderman's cannot forbear to utter a note of sectional exaltation at the alleged prospect. Are Professor Smith and President Alderman willing to undertake and to work to their legitimate finish per- fectly obvious measures tending to defeat their own prophesies? A considerable part, at least, of the negro's present death-rate is absolutely unnecessary ; its present causes are very largely environmental, such as bad sani- tation, poor housing, lack of proper clothing and food. In the mayor's report of the city of Savannah for 1906, one reads something like this : " Ours is one of the most crowded cities in the South. Its oldest districts, especially, furnish too little light and air for the health of the people. It is now recognized also that the furnishing of means of recreation to its citi- zens is part of the function of a modern city. We need more parks both for the physical and the moral good of the people." But who occupies the more crowded quar- ters of old Savannah.? The negro. Is he allowed to use the present municipal parks, and will he be admitted to the new ones.'' No. A negro or two may pass through a park of Savannah, but by unwritten law the negro popu- lation is forbidden to make the parks places of recreation. They cannot use them for any purpose for which they are ordained and supported, partly by negro taxes. Are parks for the majority.'' Then they are for the negro. Are they for the more needy.'* He is most needy. A Savannah negro mother cannot take her child to a park as a relief from her stifling alley ; she may take a white child. The new municipal playgrounds, for which the mayor pleads, will not be available for black boys. A group of colored [174] A BACKGROUND FOR BLACK young people cannot enjoy a picnic there under the sway- ing moss of the Hve-oaks ; a gang of colored laborers cannot rest there at noontime. Yet the alleys of Savan- nah are lined with negro houses. The block in which Beach Institute is located, and every block in that region, has long rows of disreputable alley tenements, where filth and bad sanitation contaminate the air, and menace the crowded and racidly increasing colored population. A visitor writes, The last time I was entertained at the Mission Home my colored next-door neighbor emptied her dish-water from a window less than six feet from my own down into a sunless place between buildings. What does Savannah expect.'' Why should not the Savannah negro die.'' Social investigators have explored such alley homes time and time again, and probation officers have followed the records of children who come out of them. There is no obscurity about their fruits. It is a suggestive fact that the municipal jail is not far away. Dr. W. F. Brunner, the city health officer, understands the case perfectly well and puts it thus: We face the following issues: First, one set of people, the Caucasian, with a normal death-rate of less than sixteen per thousand per annum, and right alongside of them is the negro race with a death-rate of twenty-five to thirty per thousand. Second: The first named race furnishing a normal amount of crimi- nals and paupers, and the second race of people fur- nishing an abnormal percentage of lawbreakers and paupers. CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH Is the negro receiving a square deal? Let a commission investigate the houses he hves in : Why, in his race, is tuberculosis increasing; why furnishes he his enormous quota to the chain-gang and the penitentiary ; investigate the industrial insurance companies, the money lenders, the instalment furni- ture dealers, and, finally, the matter of the surplus population, which is a most potent factor in produc- ing that class of persons which is dangerous to this community and must contaminate its health and prosperity. . . . The negro is with you for all time. He is what you will make him, and it is " up " to the white people to prevent him from becoming a criminal and to guard him against tuberculosis, syphilis, etc. If he is tainted with disease you will suffer; if he develops criminal tendencies you will be affected. You cannot observe these things without going where he lives in colonies in this city. Investigate them, and you will soon learn that if he desired to improve his sanitary con^ dition he could not do it. Observe the house he must live in; the food that he must eat, and learn of all his environments. This is no sentimental dissertation; it is a state- ment of cold-blooded facts that is of as much value to the whites as it is to the negroes.^ The cemetery is open. The mayor's report takes pains to say that, whereas the white portion has been beautified with trees and shrubs, the negro portion has been kept clean and in good condition, and fenced off and separated from the other by a new barbed wire fence, " making each portion distinctive," Here the Savannah negro's body is laid away after being poisoned to death. There is noth- » Mayor's Report, 1907, pp. 162-164. __ A BACKGROUND FOR BLACK ing racial about it. Any one would die who had the same kind of experience. I know a Charleston alley lined with thirty-two negro tenement houses. In the midst of the alley, its sole source of water supply, is an open dipping well, Charleston i i i • ±_ • i i /^ ii • surrounded by a sixteen-mch curb. Un this curb all the people of the thirty-two houses do their wash- ing. They dip into the well any dish that comes to hand, and any contaminated cup from any one of the thirty-two families might give disease to all; but specific contamina- tion would not make much difference, for the water in the well all leaches in from the near-by marshes which are dumping-grounds for the city filth. Further interesting facts about Charleston are set forth with rather muck- rakish fervor in a recent article by Samuel Hopkins Adams : In the matter of the cisterns, for instance. Charles- ton now has a good city water supply fairly free from contamination where it starts, and safely filtered be- fore it reaches the city. But a great many of " our best citizens " prefer their own cisterns, on the grand- father principle. These are underground, for most part, and are regularly supplied from the roof drain- age. Also they are intermittently supplied by leak- age from adjacent privy vaults, Charleston having a very rudimentary and fractional sewerage system. Therefore typhoid is not only logical but inevitable. I have no such revolutionary contempt for private rights as to deny the privilege of any gentleman to drink such form of sewage as best pleases him ; but when it comes to supplying the public schools with this poison, the affair is somewhat different. Yet, as far as the Charleston Board of School Commissioners has felt constrained to go, up to date, is this: They 12 [ 177 ] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH have written to the city physician asking that " oc- casional inspection " of the cisterns be made, and decorating their absurd request with ornamental platitudes. With sewage it is the same situation. There is, indeed, a primitive sewer system in part of the city, but any attempt to extend it meets with a determined and time-rooted opposition. The Charlestonians are afraid of sewer gas, but apparently have no fear of the filth which generates sewer gas ; said filth accumu- lated in Charleston's streets subject only to the at- tention of the dissipated-looking buzzards, which are one of the conservative and local features of the place. I have seen these winged scavengers at work. It is not an appetizing sight. . . . Throughout the South figures and conditions alike are complicated by the negro problem. Southern cities keep a separate roster of mortalities, one for the whites, one for the blacks. In so far as they expect to be judged by the white rate alone, this is a manifestly unfair procedure, since, allowing for a certain racial excess of liability to disease, the negro in the South corresponds, in vital statistics, to the tenement dweller in the great cities. If New Orleans is to set aside its negro mortality, the death-rate among those living in the least favorable environ- ment, New York should set apart the deaths in the teeming rookeries east of the Bowery, the most crowded district in the world, and ask to be judged on the basis of what remains after that exclusion. New York, however, would be glad to diminish the mortality in its tenements. ;' New Orleans, Atlanta, Charleston, or Savannah would be loath to diminish their negro mortality../ That is the frank statement of what may seem a brutal fact.-^ ' McClure's Magazine, vol. xxxi, pp. 250-251. A BACKGROUND FOR BLACK If your mother, going out to work by the day, left you, an infant in the cradle, and a clumsy father, a careless Workino- elder sister, or a none too thoughtful neigh- Mothers and bor, had the care of you, you might not get Dying Infants proper things to eat, nor at the proper time. You might die. You would then ornament a sta- tistical table, and be pointed out as a racial tendency ; perhaps even charged up to the divine decrees. In pro- portion to population, more white women work in Fall River, Massachusetts, and more white babies die than anywhere else in the Union. The negro married woman is a breadwinner eight times as frequently as a white mar- ried woman, and her infants but follow the white's example. Thus the negro's phenomenal death-rate is largely a nec- essary consequence of the economic condition of his family. Part of the negro's excessive death-rate must certainly be credited to the mental effect of the sharp social tran- sition which he has undergone since his emancipation. Freedom brought new re- sponsibilities to which the race was unwonted, and the nation made no provision for the economic future of the ex-slave. He ceased to be a chattel only to become a pauper; but the death that he suffers as a poor man must not be credited to him as a negro. Its causes are social rather than racial. The nation needs to learn that men, including negroes, die for lack of hope. Depressed by their unequal struggle against poverty and social prejudices, many a black man loses all heart to live. Any one who has observed the feeble hold on life frequently exhibited by negro students will be convinced that the causes of death are largely men- tal. Life simply does not hold out sufficient incentive to keep breath in the body. Southern observers have fre- The Effects of Sudden Transi tion, and of Discourage- ment [179] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH quently noted the loss of cheerfulness since the emancipa- tion, and have credited it to the negro's incapacity to meet the responsibilities of freedom. To me it seems rather an unnecessary tragedy growing out of social prej- udice. It is the rebujff of his aspiration by the white man which discourages the negro to death. The part which vice plays in the death-rate is by no means to be minimized, and it has not been either by the Vice and the negro or his Northern friends. A majority Death-rate of the rejections of candidates for enlist- ment in the army was on account of venereal diseases. Immorality is an arch enemy of the race. Nevertheless, the zeal of the moral teacher may easily overstate the fact and miss the remedy. It will not do to assume that vice is a racial trait. Perhaps, like death, it may be traced to specific causes. However ominous, it is still preventable. Now when one subtracts the deaths which are due to poverty, to bad sanitation and to preventable diseases ; The Racial those which are due to social hardships Residuum which brotherliness may overcome ; and those which are due to vice which the race may conquer, how much is left as a general racial residuum indicating inferior physical stamina in the negro as such? C / • With respect to America as a physical environment, I believe we should admit that his deficiency is partially racial, in that the negro is only partially adapted to it. The mouth of the Mississippi is eighteen hundred miles north of the mouth of the Niger — as far as from New Orleans to Manitoba. When any people cross an ocean, even on the same isotherm, the new country puts it through a physical sifting. There are new diseases as well as new social conditions. Every migration is a selective crisis; how much more a migration accompanied by an extreme [180] A BACKGROUND FOR BLACK climatic change as that from Africa to America? The race as a whole has not been here long enough to complete its physical sifting. Slaves still filtered in even to the out- break of the Civil War, and slavery, which sifted its vic- tims barbarously along other lines, screened them some- what from nature's stern work.^ No people has ever been saved wholesale, and the negro cannot expect to be, espe- cially as he expands his geographical range, as in his present rapid migrations. In the cities of the North, he is subject to a fierce climatic sifting. Thus his death- rate in Chicago and Newark is almost as bad as it is in the less sanitary Southern cities. Social causes of mortality are reenforced by geographical causes there. On the other hand, the negro already has a physical advantage in the hotter, moister, and lower parts of the South. With respect to these environments, it is the white man who is sub j ect to a climatic sifting ; and, of the two, the negro has probably the greater capacity for acclimatization. Ross thinks " lack of adaptability a handicap, which the white man must ever bear in competing with black, yellow, or brown men,"^ and calls our race "physiologically inelastic." Again, the sifting of the negro by his new responsi- bilities as freedman is equally inevitable. Brotherliness, we argue, could prevent some of the deaths from hopeless- ness, but no one can guarantee, nor should be led to expect, that the whole race should be able to adapt itself to the part of freemen in a strenuous civilization. Of Israel's captivity also it was written, " A remnant shall return." The conclusion would seem to be that social justice could cut down the excessive negro death-rate largely, but not entirely. * See Tillinghast, The Negro in Africa and America, ch. iv. ' Ross, The Foundations of Sociology, p. 3.58. Tisn CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH I am afraid that social justice, which is still lacking for the poor white, will not reach the negro very soon. As- The Physical suming only a slow and gradual improve- Future of the ment of conditions, what do the facts suggest Negro g^g ^Q i\^Q probable future of his race in America? Do they necessarily indicate the negro's ex- tinction here? Will justice come too late to save him? I do not think so. The present excessive death-rate might mean the creation of a new racial variety through natural selection and the survival of the stronger. If one alterna- tive is extinction, another equally good is the emergence from this sifting of a better negro than the world ever saw before.^ Why is the Anglo-Saxon stronger than other races? What is the secret of his superiority? It is that so many of his race are dead. At some time in the past, and more than once, he had a highly excessive death-rate which killed off weaklings and left a stock stronger than the original variety. We have been sifted more frequently and more sternly than any other people ; consequently we, the remnant, are in some respects better than they. We could still be improved by the same grim method. Our race would be stronger if more of us were dead, but the con- science of Christendom revolts from such a policy of im- provement. By sanitation, medicine, philanthropy, the moral sense insists upon keeping alive the otherwise unfit. Enough suffering remains to wring our hearts but not enough to better our stock. From the negro alone, hith- erto, have been withlield the remedial resources of American civilization ; consequently his is probably the only Ameri- can group which is getting any constitutional good out of his tragedy. Its death-rate is actually so excessive that it may well be physically selective. Perhaps we should ' Giddings, Independent, February 14, 1906, p. 383. [182 1 A BACKGROUND FOR BLACK read in its grim statistics a story of the evolution of a more resistant type which, instead of being exterminated, will help to people the nation with a posterity adapted both to our climate and to our civilization. This is at least as safe a prophecy as that of extinction. Add to this, too, that, if the white population continues to pros- per more rapidly than the negro, it will continue to be more subject to the decreased birth-rate which always fol- lows upon an advancing standard of living. With the in- creasing wealth of their section. Southern whites, who hitherto have had large families, will commit race suicide, — and faster than the negro does. Thus the more re- sistant negro of the future may for a time multiply faster than the white and his race continue to bear as large a proportion in the general population as at present. At any rate, it is the part of common justice to eliminate all preventable social factors of the negro's physical inferi- ority, and with faith in both races to allow Providence to provide for the future. 2. The Negro's Precarious Economic Position A fair and conservative statement of the facts as statis- tically indicated is given by Prof. W. F. Willcox: In the industrial competition thus begun, the negro seems during the last decade to have slightly lost ground in most of those higher occupations in which the services are rendered largely to whites. He has gained in the two so-called learned professions of teachers and clergymen. He has gained in the two skilled occupations of miner or quarryman and iron or steel-worker. He has gained in the occupations, somewhat ill-defined so far as the degree of skill re- quired is indicated, as sawing-mill or planing-mill em- fissl CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH ployee, and nurse or midwife. He has gained in the class of servants and waiters. On the other side of the balance sheet he has lost ground in the South as a whole in the following skilled occupations : car- penter, barber, tobacco and cigar factory operative, fisherman, engineer or fireman (not locomotive), and probably blacksmith. He has lost ground also in the following industries, in which the degree of skill im- plied seems somewhat uncertain: laundry work, hack- man or teamster, steam railroad employee, house- keeper or steward. The balance seems not favorable. It suggests that in the competition with white labor to which the negro is being subjected he has not quite held his own.^ The racial interpretation of these facts is that the in- born indolence of Africa sleeps in the negro's blood. Racial Laziness is a virtue in the tropics. Nature Interpretation there selects the languid to survive. The negro simply lacks the inborn impulse to work with the degree of energy which is normal for the white man. A table of economic vices and virtues may thus be drawn out as racial contrasts. The white worker is energetic ; the negro lazy. The white worker is self-reliant; the negro servile. The white worker is reliable ; the negro is child- ishly unaccountable. The white worker is thrifty ; the negro utterly lacks a " compelling vision of the future." This contrast, it should be noted, incidentally takes grave liberties with the facts about Africa. That great conti- nent does not all lie in the banana belt. It has temperate table-lands which conduce to energy and it has millions by no means living without working.^ Prof. N. S. Shaler, * American Race Problems, pp. 493-494. ^ See Dowd, Negro Races, ch. xxxix, for a description and comparison of the different African "zones." f 184 1 A BACKGROUND FOE BLACK Kentuckian and Harvard professor, and Judge Emory Speer, of Georgia, justify their relatively high estimate of certain American negro types on the very ground of heredity. Some, they think, are descended from superior African groups whose native environment made for vigor and foresight. It seems hkely, however, that the majority of the forbears of the American negro came from less favorable parts of Africa. Following the clue of inborn laziness into the future, many reputable Southern the- orists, and with them some notable Northern authorities, predict his complete economic displacement. President Alderman, following Hoffman, argues that the negro can- not long hold the land which he already owns, while Alfred Holt Stone is convinced that immigrant labor, whenever it comes, will displace him as tenant farmer in the South. The prejudice and increasing competition of organized white labor is said to narrow and threaten his hold on in- dustry even where he has hitherto had an undisputed labor monopoly. Thus, on all sides, his outlook is dark. " Whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath." We will fall back upon the racial explanation if we must ; but remembering Professor Ross' warning, we would not Social be so cowardly or indolent as to resort to Alternatives it before we have exhausted the meaning of more obvious causes. We must first wring from every social explanation its last drop of significance. Since this man is dying twice as fast as we, it would be natural that the physical weakness which is killing him should make him drag before he dies. He who is about to die with a double death-rate will not be able to work with normal energy. So much is self-evident. And whether the negro is a good worker or not, he is a CHRISTIAN RECONSTEUCTION IN THE SOUTH worker in larger proportion than any other race. The ratio of breadwinners among Southern negroes exceeds Effects of Child ^^^^ among Southern whites by 15 per cent and Mother and chiefly in three classes, women, children, and old men, the excessive labor of women accounting for three-quarters of the difference. In pro- portion twice as many colored boys are breadwinners as white, five times as many colored girls as white, four times as many colored women as white, eight times as many colored married women as white, while 25 per cent more old negro men drag out their working lives after the years at which white men retire. Now when such things are true, the outcome is obvious. The child laborer is one who robs his own manhood of energy. He uses up vitality now which should have been reserved to make his maturity strong. All of the sluggish- ness and much of the mental deficiency of the negro is due to the too heavy burdens put upon his childhood. What happens when mothers work-f^ Their children are robbed. Unborn children come into the world weakened and con- tinue undernourished. Both the mother who must be the breadwinner, and also feed and attend her child, and the child who is born of that working mother, will drag their ways through life. The labor of white mothers and chil- dren is recognized as a social evil which stirs the conscience and arouses sympathy. Its result are perfectly well under- stood. The labor of negro women and children is taken for granted as part of their divinely ordained law and the results charged to racial deficiency. The old man who drags his decaying body through the fomns of work is an additional example of the negro's alleged indolence. But the physical aspect of the case is not the chief one. The social opportunity allowed the negro has not fur- A BACKGROUND FOR BLACK nished him with adequate motive to labor. Why do we, who possess normal energies, work? Because prizes are Lack of Social set before us. Experience, sociology, and Incentive common sense unite to declare that the real incentives to make men effective laborers are incentives of possible promotion, of social gain. A ladder is set before us and we are told that if we cHmb there is something for us at the top. The appeal may be to a sordid earthly ambition or to a high and noble ambition ; it must be to some sort of ambition. Only for a prize set before him will a man contend with all his might. Why is it that the peasantry of Europe do not work as those very peasants do when they come to America.'' Here they receive miraculous new energy. They keep step with our best progress ; their children rise to the highest places — to governorships, and seats in Congress, and the Cabinet — and why.? Simply because the social sys- tem in the Old World gave the peasant no opportunity, while the New World fills him with inspiration. Now the lot of the negro mi the South, ^as of the peasant in Europe, 0n^iA^ is one of repression through social prejudice. He is pushed ^4^«^$fc. on the far side of a color-line, within which there is no ^'^ <^ adequate incentive. Man does not live nor strive for bread alone. His full manhood will hear nothing less than some high calling. To make the case specific, the most damaging com- plaints about the negro as a laborer relate to the plan- The Case of tation hand of the lower South. Why is he the Plantation worse than other negroes.'' Because he lives Negro under a worse economic system, a system of forced labor, while in the cities, the factories, and in the agricultural uplands the negro is under the ordinary wage system. [1871 CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH The South declares that the negro will not work without compulsion and has shaped its policy accordingly. Iso- lated cases of men kept at forced labor by the blood- hound and the shotgun are of small moment compared with laws denying the fundamental principles of the rela- tion of free labor to its employers. The proof of peonage is not a matter of convicting this or that planter, but of analyzing the economic legislation of the South. The mass of negroes there live under a system expressly devised and intended to hold them to the soil. Their debts are legally collectable through forced labor, as no poor man's debts are collected anywhere else under civilization. Run- ning away from one's job, which in the North would be called " striking," a privilege guarded as the laborer's most essential prerogative, is in the South made a crime punishable by compulsory service.^ A special report on the Federal peonage investigations. Peonage made in December, 1907, by Assistant Attor- lavestigations ney-General Russell, characterizes the legal basis of these oppressions as follows: These state laws take various forms and are used in various ways to uphold peonage and other kinds of involuntary servitude. Some of them are vagrancy laws, some contract labor or employment laws, some fraudulent pretense or false promise laws, and there are divers others. Some few of them in question, such as absconding debtor laws, labor enticing, and board- bill laws, were not originally intended to enslave work- men, but in view of the uses to which they are put they need amendment in order that they cannot be so abused. These laws are used to threaten workmen, who, ' See Commons, Races and Immigrants in America, pp. 135-136. A BACKGROUND FOR BLACK having been defrauded into going to an employer by false reports as to the conditions of employment and the surroundings, naturally become dissatisfied. They are used before juries and the local public to hold peons up as lawbreakers and dishonest persons seek- ing to avoid their "just obligations," and to con- vince patriotic juries that the persons accused of peonage should not be convicted for enforcing, still less for threatening to enforce, the laws of their state. Whether constitutional or unconstitutional, they should all be wiped out or amended so as to be harm- less for the purpose of enslaving workmen. In view of this report a Florida representative shrieked in Congress: My God, what an affliction ! Charles W, Russell, a Southern man and a Democrat. " It is a dirty bird which befouls its own nest." Perhaps the Supreme Court of South Carolina is also an " affliction." It recently pronounced unconstitutional the labor contract laws of its state, declaring that the laborer cannot legally be punished for mere evasion of debt, but only if it can be proved that he entered into debt with " intent to defraud," A considerable part of the legis- lative session of 1908 was given to devising a new bill which should be " proof against Federal laws " and also " meet the demands of the farmers, who were considerably upset by the recent decision of Judge Brawley of said Supreme Court," ^ To this sectional attempt to secure his labor by compulsion rather than by incentive, the > Columbia State, February 4, 1908. CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH laborer has responded exactly as he should, by poor and grudging service. Hence the economic condemnation of the plantation negro. On the other hand, if one should actually take a poll to-day of the industrial employers of the South, they Industrial Em- ^'o^ld vote in favor of the negro as the best ployers favor laborer that they have, or think they could the Negro gg^^ 'pjjg negro on the farm is very widely condemned; in the industries very largely approved, as every investigation by Southerners has borne witness. Comprehensive inquiries were made in 1899, 1900, and 1901 by a leading industrial journal, The Chattanooga Tradesman, the results of which (as even Hoffman grudg- ingly admits ^ ) were " on the whole favorable to the negro as an industrial worker." He adds : " The significance of it is that so many should favor the negro as an indus- trial worker in view of the fault that is found with him as an agricultural laborer." - But the employer simply declares the facts as he knows them. Mr. O. J. Hill, of the Barrel Trust, tells me that their single plant, oper- ated exclusively by negro labor, runs more days in the year than any plant operated by white employees. I at- tended in Nashville the great Immigration Conference, along with six or seven Southern governors and repre- sentatives from every state and industry of that section. The burden of proof in that conference was upon the partisans of white, and especially of Italian immigrant labor as against negro labor ; and the South was not con- vinced. A mass of testimony and the great preponder- ance of opinion was that the negro is the very best laborer available for the South to-day. In fact, I never before • "Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro," p. 278. « Ibid., p. 273. -_ A BACKGROUND FOR BLACK found the race in danger of the woe which impends " when all men speak well of you." Mr. A. H. Stone, the great advocate of the Italian as a substitute for the negro in agriculture, confesses that The Reason he does not expect " any sudden revolution Why in Southern agricultural and industrial con- ditions. . . . Thousands, I might say hundreds of thou- sands, of Southern white men prefer the negro under any and all circumstances to any class of white labor." ''■ But this attitude Mr. Stone thinks is mere inertia. He him- self has had very poor luck with negro labor on a Mis- sissippi plantation. It does not occur to him that the con- flicting conclusions of agricultural and industrial employers may be due to the fact that negroes respond differently to a system of compulsion and a system of incentive. Yet it seems perfectly clear that wherever the black man has escaped from the old, oppressive, feudalistic system of forced labor and come under the plain and none too perfect wage-system, the result has been a quality of laborer who on the testimony of his employers is very satisfactory. Yet even in the industries much is lacking of normal Incomplete incentive to the negro. He frequently re- Incentive in receives unequal wage for equal work. Thus Industry Prof. John R. Commons writes : I have made comparisons of the pay-rolls of two ,gas works in Southern cities — one employing negro stokers at eleven cents an hour and the other whites at twenty-two cents an hour, and both working twelve hours a day seven days a week. The negroes put in as many hours between pay-days as did the whites, and if they " laid off " after pay-day, it is no more than any class of white workmen would do after two ' American Race Problems, p. 175. CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH weeks of such exhausting work. The negro in the Southern cities can scarcely hope to rise above twelve cents an hour, and white mechanics have a way of working with negro helpers at ten cents an hour in order to lift their own wages to twenty cents an hour. White wage-earners and white employers in the South speak of the negro's efforts to get higher wages in the same words and tones as employers in the North speak of white wage-earners who have organized unions and demanded more pay. A foreman con- demned his " niggers " for instability when they were leaving him at ten cents an hour for a railroad job at twelve and one-half cents an hour. Praising the Italians in comparison with the negro, he could not think of paying seventeen and one-half cents an hour for pick and shovel work, which Italians were said to be getting in another section of the state. The right to quit work is the right to get higher wages. If the higher wages are paid and proper treatment accorded, a process of natural selection ensues. The industri- ous and steady workmen of all races retain the jobs. The gas company referred to above, by a system of graded pay advancing with years of service, had sorted out a more steady and reliable force of negroes than they could have secured of whites at the rate of wages paid. The test is indeed a severe one where a race has always been looked upon as servile. With high wages regarded as " white man's wages," the process of individual selection does not work out, and the dominant race excuses its resort to whipping, beating, and peonage on the ground of the laziness which its methods of remuneration have not learned to counterbalance. Even the industrious Italians treated in this way would not be industrious — they would leave for other states.^ ' Races and Immigrants in America, pp. 139-140. [192 1 A BACKGROUND FOR BLACK Manifestly, then, there is a good deal to be subtracted' from the negro's reputation as a poor worker before it can justly be charged to racial tendencies. What is true of the charge of laziness is true of every other charge of economic deficiency. The negro does not The Negro tend by racial instinct to enter servile call- not Servile ings. Numerically speaking, the represen- tative of the race in America is not a menial but a farmer. Its proved losses in some of the skilled trades and alleged gravitation to the lower forms of service is directly trace- able to a peculiar economic situation. On the one hand, the old independent, all-round artisan, white or black, is gradually disappearing. His work is taken over by the factory and done by machinery under a minute special- ization of processes. White as well as negro carpenters have decreased during the last decade. The white arti- san's son, however, follows his father's job into the fac- tory and does part of the old work there under another name. But the factory is the stronghold of organized labor, and when a negro makes the same attempt he is repulsed by the color-line in the union. This does not prove that with a fair field, as a man and a producer, he also might not have achieved his economic transformation. If he now falls back on the servile callings, it is because he is pushed down by man, not pulled down by his own nature. Then, on the other hand, with the remarkable growth of American wealth and luxury, there has been a vast in- Competition of urease in the demand for personal service, the Low-grade It is no discredit to the negro that he enters Immigrant these open doors when others are shut to him. As a matter of fact, he is not entering them so fast as foreign whites are. They are actually ousting him from 13 [193] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH janitor's, bootblack's, and pedler's work.^ Another evi- dence, then, of the negro's economic incapacity? Well, when immigrants come over to compete with our white labor, the cry goes up that the sacred American standard of living is attacked. It is not considered an economic virtue to be able to compete with men on a lower scale of subsistence. The displacement of successive races in the New England mills is regarded as a fall upward. But when a Mississippi planter, studying the Italian in his own land as a possible substitute for the negro on the Southern farm, reports, " Their diet was simple and in- expensive — a Southern plantation negro would scorn to accept a similar ration," ^ the negro is condemned in the next breath as lacking economic strength because they drive him from his job. So would they drive the white American were he not bulwarked by organization and public sentiment. Denied these defenses, the skilled negro has been underlived, precisely because he had the prime economic virtue, a relatively high standard of subsistence. In his turning this way and that to escape his economic handicaps and to find or make a chance, the negro has Gains in exhibited a mobility and resourcefulness which Mobility completely overthrow the charge of servil- ity. He is called a " slave to local attachments " ; when he disproves it by coming to the city in increasing num- bers and by scattering over the continent in search of work, he is blamed for instability and a childish taking of risks. The fact is that he has developed what all theorists hold to be another of the chief economic virtues, namely, a wide industrial outlook and a quick command * Stone, American Race Problems, p. 157. ^ Manufacturer's Record, November 9, 1905, quoted by Stone in Ameri- can Race Problems, p. 194. [194] A BACKGROUND FOR BLACK of the entire country as his labor market. This new migrant habit exposes him to numerous moral dangers, but it expresses practical good sense. In addition to this new economic mobility the great resources of group economy, previously discussed, have Growing been most skilfully used by the negro as Racial Pride an escape from ruinous competition of low- standard whites. On his own side of the color-line he has proved himself capable of well-nigh limitless expansion. His dominant mood is anything but servile. Latter-day efforts at self-development even tend to be too impatient of friendly guidance. Already the outstanding charac- teristics of the American negro are not dependence but growing racial pride and purpose. We have called mobility a virtue; yet it is just the younger generation of American city-going negroes which The Psvchol- ^^ credited with the most vexatious of eco- ogy of Ineffi- nomic vices, unreliability, and inefficiency, ciency 'p}^g experience of the North with this class tends to make it sympathetic with the South's injured, discouraging wail, " As a worker the negro is deteriorat- ing." It is an easy, but also a cheap, explanation to ascribe this alleged tendency to malign African charac- teristics, the essential unaccountability of a childish race, temperamentally unfit for freedom. The South is the less to blame for such a view because it is economically pro- vincial; it lacks experience with any other laboring class than the negro. The North, however, has only to com- pare him with other immigrants to discover that he ex- hibits identical traits with theirs. Every group under- going \'iolent industrial transition and newly entered upon enlarged opportunity experiences transitional maladies. They belong to the immigrant as an economic type fl95l CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH whether he be white or black. The psychology of the unsatisfactory worker has been keenly analyzed by Prof. Simon N. Patten : It is composed of the hundreds of thousands of workers who have reached with a bound the line of full nutrition, the way having been cleared for them by the insatiable demand for men to handle the in- rushing wealth of America's resources. Placed in a young, industrial civilization, their advance has been so swift and urgent that social restraints have fallen from them ; they have broken old habits of fealty to bonds ; they have forgotten the sympathies that made good service to employers a virtue to be sought, and they have not attained new industrial traits that make work enjoyable. They have been changed from drilled and dutiful beings to raw recruits of an economic freedom, which to them is complete because in the ex- ercise of it they for the first time gratify their wants and keep pace with their material desires. Their em- ployers and other observers characterize them as hav- ing an unreliable, undisciplined independence in their industrial relationships — these half-skilled mechan- ics, grocers, clerks, butchers, barbers, household cooks, domestics, and the rest of the army of the wasteful, ineffective, and indifferent. It is said of them that they render unsatisfactory service and shirk tlie equiv- alent of their wages because they can find new places with less effort than they can do their work in the old ones. They are generally inefficient, yet always in demand, unskilful, yet reasonably sure of employ- ment; and thus fortified they have become the peri- patetics of industry. Their obvious value to society gives them an independence which is not justified by their power of initiative, and a mobility which is without thoughtful far-seeing pui*pose ; they have [YdT] A BACKGROUND FOR BLACK fallen into a period of arrest because they are satis- fied with a status in which their gratifications are flush with their wants. They are for the moment without motives to work well; in the first place they " owe nothing," they say, to the chance stranger who bespeaks them ; and in the second, their conscious and simple needs are so amply met that reasons for work- ing well are lacking. Of this class was a woman who took a position as highly paid cook in a family of two. When she proved to be frankly untrained and incapable, and was taxed with false pretenses, she said with hurt dignity, " You got a pair of hands to wash some of your dishes for you, and I have seen ladies waiting a long time for that." 1 The above-mentioned cook may well have been a negro ; but Professor Patten is not thinking about negroes. He points out everywhere a class of economically disappoint- ing laborers who have broken away from old standards and not yet become adjusted to a new freedom. This is a world problem, and the South would find such alleged *' nigger " traits in any laboring race which it might im- port in any numbers. The presence of hordes of negro vagrants in Its streets is one of the South's chief complaints. Upon retiring Economic from twelve years' service on the police bench Origin of the of Savannah, Judge Norwood made one of Negro Vagrant f}^Q bitterest of recent attacks on the colored race. He charged that Savannah had from five to eight thousand of such vagrants, whose shiftlessness and im- morality he attempted to explain by a detailed statement of the condition of the negro in Africa. Apparently he * The New Basis of Civilization, pp. 80-81. [wT] ■ CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH knew more about Africa than about Savannah. Here is the third greatest seaport in the South and the world's greatest center for the shipment of naval stores. To-day it requires thousands of unskilled laborers to load and un- load the cars and ships. Should one or two hundred be lacking they would be telegraphed for and brought down from Atlanta before dinner. To-morrow thej^ will need but one half as many — for such are the irregularities of industry — and the rest must stand idle in the market- place because no man has hired them. On Sunday they will all be in the streets and alleys — the parks being closed to them — homeless, irresponsible, idle men. Com- pared with London dockers and Hong Kong coolies they may be quite amiable citizens, but Savannah does not know enough to compare them with their economic type. It ascribes all their shortcomings to negro blood. As a matter of fact they are a direct creation of modern in- dustrial conditions which require an irregular supply of unskilled labor. This constitutes always and everywhere a difficult and dangerous class. 3. The Negro's Excessive Immorality The facts concerning negro crime are various and per- plexing. However, the more general statistics are clear enough. His prison population is two and one-half times his proportion to the general population of the nation. In a typical Southern city, like Savannah, with a little larger negro population than white, three negroes are arrested to one white man. Vice is essentially incapable of statistical measurement. In the most reputable of South- ern circles one hears the confident charge that a pure negro woman does not exist. As measured by statistics of ille- A BACKGROUND FOR BLACK gitimacy, the race's sad preeminence in unchastity is un- deniable. Vice and crime are alike excessive. Yet one must not immediately give them racial explanation. Is it that the negro is bestial.'' One cannot so conclude until he has wrung from every other explanation its least significance. Is there any reason why a man who dies twice as fast as normal men do — a man who is a poor worker — Virtue has a should also be a criminal,'' There are at Physical Basis least some reasons ; one is that virtue has a physical basis. He who is weak against disease is apt to be weak against temptation. It is well recognized that city conditions exact a moral penalty of the poor man, who is forced to herd with the The Compul- bad man. Social stratification uniformly sory Herding segregates the unfortunate and the evil Lite wiih 'the from the good. Geographically poverty and Debased crime are neighbors ; physically they are in immediate contact, and their victims cannot help it. In many a Southern city the negro's best institutions are crowded into the same areas with the white's worst; the school is located in the same block with the brothel. Suppose one's mother locks one up in the house when she goes off to work in the morning ; or suppose she leaves Crime due to ^^^ ^° S^^ ^^^ ^^^ breakfast and then to go Neglect of to school, if he pleases and if there is a Childhood school (half of the 8000 negro school chil- dren of Savannah have neither seat, book, nor teacher, and cannot go to school if they would) ; or suppose one of tender years takes the only opportunity of breadwin- ning open to a negro boy, a menial position in a hotel, store, or office, where he sees men in their coarser, away- from-home moods ; or suppose that the park is forbidden [1991 CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH to the child at play and he is driven into the alley ; what result should be expected? This is the average lot of the negro child's life. We know that to neglect his white brother is a sure means of making a criminal of him, but of the negro we think, as did the Tennessee " mammy " in a recent book by a Southern author, " Hit don't hurt niggers none to tote things too heavy for 'um." So America seems to think. It then wonders that the negro child becomes a delinquent, whom our medieval law mis- takenly classes as a criminal. The explanation is clear; it is not racial, but social. Suppose the lot of the white girl were that of the negro girl. In the first place, curiously, the race has The Lot of ^n abnormal proportion of women. There the Negro Girl is an especial oversupply of them in the cities, and their economic opportunities are extremely narrow. Domestic service is almost their only means of breadwinning ; consequently economically, as well as so- cially, negro women are cheap. Social custom in the South is that a house servant shall not sleep under the same roof with her mistress. She is provided for in ser- vants' quarters in the backyard — often over a stable. There hve men and women servants without social or moral supervision. It is their parlor as well as their bed- room. What company they have they must have there. The superintendent of schools in one of the chief Southern cities, a Northern man, has told me about the tragical and unsuccessful struggle made by himself and his wife to keep their own premises from being a place of de- bauchery. Yet does any one suppose that the conse- quences would be different with any group of young people under like circumstances, especially under a common social sentiment that a woman's virtue is worthless .? They would [200] A BACKGROUND FOR BLACK go wrong were they our own sons and daughters. Yet the negro girl is a breadwinner five times as frequently as the white girl, and these are the typical circumstances under which she must make her struggle both for self- support and for character. The instability of the negro family, too, its excessive marital infidelity and frequent divorce, are due to specific The Instability social causes. A considerable proportion of of the Negro the race is, in economic status, below the Family a jjj^g q£ family continuity," as the economist calls it. Why do better class families persist.'* Because of the superior virtue of their members.? Only partly. The deeper explanation is that they have become estab- lished in a domestic scheme in which the prolongation of infancy compels family solidarity. Children do not be- come financially independent until full grown ; the wife and daughters have no preparation for breadwinning ; they are permanent dependents. The component parts of such a family must stick together in order to survive. Reduce its income by one-half or three-quarters and note what happens. The children are forced into breadwin- ning at a tender age, and income-bringing employment becomes the permanent and expected lot of mother and daughters. There can be but little home life. Day by day each member goes to his own appointed task ; each as an independent worker is self-sufficient. The group has no outward compression to reenforce its inner cohe- sion. It is economically unstable. Consequently it fre- quently falls apart. All homes on this level, of whatever race, show the same weakness. The negro is no sinner above all the Galileans. Savannah complains of its five to eight thousand negro " vagrants," whom we Identified above as merely irregu- 201] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH lar workers, drawn together by the industrial demands of a great seaport, and showing all the marks of a well- Creation of known social type. Savannah charges them Criminals by to the negro as a race. What her industry Industry creates, her law in turn brands as criminal. To be an irregular worker — to have no permanent home or j ob — to have been brought down this morning from Atlanta in response to the call of a captain of industry, — to do necessary labor on terms not of your own choos- ing — is to be at outs with the law. Chiefly on account of this class the arrests of negroes in Savannah are nearly three times as frequent as those of whites, but two-thirds of these negro arrests are either for vagrancy, drunken- ness, or disorderly conduct. All these go down in the statistical tables of the census against the race ; but when the census bulletin turns to interpret its own statis- tics, it says explicitly that such minor offenses should not be called crimes at all. Two-thirds of the excessive negro criminality of Savannah is simply criminality by definition. The social inconvenience of Savannah on account of her negroes is due almost wholly to arbitrary, abnormal city conditions, such as crowding and the denial of parks to them, to the demands of industry for irregular work- men, and to a misunderstanding of the nature of crime. It is no just measurement of the negro as a social menace. Of the unequal administration of criminal law between the races, which all competent observers note, the Southern Criminality by press itself sometimes testifies in moments of Administration disgusted candor. Witness the following from the Nashville American of March 12, 1908: 202] A BACKGROUND FOR BLACK NEGROES AND FEE GRABBERS Is the repeated arrest of negroes congregated around barrooms and other resorts by county offi- cers in the interest of morahty, or merely a well- defined scheme to secure fees? It strikes us many of these so-called raids are without warrant, and made for no other purpose than to line the pockets of the raiders. Worthless, idle negroes engaged in offenses against the state should be arrested, of course, but practically few arrests are made in the interest of law and order. The fee grabber, as a matter of fact, is no better than the negro who has to pay the fee. One is as immoral as the other. It is also said there are justices of the peace who have more interest in the fees they may secure from the arrested than in promoting law and morals. The American has no patience with lawbreakers, white or black, nor has it any with the fee grabbers. It also feels that many negroes are arrested where white men equally guilty are never bothered. The fee grabbers should treat all alike, and not do a lot of raiding merely for the money there is in it. As pastor in a border city, I had six years In which to study the relation between the city administration and the vicious element of negroes. The police studied to a nicety how much money a negro washerwoman could make, and then proceeded to arrest her husband, brother, father, son, or the man she lived with, as the case might be, just as often as she could pay their fines. Of course the men were drunken, boisterous, disorderly, but the vicious whites were not arrested in any such systematic way, and the policy pursued with the vicious negro in no sense had as [ 203 ] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH its motive the protection of the community. Under the fee system the policeman who made the arrest, the pohce judge, his clerk, the jailer, and every other official con- nected with the case, got a " rake-off." It was legal grafting. The negro washerwoman washed for the city officials ; they took her money under the guise of enforce- ment of the law. It was as regular as wash-day, as legal as the statute-book, and as damnable as any highway robbery. William Mc Arthur has been for many years the janitor of a white church in a former slave state. He owns a Th N w ' farm and city house ; has a bank account, Reaction and could loan money more easily than most against Racial of the church-members he serves. His repu- jus ice tation for character is as good as any of theirs. When, therefore, a disreputable white woman at- tempted to blackmail him by threatening to charge him with assault on a child, he naturally went to the church officers for advice. They believed in him as they did in each other, but put him on a midnight train for Califor- nia. To his Northern pastor it was incredible that a man of his reputation should have to flee like a thief. The answer was : " This community is likely to lynch first and investigate afterwards." So McArthur went — he could afford to, — saying with pathetic humor, " I always wanted to travel West anyhow." After six months he felt safe to come back and take up his work. Not long after the community did lynch three negroes on an Easter morning. The grand jury, investigating afterward, found that two of them were certainly innocent. Only bayonets saved the negro quarter from burning. Then McArthur came to his pastor to know where under the stars and stripes a self-respecting and respected black man could [204] A BACKGROUND FOR BLACK buy his ovm vine and fig-tree, and go and sit down under them in the ordinary security of Christian civilization. Now McArthur's character is fixed so that adversity, while it seams his brow and weights his steps, does not make a social rebel of him ; but his boy, when I last saw him, was behind the bars. Now, I charge that America did not give McArthur's boy a square deal. Of course he is a responsible soul, with heart, will, and conscience enough to make some impres- sion on his own moral destiny. Let him bear his full share of the blame ; but let us weigh this : he had felt the help- lessness of the property-owning negro before the black- mailer; had seen his father a fugitive at midnight, his life hanging upon an idle word; had heard just men con- fess their inability to protect one in whom they had all confidence ; had vainly longed for a fatherland which could guarantee somewhere a peaceful death to one who had lived in honor; had smelled the burning flesh of innocent men of his own race. Besides all this his own weakness had been trafficked in by a venal police power. Such things are not calculated to make a young negro into a model citizen. You tell me that after all the cord and the torch are rare, that statistically one is more Hkely to die from falling off a step-ladder at home than a negro is to be lynched. I reply that when one has once come under the shadow of such a tragedy he can never forget it. It stamps his imagination for all time and sears his soul against the social order in which it is tolerated. How, then, shall the racial element in the negro's re- corded criminality be measured.? Manifestly by first sub- „ ,T u • tracting that which is not racial ; namely. How Much IS , . , . , , T . 1 • -11 J • Left for Racial that which is clearly due to his social liandi- Explanation? cap, proved physical weakness, neglected 205 CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH child life, and the like; the criminality which is due to his moral handicap, including the physical and spiritual attacks by society on the virtue of the negro woman ; the criminality which industry creates ; the criminality which is such by definition only, and that which results from the unjust administration of the law against an unpopular race. When this is done there are not many facts left de- manding a racial explanation. Such an explanation is not needed. To say that the negro is after all bestial by nature is gratuitous. Other factors fully account for his moral deficiency when allowed their legitimate significance. In the destiny of the American negro one of the most crucial elements is the deep-seated determination of the Destiny of the American people to give a racial explana- American tion to his deficiencies and to act accordingly. Negro Qyp thought about our black fellow Ameri- can is one of the cruelest of his environing facts. It can and does hold the balance of power for millions of lives and characters. The outcome hinges largely on the al- ternative of national justice or injustice. Already the hand writes plainly, " Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting " ; but of wliom pri- marily ? Of a nation which through blind misunderstand- ing does not correct the socially remediable causes of destruction in one of its weaker groups. Then, of some part of the negro population. No one can anticipate the salvation of the whole race. It is all too patent that part of it is failing daily, going to jail, losing its job, dying ! But this indicates no race tendency. The solidarity of the negro race in social destiny is neither a necessity nor a fact. Already a minority of its members are com- [206 1 A BACKGROUND FOR BLACK pletely Americanized ; they have arrived. The sifting of the race will proceed still further, lifting some into the emerged and conquering group and discovering to others their " own place " ; not as negroes, but as individual, family, or group failures. Lying statistics, however, arithmetically accurate, confuse the nation's mind by unit- ing in tables what are sundered in life, namely, the as- cending and descending colored groups. At the worst they do not apply to a large and increasing type within the race. In the face of the facts it is sheer presumption to prophesy the extinction of the American negro. Not only is the chief tendency of our civilization toward the checking of the struggle for survival as it exists on a brute plane (if it were not so the majority of the white race were also doomed), but the modem world ever dis- covers ways of utilizing a larger and larger proportion of human material.^ We do not foDow out the law of the destruction of the unfit to its bitter end. We do find place for more and more people of very ordinary competency. Besides, even with the severest sifting, some negroes would undoubtedly survive. What then shall be the relative proportion of the two groups — the successes and the failures.'' If some are beyond our help, others are above our harm; but for the central mass, the five-sixths withheld as yet from their sterner trial, the die is not cast. We shall hold their hand as they cast it, either to help or to hinder. At the core of the negro problem thus lies the problem of the Anglo-Saxon ; a difficulty not of the blood of Africa, but of the spirit of America. " Lord, are there few that be saved.'' " That depends upon whether those who are able * See the acute application of this argument by Murphy, Basis of Ascendency, pp. 64 ff. [207] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH to enter in by the strait gate shall widen it a little as they go through for the sake of their brothers. Let the nation do justice to the negro in those matters in which his deficiencies are remediable and then turn over to God and posterity their share of the business. 208] yil. TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES I. SPIRIT AND POLICY " fTT^HE first," said the late Dr. A. D. Mayo, " and I still the most notable of the several great mis- "^ sionary associations for the training of the negro race in the Southern states, through schools of every grade and the ordinary methods of mission work employed The Work of by the Evangelical Protestant churches in the American the Northern United States, was the Ameri- issionary ^^^ Missionary Association." Its mission- Association, ... Typical yet ary activities are typical of those followed Unique by several of the great Christian bodies of the North — Methodist Episcopal,, Presbyterian, Protes- tant Episcopal, Baptist, and Society of Friends ; but in spirit and policy its work has been unique. Dr. Mayo continues : " Of all the mission educational en- terprises of the Northern Protestant evangelical churches, the American Missionary Association seems to have borne in mind most completely the idea of working in connection with the Southern states and people in the upbuilding of the common school for the colored race. It has, more than others, discouraged the mischievous habit of engraft- ing the old-time parochial school on the churches that have been developed by its missionary activity. In three of these states — Virginia, Mississippi, and Georgia — at different times its larger schools have been subsidized by the state in the interest of their normal and industrial departments. It has not shown the usual desire to retain 14 [ 209 ] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH its original authority or to utilize its bounty to acquire the perpetual educational control of its schools. Four of the most important schools of the higher order with wliich it has been connected and which have been liberally aided by it are now entirely separated from it — Howard, Wash- ington, D. C. ; Hampton, Virginia ; Berea, Kentucky ; and Atlanta University, Georgia. The explanation of this may be found in the fact, already stated, that al- though the American Missionary Association first united with several of the evangelical Protestant churches in its work among the colored people, each of these associations in turn has preferred to separate itself from others and organize on a more decided and exclusive denominational basis, looking to the church it represents for its support and guided by the sectarian policy thereof." ^ This is to say that the Association has been a true nationalizing agency. Its work has been done, not as an adjunct to a movement of denominational extension, but in whole- hearted devotion to the educational and civic uplift of the needy groups who constitute a national problem. In pohcy it shows, on the other hand, a sharp contrast to the splendid group of larger schools which it has Educational graduated into independence. It has always Diifusion vs. stood for diffusion rather than for concen- Concentration tration of opportunity. From the standpoint of financial support this has required courage. Experi- enced money-raisers testify that they can more easily secure funds for one or two big schools than for many smaller ones. Such is the tendency of present-day philanthropy. It likes great show and to settle upon large institutions : to the school that hath shall be given. The American is peculiarly under the spell of bigness. A single one of ' Report of Commissioner of Education, 1902, vol. i, p. 292. [2101 TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES the larger institutions of the Association might well ab- sorb its entire current income. Such an institution would then be able to dominate the imagination of the public along with the one or two which now monopolize it. In spite of all this the policy of diffusion is the de- liberate choice. The most distinctive American school is . the small college, in intimate relations with Institutions its community and with a constituency chiefly of Adequate local. As a type it is more widely useful Standard ^j^^^ ^ great university ever can be. Not only is the education of the smaller school apt to be sounder and its administration invariably more economic — but it remains closer to the people. Distance itself is a selective agency. Those who go from remote states even to the great trade-schools, do not represent the average of their people. Every section, and especially the South with its backward population, needs more than anything else local institutions of adequate standard. Nothing can take their place. II. STRATEGIC LOCATION A certain prophetic foresight seems to have governed the estabhshment of the institutions of the Association. . . The general tendencies of negro population Line of Chief within the last fifteen years — massing that Movements of popvJation in the cities. North and South, Population ^^^ .^ ^ well-marked Black Belt stretching across the Central South from Virginia to Texas — has only emphasized its wisdom. They affect unfavorably a few small schools in the border states, but every consider- able institution is either in a region overwhelmingly black, to which negro population is increasingly migrating, or [211] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH in a city, with its daily enlarging need of ministry to a population undergoing an acute social transition. This may be established in detail by an examination of insti- tutions state by state. On the whole, then, the course of events has fallen in with the foresight of the Associa- tion to put the great bulk of its work exactly where it ought to be. Such eliminations of unprofitable work as were necessary have already taken place and at little sacri- fice of resources. This is in striking contrast to the case of numerous other agencies. The negro sects have too often lacked the instinct of statesmanship and failed to locate their schools with reference to the tendency of population. For sentimental reasons Berea College is now attempting the doubtful experiment of establishing a colored adjunct in a border state with a small and rapidly waning negro population. No agency has so little to correct in its strategy of education as the American Missionary Association. III. CLASSIFICATION OF INSTITUTIONS The diffusion of opportunity necessitates a wide variety of institutions falling under several well-marked types. An All-sided The work of the Association is truly all- Work sided, and the much debated issue of higher vs. industrial training is meaningless as applied to it. Its schools have not been founded on theory, but to meet specific concrete needs. They range from a three or four months' school with one teacher and twenty pupils, housed in a windowless log cabin, to the great institutions which, in promise, and even in present realization, do not dis- grace the name university. [212] TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES A. Ungraded Schools Negro communities which are not furnished with even the rudiments of education are numbered by tens of thou- Defects of sands. What passes for a school lacks every- Negro Rural thing of educational value. The term is too Public Schools brief ; the teacher too ignorant, often im- moral and totally unsupervised. One of these teachers taught in an entirely different district from that to which he was appointed, and explained that it was all the same so long as he was at work somewhere. The pay is often so little as to attract only the laziest and least success- ful ; the housing conditions are unspeakably bad. A Tal- ladega graduate taught an entire school year in a slab schoolhouse with solid blinds which were nailed shut, the authorities refusing to have them opened. In a score or more such communities the Association is touching the problem of educational uplift in its lowliest aspect. It sends an educated teacher — possibly a pastor or a pas- tor's wife — to supplement the public school with an ad- Supplementarv ditional two or four months' session, or adds Work of the a subsidy to the public funds so that a nor- Associatioa jj^^l graduate can afford the place. Its loaves and fishes are not miraculously multiplied — and what are these among so many? The appeal of hundreds of similar places must annually be denied because it is more strategic to supply fewer communities more ade- quately. The policy of diffusion is already stretched to its utmost limit. Rudimentary education is essentially the business of the state, and to it the state stands committed. But the Association does all its work under a vivid sense of the need of these scattered communities, and of nothing Is it prouder than of this feeblest aspect of its work. [213] CHRISTIAN RECONSTEUCTION IN THE SOUTH On what basis are these few ungraded schools selected and located? Almost invariably because a graduate of A Typical Case : ^ more adequate school has gone to teach in Beachtown a needy community and has been able to raise its people to help themselves — the Association merely coming in to supplement local initiative. Here is a concrete case. In southwestern Georgia, near to the Florida line and fourteen miles from a railroad, is a negro community called Beachtown. Few white natives live within a radius of ten miles, but much of the magnificent pine land has been bought up by Northern millionaires for winter homes and game preserves. The rest is mainly occupied and owned by negroes. A little group of cross- road stores constitutes the geographical hub of the com- munity. Its energy and enterprise largely center around a remarkable trio of mulatto half-brothers whose fathers were leading white citizens of the old regime. They own the store which was the center of the old-time life, from the block in front of which hundreds of negroes were sold as slaves. One of them was once a student in Atlanta Uni- versity. Yet the richest man in the community is an illiterate black negro who slaved his large family un- sparingly until he now owns some hundreds of acres, but has lately come around to appreciate education for his younger children. Indeed it was the sight of their children growing up with so few privileges that roused these men to revolt How the Com- ^ ^o'^ ^^e dominance of an illiterate, grossly munity Helped sectarian, and evil ministry, and to seek Itself worthy leadership and adequate school facili- ties. So they sent for a Yale-trained preacher from the county-seat, and appealed to the Association which had been the help of their people so many times of old. They [214] TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES were told to furnish the building and a teacher would be sent. They managed to erect a rough structure on a foundation of posts, and partly to side and ceil it. Its windows were low and narrow, giving very poor light. There was no flue, and it was seated with almost impos- sible home-made desks — but it measured their ability to help themselves. A teacher was sent for. She had gone from her country home to Allen Normal School and later to Fisk University, but she had not been educated out of sympathy with her own region and her own people. Now she came back to them. She was janitor, Sunday- school superintendent, and moral leader of the community, as well as teacher. She fought bravely against overwork and ill-health. Into her rented house she gathered half a dozen girls from " further back " — girls whose com- munities had no school at all. Her pupils came to be too many. Then the community built a little addition to the schoolhouse — I found it in use without door or sash or interior siding. Again the Association came to the rescue with a promise to pay a second teacher's salary if the people would complete the building.^ Thus our formula . , . ., of Christian philanthropy is applied: an un- Applying the . . ^ . . Formula of privileged community struggling for oppor- Christian tunity is made the neighbor of the more opy favored parts of the country through a na- tionalizing agency. The most impressive point to the story is the struggle of that community to help itself. There are thousands of other communities equally worthy waiting the outreaching of some helping hand. ' Still later the Slater Board added a third salary for an industrial teacher. 215 CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH B. Graded Elementary Schools Next in order comes a group of well-conducted graded elementary schools with good buildings and an average of five teachers each. They are located in the country or on the outskirts of small towns. Some have boarding departments accommodating from twenty to fifty students coming from a somewhat wide area. Others are purely local in influence. Each one, besides the immediate service to its community, has a worthy record of preparing and sending out pupils for more advanced training. Trinity School, at Athens, Alabama, belongs to the first generation of American Missionary Association institu- A Historic tions founded during the Civil War. It School began its work behind the bayonets of Fed- eral troops for the refugees who flocked from up and down the Tennessee valley. One describes its early work as follows: A gaunt old house with wide-open cracks, through which pea-shooters and pop-guns were often intro- duced to the great discomfort both of teachers and pupils. In this building Miss Wells and two other women taught day and night school for a long time. Cannot you picture that night school ; that frail, alert little woman surrounded by a sea of black faces, the man in the linen ulster, the seven boys who had one pair of presentable trousers between them, and so came to school turn and turn about, the old aunties in homespun, the girls in missus' cast-off finery.'* Learning to read was a task then, I can tell you, with any odd leaf for a book and a candle end be- tween two for a light. But they came, day in, night out, and many of them learned to read " de bressed Book," and received enough to be willing to go [216] TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES through fire and water, if only their children could get all which could be given them. Athens now is a prosperous county-seat. Its people are building modern houses. The artisans are skilled negroes. It is pushing macadamized roads out into the country in all directions. It has some pretensions as an educational center, boasting of its girls', its boys', and its negro " col- leges." But its white children, even, have never had a free public school ; little chance, then, for its black chil- dren. Through all these years it is Trinity which has made them what they are. Practically the whole negro population can read and write. It has a number of pros- perous business men, and has developed a pride in and sense of responsibility for its school which the Association has had abundant opportunity to prove. A year or two ago the old school building burned. When the fire broke out a small colored girl was buying a pair of doll's shoes in a near-by store. Catching up her nickel and crying, " I doan' want no doll shoes," she rushed out and gave the first money toward the rebuilding of the school, to which the negro community contributed in all considerably over $1000. The old location was abandoned, and the school Holding the rebuilt on the site and within the earthworks Fort of an old Federal fort, which once defended and still commands the town. In a single year more than thirty negro homes were built around the school, many of them being neat and comfortable cottages. The white community showed its recognition of the work by a vote of $100 from the city council as well as by offerings in the churches. Now a commodious brick building stands within the fringe of trees which marks the outline of the old for- tress ; there Trinity still holds the fort. [217] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH The greatest need of the negro is frequently not found in the Black Belt where he outnumbers the white popula- Where Negroes tion and by sheer force of numbers demands are Few recognition and a share in the educational provision of the state. It is often found among the sparser population of the Piedmont region, especially where the burden of the illiterate whites is great, as in the mill towns ; or in decaying communities. Such a one is Hillsboro, one of the ancient capitals of North Carolina. It has a few hundred humble negro citizens who share the fortunes of a once aristocratic but now crumbling town. King George III gave the clock in the court-house, and Lord Comwallis laid the rough pavement in front of the Inn. These are the last public improvements that Hills- boro has had. One of the very few Southerners I ever met who did not brag of his section was a man who was at- tempting to start a mill in the face of Hillsboro con- servatism. On the outskirts of the village stands a neat two-room schoolhouse with tower and bell. It is well equipped within with blackboards and maps and other school facilities. In it the Association has carried on for a hundred negro children of Hillsboro a better school than its white chil- dren have had for many, many years. The two teachers live snugly in an ancient brick house which is the head- quarters of the higher life of the negro community. Their missionary work is of the old-fashioned but never-worn- out personal sort. They go out into the homes and share the joy and sorrow, the sickness and health of the people. They teach the mothers and gather in the young people. They have a little night class for young men ambitious for more education. They put moral character and Northern energy into the negro churches. There is nothing better [218] TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES than work of this character done simply but effectively in the places of actual need. The South as represented in Hillsboro cannot begin to meet the problem of its poor white population. Here at least is missionary ground. But after all the most frequent spots of need and help- lessness are in the Black Belts. Such a one I found in Where Negroes Cotton Valley, in the same county with Tus- are Many kegee in central Alabama. I had been to Tus- kegee the previous day and had driven from the junction to the Institute over a hard, sandy road on which the wheels made scarcely a mark. Cotton Valley was only ten miles distant, yet the four-mile journey from the railroad to the school was over unspeakable roads with mud to the hubs. At Tuskegee I saw the greatest single institution developed by negro energy ; from the school at Cotton Valley I could not see a single farm owned by a negro. Hardly one of the fathers of the some two hundred and fifty pupils was known to have title to enough ground in which to bury him.^ The explanation of the sharp con- trast lies in the difference between sand and mud. Mr. W^ashington was able to acquire a great domain for his school because the land was originally of little agricultural value. The negroes of Cotton Valley have been unable to break away from the tenant system because their famous cotton crops have made the price of land impossibly high. Frequently the richer the soil the more tenacious the owner, the more grasping the money-lender ; consequently the poorer the negro. The school has discovered striking exceptions, but I never saw more serf-like human beings * Since this statement was written five families have begun to purchase little farms. This was made possible by the subdivision of small planta- tions. It was undertaken as a direct result of the leadership of the school, whose teacher made the business arrangements. [219] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH than the stohd groups of tenants gathered at the railway station and the rude country store. The country store merits a second look, for it is the hub of the whole scheme of existence in which the negro finds himself, as Mr. Baker graphically explains : Many negro families possess practically nothing of their own, save their ragged clothing, and a few dollars' worth of household furniture, cooking uten- sils, and a gun. The landlord must therefore supply them not only with enough to live on while they are making their crop, but with the entire farming outfit. Let us say that a negro comes in November to rent a one-mule farm from the landlord for the coming year. " What Tiave you got? " asks the landlord. " Not'ing, boss," he is quite likely to say. The " boss " furnishes him with a cabin to live in — which goes with the land rented — a mule, a plow, possibly a one-horse wagon, and a few tools. He is often given a few dollars in cash near Christ- mas time which (ordinarily) he immediately spends — wastes. He is then allowed to draw upon the plantation supply store a regular amount of corn to feed his mule, and meat, bread, and tobacco, and some clothing for his family. The cost of the entire outfit and supplies for a year is in the neighborhood of $300, upon which the tenant pays interest at from 10 to 30 per cent, from the time of signing the contract in November, although most of the supplies are not taken out until the next summer. Besides this interest the planter also makes a large profit on all the gro- ceries and other necessaries furnished by his supply store. Having made his contract the negro goes to work with his whole family and keeps at it until the next fall when the cotton is all picked and ginned. [220] TllANSI'OUTATION, LiHF.RTY Co., Ga. Homes is the Land of Mud-Daub TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES Then he comes in for his " settlement " — a great time of the year.-^ Now the actual goodness or badness of any human in- stitution depends upon the character of the men who oper- ate it. But some institutions give greater opportunity for good or evil, and the tenant system of the South under which the ignorant and friendless negro is practically and legally at the mercy of the white landlord, certainly gives the maximum opportunity for evil. Wherever I have in- quired in twelve states, I have been frankly told that a con- siderable number of planters and money-sharks live by " skinning the nigger." I witnessed the signing of a be- lated contract between Jim Freeman and his landlord. Jim's worldly wealth consisted in " one blind mule named Nell," a few rude tools (the Department of Agriculture estimates the negro tenant's farm implements as worth $7.50 on the average), and a huddle of household goods which lay on the depot platform in the February rain. His human resources were five cotton hands, himself, a wife, a half-grown son, and two small daughters. It was plainly to his immediate advantage to get even a leaky cabin as a refuge from the rain, and a peck of meal for his children's supper, but I wish I had been certain that his accounts would be honestly kept by the merchant, his cotton honestly weighed, and his share at the end of the year proportioned to his toil; for however inefficient a man, it is always pertinent to ask whether he gets a just equivalent for what he actually does. From its beginning, twenty years ago, the school at Cotton Valley has been in charge of a remarkable series of colored women as principals and teachers. They have had * Baker, Following the Color-Line, pp. 74-75. [221] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH the genius for making much of little, a native faculty for business and an instinct for neatness and order. One A Humble sees this in the clean, well-kept look of the History place, with its trim buildings, its newly swept yard and whitewashed fences. The nails still hold in the rude beams of the old, one-room cabin where the first teacher hung a curtain partitioning off her sleeping corner from the family with nine boys, thereby bringing the first dawn of a better womanhood to Cotton Valley. Efficiency and earnestness made a good school even when it was lodged in a little cluster of now disused cabins. I found a good school when the five teachers had but three class rooms between them and had to keep double recitations in process. Only just now has the Association been able to add two rooms to the building, and still the pupils average nearly fifty to a room. February being the birth month of certain great Americans, the teacher had the school re- view what it had learned on the subject. All remembered that Lincoln was born on the 12th. " Now, children, what happened on the 2^d? " Inspired by the presence of com- pany, Johnnie spoke up loud and clear, " He done riz on the 22d." Tuition is ten cents a month in the upper grades and Amelia's mother sent but five. Teacher said, " Tell your mother she must send five cents more tuition." Next morning the mother appeared demanding explanation. " Teacher, I doan' un'erstan' 'bout this yere ishun. I dun sen' one ishun ; now you wan' two ishun." The teacher's home near by the school is the pride of the Valley as its only two-story building, but its occupants Making Much find it a snug fit. Only by evolutions of mili- out of Little tary precision is the household able to gather round the dining-room table, and once placed one cannot move until all the rest do. There is a built-in sideboard, [ 222 ] TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES the work of a lady teacher whose father was an old-time mechanic. She also laid the front walk out of frag-ments of brick. In one of the dark and sagging old cabins she is pluckily trying to teach girls to make their own clothes. This touches the final need of Cotton Valley, — a small building and equipment for the teaching of indus- tries — cooking and sewing for girls, simple farm mechan- ics for boys, and elementary agriculture for both. Then this fairly typical country graded school will have compre- hended its ideal. C. Secondary Schools in Cities This comprises another distinct group of institutions. Their nomenclature is somewhat disguising. They are gen- erally called normal schools or institutes. The plain word for them is that all are more or less satisfactory city high schools, doing solid work with somewhat limited curricula. The boundary between elementary and secondary educa- tion is conventional, but is commonly located after the seventh or eighth school year. A fourth of the so-called white high schools of the South count the seventh year as belonging to secondary rank. Thus, not infrequently, the negro high school supported by the Association is found to be higher in grade and superior in equipment to the corresponding white school of its city. In fact, the work of several of them is as advanced and as worthy as that of many " colleges " in this section. Almost all this group of schools have retained a part at least of the elementary course. This is necessitated by the rp • g] generally poor preparation for secondary mentary Edu- work furnished by the inefficient and crude cation over to negro public schools, which frequently do not ^ °^ include even a full elementary course. The [223] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH flourishing city of Macon, Georgia, for example, carries its negro children only through the sixth year. This com- pels the Ballard Normal School to furnish two seventh and two eighth grades in order to supply the hordes of appli- cants. Sometimes the elementary grades are perpetuated as a model school for the training of practise teachers. The general tendency, however, is to be aggressively insist- ent that the prosperous and growing cities of the South shall furnish the elementary education for all their children to which they are theoretically committed. Consequently, the lower grades are now being progressively abandoned in six of the leading schools of the Association. Such move- ments are frequently resisted by negro communities which prefer the sympathizing and generally superior instruction of the mission school to the lax officialism and neglect of the public authorities. They plead for the continuance of primary instruction on the ground that otherwise their children will get poor teaching in unsanitary buildings, — often on immoral streets. Yet experience has shown that this very attitude of distrust and disregard for the public schools on the part of the negro is frequently the excuse of the white authorities for not improving them. Negro public opinion has weight, and when it persistently de- mands its educational rights and recognizes the obligation to cooperate with public authority it often meets surpris- ingly cordial response in the ready betterment of elemen- tary educational facilities. But with the higher schools the case is quite different. The idea that it is the duty of the state to furnish free Lack of Public secondary schooling for anybody is imper- High Schools fectly rooted in the South. The more con- servative cities have but recently opened public high schools even for whites. There is not only no sense of obli- [224] TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES gation to do a like thing for negro youth, but on the whole a general agreement that all the negro is entitled to is five, six, or at best eight years of elementary training. This attitude of mind forgets that every citizen of a demo- cratic state has a righteous claim to all the opportunity publicly provided for any. It also forgets the rapidly in- creasing differentiation of negro society and the diffusion of its members through all the occupations and callings of our modern civilization. In every Southern city there is a considerable negro minority which has fairly earned the right to high-school training for its children — by dig- nity of character, personal culture, wealth, and social at- tainment. The South — with some exception in the border states — disdains their aspirations and there are no signs that its attitude will speedily change. Except for the in- adequate and grudging support of a few public institu- tions for the training of negro teachers, the whole field of secondary education is left to philanthropy and the negro's private efforts. Take Savannah, for example, a typical Southern city, with a population of 33,000 whites and 39,000 negroes. Its negro school population is 8023 and its enrolment 2591 (or less than one-third) ; if every existing school, public and private, were crowded to the doors, fully one-half of Savannah's negro children would have neither book, desk, nor teacher. This in itself justifies Beach Institute. The situation loudly demands the help of the mission school, at least in its elementary grades. But what of the high school .-^ Does the negro community need or merit it? I went with the principal to find out what the constitu- ency would contribute to add an eleventh grade and de- partments of manual training and domestic science to its 15 [ 225 ] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH work. First we called on the typical Southern gentleman — socially classified as negro — who holds the best federal office in Georgia — Colonel Deveaux, Collector of the Port. Before I knew the South, I supposed the appointment of negroes to such positions was mere politics ; I now see that it is the appropriate recognition of the substantial achieve- ment of the race and its considerable part in the devel- opment of its section. Savannah growls that the Presi- dent sets a negro over its commerce, but it has itself set a colored doctor over a more important matter — the health of a whole district of its people. We visited him in his office and heard about the awful but slowly decreasing negro death-rate and the struggle of sanitary science with ignorance and vice for the life of children. The chief negro commercial enterprises of Savannah are in the neighborhood of the Union Depot. Here we visited the bank, the newspaper offices, stores. The bank is a com- paratively young institution for which the color-line is directly responsible. Jim Crow methods arrived slowly in this conservative city. When, however, it came to pass that a negro with money to deposit found that he had to go to a separate teller's window he decided to bank with his own race. In connection with the bank is a flourishing building and loan association which has enabled a hun- dred patrons to pay out on their homes and will help hun- dreds more. I found the newspaper — an influential race organ throughout the state — just moving into larger quarters, from a building where it had been continuously published for more than twenty-five years. Skilled negro mechanics were installing the improved presses. (There are seven negro trade-unions — the bricklayers, carpen- ters, coopers, building laborers, lathers, pattern-turners, besides colored members in other unions.) They can buy [226] TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES their groceries at a negro store which for equipment and stock ranks with the better estabhshments of the city. Across the street from the bank, I was shown a row of houses acquired by a colored postal clerk through shrewd real estate investment. Every tourist makes an extensive acquaintance with the hackmen of Savannah. I found that many of them make a very good living showing the sights of one of the South's most attractive cities and that the negro boycott of the street cars — after their " Jim Crowing " two years ago — helped many of these Jehu's over into the ranks of the comfortable and property- owning. I visited two of the four negro public schools, and later met a group of the colored leaders of the city — many of them graduates of Beach — and most of them members of the two churches, Episcopal and Congrega- tional, which have attracted the more intelligent classes. In each of these churches the service is habitually as de- corous and restrained as in the middle-class white churches of the North. Their ministers are scholarly men of Northern theological education, respected throughout the city for character and trusted as conservative race leaders. Other denominations are much stronger, some of their churches dating back over a century; and several have pastors of distinct power in the pulpit. Recently an inter- denominational Men's Sunday Club has been organized to minister to the social needs of the race on a somewhat broader basis than that of ordinary Y. M. C. A. work. A group of well-educated and successful physicians has been active with the pastors and educators of this move- ment. I met also a highly respected negro lawyer and got glimpses of more than one home of taste, culture, and all the true graces of life. Now the facts are that if white Savannah should suffer [227] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH the fate of Sennacherib's army some night, black Savannah would wake up to carry on the entire business of modem city civilization with scarcely a jar. Yet the Savannah negro is comparatively backward in developing separate institutions. The relations of the races have been relatively ■ o^ § z S a > O^ 2° zy 5g rNSTITUTIONB HAVING AN ENBOLMENT OF MORE THAN at H 2S z p a< StXTY IN 8ECONDAEY K a h - > Ballard, Macon, Ga. . . 5 3 174 20 3000 $40,000 Avery, Charleston, S. C. 5 2 174 27 800 20,000 Le Moyne, Memphis, Tenn. 6 4 164 21 3500 60,000 Tillotson, Austin, Texas 4 5 102 3 2000 52,000 Straight, New Orleans, La. 5 7 65 13 2000 150,000 Beach, Savannah, Ga. . . 3 4 63 20 200 10,000 kindly ; consequently the negro has not been forced upon his own resources as in dozens of more strenuous communi- ties. But this is clear : there is a negro group there which has every right to a high school for its children that any American group has. They are not going into kitchens and the fields for the same reason that the white children of white " upper classes " are not ; their economic status does not require it nor should it lead any one to expect it. I personally believe that it is not well for the nation to give any portion of its youth a merely academic and socially [228] TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES ornamental education ; consequently I am proud that the Beach Aid Association, organized by representatives of the groups I have just described, has made possible the addition of manual training and domestic science to the curriculum of the school. The equipment for these de- partments was secured partly by direct appropriations from negro trade-union treasuries. The foregoing table indicates the scope and development of some of the larger city schools of the Association. From such fully manned and equipped institutions, schools of this group grade down to those with twenty or thirty pupils, two teachers and only two years of secondary work. The teachers, however, are almost invariably college or normal school graduates, and the work, up to the meas- ure of its facilities, acceptably fulfils standard requirements. Ministering as they chiefly do to that part of the negro population which has arrived at a large measure of parti- T, , , p cipation in American civilization, the educa- rroblems or . ^ City Secondary tional problems of these schools are not pecu- Schools not liarlv racial but are those common to the "^ high-school situation throughout the nation. Beyond question they are serious enough; but they are being worked out along the most hopeful lines of modern progress, including enriched courses of study, increasing provision for specialization, laboratory methods in science, and the inclusion of commercial studies, together with generous provision for instruction in household and man- ual training. In many respects they are rapidly becoming model high schools. D. Rural Secondary Schools The most striking contrast between this group of schools and the one last considered is that between the boarding and [229] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION 11;? THE SOUTH The Advantage ^^^ ^^y school. A few of the city schools of the Rural have boarding departments but these are School proportionately small and invariably domin- ated by the ideals and relations of the day school. The institution gets its tone and character from the five or sis hours of schoolroom discipline. The rural secondary schools on the contrary are permanent communities, often remote from towns. Within them all the activities of life go on, and the work of education is a matter of twenty- four hours in a day and seven days in a week. Conse- quently their opportunity both for educational impress and for the forming of character is infinitely greater. Their human material is less select, coming as it does directly from the woods and fields, and their scholastic re- sults are hampered by the poverty of the students, most of whom are engaged in the struggle for a livelihood prac- tically throughout their school years, and are consequently distracted in mind and irregular in attendance. Their secondary departments are all small and do not so gener- ally reach standard results. Nevertheless their advanced work is genuine and its ideals give character to this whole type of institution. It is characteristic of these schools not only to be located in the country but largely to get their support _ „ from the land. They are typically farm The Most Eco- , i ■ i • , , ■ -. / -i nomicaland schools m which a large majority or pupils Effective support themselves in part or in whole by Schools in productive labor in connection with the in- stitution. This necessitates farm-buildings, animals, and implements, the raising of produce for the feeding of the school, a wide range of practical activities involving business and administrative ability, and much in- dustrial and domestic training, each theoretical stage of [230] TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES which finds an Immediate practical application in the day's work. The narrow gap between what the pupil can earn for himself and the cost of his rigidly economical schooling is bridged by scholarship funds distributed in small amounts to a large number of pupils. This union of pro- ductive labor and education within the strong discipline and personal influences of a moderately sized institution, constitutes probably the most economical and effective type of education in America. Gradually the more prom- ising group of these institutions are being developed into distinctly agricultural high schools, their aim be- ing to add the education of insight for the few to the edu- cation of good habits for the many and to be centers of leadership and inspiration along all lines of rural better- . ment. For the training of farmers especially Opportunity ^^^ opportunity of these schools is unrivaled. of the Small The prosperity of the South depends upon Agricultural ^ great extension of diversified agriculture and a diffusion of the leaven of improved farm methods from many centers. The boy who leaves his community to attend a far-distant school all too fre- quently never returns. These modest rural high schools give him a rarely practical farm training without divorc- ing him from his native soil, and at a minimum of expense. I am positively convinced that in all lines of industrial training except specialized trades courses, the work of these smaller schools, which bring opportunity home to the masses, is more efficient, more in line with a sound social policy and more serviceable to the negro race than that of the great mass schools which so dominate the public imag- ination. The practical operations of a large group of such institutions — the building and repairing of their plants, the development and management of their farms, the run- -_ CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH ning of their engines, the shoeing of their mules, the sharp- ening of their tools — train more practical mechanics than Hampton and Tuskegee have ever done. An acre which must supply to-morrow's pork and greens has more educational virtue in it than a play garden and a show farm. How little need of indirect educational devices when the situation itself constitutes an almost ideal opportunity for vitally practical training ! A typical school of tliis group is Dorchester Academy, located among the swamps of Liberty County, Georgia, . rp • , about thirty miles south of Savannah. This School: county was originally settled by Massachu- Dorchester setts Puritans who established there one of emy ^j^^ most famous and efficient communities in Georgia. Their great plantations were formerly chiefly given to the culture of rice. Now the region is almost wholly in the hands of negroes who are for the most part property owners. Out of this new material on old Congre- gational foundations the rebuilding of the commonwealth is going on. Every family in the present Congregational church owns its property and their case is general throughout the re- gion. The holdings vary from five to three hundred acres, averaging perhaps fifteen. The rice industry was in eco- nomic collapse long before Sherman came that way and burned the plantation houses. Thus it happened that after the war the practically abandoned lands were easily acquired by the negroes. They are worth now from $5 to $10 per acre. Rice, cane, and corn are raised, but merely for home consumption and to be bartered by basketfuls for clothing and luxuries (tobacco, snuff, and canned goods) at the village store. Except for a few shapeless marsh cattle driven to the Savannah market [ 232 ] Q < < H (XI o O Q o H o X H TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES and some scattering bales of cotton, the country sends nothing out into the world. The trucking industry has just begun, but with reasonable development it might make the region rich. From November to March the farmer expects to eke out a living by cutting wood for railroad ties, at which in good times he makes excellent wages. Crop mortgages are unknown and long-time credit is rare. Bills are paid monthly or oftener. Thus the Liberty County negro, however poor, is relatively in- dependent with his little farm, his store of rice and grit and meat, his ox to drive and his supplementary cash wage ; and his wife and daughter, though still to a considerable extent doing rough field labor, have more time for home- making than in the cotton-raising regions. The poorer homes are sagging log huts, with mud- daubed chimneys, windowless and almost floorless. Some- times they are without a table or chair, their only beds ragged blankets on the floor and their meals always eaten from the skillet ; their children nameless savages, half- clothed and scarcely above jungle conditions. The best home, Isaac Morrison's, would be counted a comfortable ten-room farmhouse in New York or Illinois. Morrison has three hundred acres and above sixty head of cattle. These " rough it " for nine months in the year, and are fattened for three on wild hay and rice straw; they then bring about $15 per head in Savannah. He has his own cane-mill and reducing plant — a great iron kettle set in a mud furnace with mud chimney. He raises about fif- teen acres of rice and ten of cotton, yielding half a bale per acre in good years. He has three horses and is well supplied with razor-back hogs and poultry. His out- buildings are well constructed ; he has pine-thatched shel- ters for his cattle. In his well-kept gardens are turnips, [233] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH cabbages, and fruit. He has had fourteen children, two of whom are dead, three married, and four now teaching country schools. His prosperity is due to the fact that he worked them all desperately hard. Yet with the mis- sion school at their door, they got something of an edu- cation. Now Isaac rents out much of his land and hires less prosperous neighbors to do his work. These are the extremes. As I rode through the coun- try in the springtime and noted the homes I saw not less than two-score newly built houses within a radius of a dozen miles. These invariably were of frame and clap- boards instead of logs, and had brick chimneys. The tough clay which made this region so long the character- istic land of mud-daub is now being turned at a near-by plant into a fine quality of roofing tile, and one frequently sees the anomaly of houses worth scarcely a hundred dollars with roofs which would grace a million dollar cathedral. It is interesting to find under such an up-to-date roof (domestic utensils of purely African pattern. Rice is threshed in a wooden mortar reminiscent of the jungle and winnowed by being thrown in the air and caught in broad " fanners " or baskets of rice straw. In the outlying coast communities, where the influence of the mission schools has not been present, primitive traits tend to appear, especially in social and religious life. The coast swamp negro has many local dialects in which corrupted African words are alleged to survive. Sectarian church organizations are said to be declining in favor of the local lodges or burial and relief societies. This is un- doubtedly a reversion from a higher to a more primitive type of social organization. The country is dotted over with the halls of such societies, whose thatched feasting [234] TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES sheds attest the essentially sensuous character of prim- itive religions, out of which the negro is struggling. I recall a weird night meeting in such a hall; a gigantic lodge-leader, plainly a witch-doctor in thin disguise, stand- ing before an enormous fireplace, whose lurid flames made mysterious shadows creep up and down the unhewn rafters of the cavernous room ; a half hundred worshipers crouch- ing in semi-darkness relieved only by the flashing of fanat- ical eyes ; the alternate wildness and plaintive passion of prayer and song, till the mood of spiritual burden passed and the meeting resolved into a rhythmic dance of relief and joy, from which fleshly impulses were not entirely absent. A few years ago, indeed, not far from here, a horrible revival of phallic worship broke out and was with difficulty suppressed by the authorities. It all bore the Christian name, and the scientific no less than the sympathetic ob- server would concede its profound religiousness and poten- tial social power. We were all digged from this same pit and under the cruder emotions our boasted veneer of civili- zation dissolves into the primitive. If the Georgia coast negro puts rice into the grave for ghosts to eat, we put flowers there — for ghosts to smell ! Each of us has for- gotten why our ancestors taught us these ways. The negro is only a little nearer the savage. Yet when, as in the black counties and under the increasing tendency of race segregation, American civilization has deserted him, his gains hang in a trembling balance. We need all the resources of civilization to keep us up to our standard of life. He needs them to keep him up to and raise him above his. The Dorchester Academy has about forty acres of land, some two hundred and fifty pupils, a dozen teachers, and [235] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH a very good equipment of buildings. There is an excellent eight-room schoolhouse, a large girls' dormitory, and a church ministered to by a colored pastor. It has a boys' dormitory, a two-story woodworking shop, a small black- smith shop, a bricklaying shed, a modest printing-office, a gasoline engine and wood-saw, and a well-equipped laun- dry, besides a barn with stock and farm implements, and a magnificent flowing well, furnishing ample water supply. There are special teachers for agriculture, farm mechan- ics, domestic science, sewing, and dressmaking. Only twenty-three pupils are in the secondary grades, but the work which they do is sufficient and worthy. This descrip- tion, with greater or less variation, would fit Gloucester School, Cappahosic, Virginia ; Lincoln Academy, Kings Mountain, North Carolina ; Brewer Normal School, Green- wood, South Carolina; Fessenden Academy, Fessenden, Florida; and Lincoln Normal, Marion, Alabama. The presence of schools of this type is significantly lacking in the states of Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Yet of the fifty-five counties in America with a negro popula- tion of over 75 per cent, thirty-four are in these very states. This is the most notable gap in the Association's system of schools, and the lack of other opportunities for the overwhelming black masses of the lower Mississippi valley make it the more unfortunate. If I had $150,000 for negro education, I would first of all found an agri- cultural high school in one of the blackest counties in each of these three states. 236 J PRiMAuy Grade, Andersonvili.e, Ga. Graduating Class, Straight University, New Orleans VIII. TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES (continued) CLASSIFICATION OF INSTITUTIONS E. GirW Semmaries THIS Is an interesting and significant variation from the prevailing types of schools. The American Missionary Association has few such institutions, but it has been a favorite type with several of the North- ern denominations. The considerations which have led to the establishment of girls' seminaries are chiefly three. They are, in the r^ o -1 first place, in line with the Southern educa- Why Special f ^ , . , , ^ , Schools for tional tradition which the more select groups Negro Girls ^f negroes inherit. Coeducation in the South was a Northern innovation, which on the whole has justified itself as the prevailing policy of the negro school; but the more careful parents, especially those having some social pretensions, frequently demanded sep- arate schools for the training of their daughters. Beyond this there is very real and urgent motive in the moral peril of cultured negro girls at the hands, primarily, of white men, but also from men of their own race. The more refined and ladylike the girl, the more constant and insidious is the attack. No social tradition protects her virtue; no social obloquy punishes its despoiler. This is the chief tragedy of the race situation. Now, however great the peril, it must be met on the whole by the strength- ening of character — not by isolation and the erection of arbitrary safeguards. Yet ther e are numerous specific [237] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH cases where considerations of moral safety make the policy of separate schools for girls wise. The strangest aspect of the situation is that not infrequently these schools are chiefly filled by the daughters of white men. The banker, the postmaster, and the leading merchant frequently show both a sense of responsibility and parental regard for the children of their illegitimate black families. Almost any one of our institutions could tell a series of curious and thrilling tales on this point. Conscience frequently tries to square itself by giving the daughter a protection which the mother did not have. Finally, girls' schools have been found to furnish the most simple and natural conditions for the training of home-makers. Not excessive labora- tory methods remote from the actual conditions of house- keeping, but the daily round of duties in a family of moderate size gives the most practical training in the do- mestic arts. The Association has always given such training a large place in the education of the negro girl. Its ulterior object has not been that which chiefly com- mends domestic training to the unthinking, the prepara- Trainin" the tion, namely, of household servants. It is the Mothers of the negro home which has been primarily in ^^^^ view — the preparation of the girl for wife- hood and motherhood. The deepest need of the race has been here, a need compared with which the preparation of cooks and domestics is insignificant. The moral peril of domestic service compared with that of other callings open to women is a commonplace of sociological knowl- edge, and is made tenfold more deadly by the prevailing attitude of the South toward the negro women, which we have just discussed. The hesitancy of some of our schools to send out carefully trained girls to almost certain insult and danger will at least be understood. At the same time [238] TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES it is recognized that a poor race must learn to endure the moral risks involved in making a living, and it has been inculcated both by precept and example that efficient do- mestic service is honorable. The girls' schools have sent out a due proportion of competent servants and conse- quently have been especially favored by Southern com- munities. Each of these considerations was consciously present in the estabhshment of Allen Normal School at Thomas- A Typical ville, Georgia. Shamed by the incendiary School: Allen destruction of the Association's school in a Normal neighboring town, a group of the leading citizens of Thomasville invited it to their community. They gave it both welcome and substantial financial sup- port. Accordingly, in the founding of the school, the pre- vailing Southern idea of separate education for girls was followed. The institution was deliberately located apart from the negro quarters where a little school had pre- viously been maintained, and sought privacy on a consid- erable tract of land in the outskirts of the city. Around it there developed a distinctly residential district for negroes, a region of neatly painted cottages, of well-kept fences, and flower gardens. The whole result was just such a select school as one might wish for his own daugh- ter. Besides these provisions for protection and intensive Christian education, facilities were definitely planned for training in the household arts. Full realization of the ideal, however, was long delayed for lack of means. Besides the dormitory building there was but a two-room school- house, housing four grades. The rest of the work of the school had to go on in the dormitory. This meant the in- vasion of children, noise, dust, and germs. The upper classes had to recite in teachers' bedrooms. The much [239] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH desired systematic training, both in practise teaching and in household science was well-nigh impossible. But now, at length, a new schoolhouse has just been erected, and teachers are under appointment not only for sewing and domestic science instruction, but also for practical gar- dening and fruit growing. Thus a fine, wholesome, well- ordered institution is at length able to realize its ideal. There would be many more such institutions but for the fact that they are disproportionately expensive. It costs Why not more more relatively to run a small school than a of this Type? large one. The ideal of intensive culture in a closely associated Christian household does not per- mit of an institution of economical size. The Association is committed to the policy of the diffusion of opportunity, hence cannot emphasize the more expensive types of schools. Yet no one can learn the life of a seminary for negro girls without profoundly wishing that its type might increase. Nowhere does gracious and effective womanhood have more immediate and potent influence over earnest and receptive youth, and the results show in the aspirations and successful struggle of many a negro girl, — one of those future mothers of the race who are the source of all purity and all defilement. F. Colleges and Universities The negro higher institution is chiefly something else. With the possible exception of Howard University at mi lyr Washington (a school subsidized by the Fed- " College" eral government), there is no one of them chiefly Non- which has not the bulk of its resources, the collegiate majority of its teaching force, and the larger proportion of its plant engaged in work which does not [240] TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES go beyond secondary grade. The following table states the case for representative institutions in 1908 : COLLEGE STUDENTS Fisk . . Talladega Atlanta . Tougaloo Howard 124 29 51 6 75 190' This showing is wholly creditable to them, for it proves that, whatever their intentions, in actual practise they have served conditions rather than theories. They have turned their faces " home to the instant need of things," and have undertaken the work most fundamental for the race. If, however, undeceived by names and titles, one studies this group of institutions in its concrete variety, he will discover it to be a unique and vital part of American education. The older of the negro colleges, established soon after the war, were invariably the offspring of Northern philan- Ideal and thropy under Christian impulse, and are still History chiefly supported and controlled by boards of trust representing the great denominations. From the very beginning these Boards have frequently included representative white Southerners and sometimes associated them with negroes as fellow trustees. Some of this group ' In teachers' professional course of collegiate rank. 16 [241 CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH have come to be independent of the agencies which founded them and others are on the way toward it. Later, the ris- ing tide of negro race-consciousness brought into being other institutions ambitious to attain college rank. As a group they have been narrowly sectarian, miserably equipped, and of low educational standard, yet some of them have made real progress and are yet to be counted among the genuinely higher institutions. They have shared the ideals, at least, of the older group. Starting with the purpose of demonstrating to the world the intellectual capacity of the negro race, the higher in- stitutions have all found their chief motive in the conviction that the strategy of race development demands the prepa- ration of disciplined leaders. To this end most of them originally had to begin with the primary school; yet the end was never forgotten, and by virtue of it — in spite of their continued occupation with elementary and second- ary education — they are not unworthy to be reckoned as colleges in the making. In external equipment the better negro colleges equal many well-known and representative Western institutions. . Fisk, for example, has a $100,000 dormitory sung into existence by the world-tours of her famous Jubilee singers. A visit to the American Mis- sionary Association colleges would discover a notable group of chapel buildings, architecturally impressive and equipped with all the accessories of dignified religious ser- vices, including excellent pipe-organs, the one at Talladega being the gift of alumni. I recall a good many classrooms better lighted and furnished than some in which I have sat at old Harvard. Mr. Carnegie's inclusive beneficence has given numerous artistic and modern libraries to negro in- stitutions. Facilities for adequate science work have been [242] SWAYNE Hai.1., TAI.I.AUKdA Coi.I.EGE ChASE HaLI., FiSK UnIVERSITV Jubilee Hall, Fisk Umversitv DeFokest Ciiai'el, Tali, ADEiiA College Striebv Hall, Tougaloo Universitv Beard H all, Tougaloo Universitv TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES somewhat lacking, but in its new Chase Hall, Fisk has a science building which for architecture and equipment would be envied by the average college. One of the char- acteristic buildings of Northern institutions is notably lacking, namely, the gymnasium. But in lieu of that the negro college is likely to have industrial shops and farm- lands, which some will think a profitable exchange. Atlanta University has a splendid model school building — the gift of George Foster Peabody — and other schools have less pretentious special quarters for the training of teachers. Talladega College, located in the country, has a plant worth $250,000, while that of Fisk, by reason of its greater urban values, is estimated at some half a million. In the forty years and more of their history no negro college has been able to acquire even a fraction of the Endowment necessary endowment for its support. Every and Support one must annually beg the greater portion of its running expenses. In other words, the utmost that Northern philanthropy has done has not been sufficient to put a single school upon its feet. Talladega leads with an endowment of some $160,000, Atlanta reports $72,000, and Fisk about $70,000. The preoccupation of philan- thropy in recent years with industrial education has made the financial problem of the college well-nigh desperate. Tuitions are but one-third or one-half those charged by the more modest Northern schools. The Missionary Board remains the chief source of supply. The older and better known negro colleges, especially those controlled from the North, draw students from very . wide areas. A surprising number of North- Constituency „ J.1, i? n 1 • r 4-1, • ern negroes prefer the tellowsliip of their own race to the educational privileges of the famous insti- tutions open to them at their own doors. The systematic [243] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH provision of opportunities for students to support them- selves, in part by manual labor, and the development of stu- dent aid funds have made it possible for these schools to be attended by young people from all social classes. At the same time, the opportunities of higher education are in their very nature selective, and the negro college student, like the white, is doubtless above the average of his people in natural capacity. Probably there is a disproportionate number of mulattoes among them. The colleges, though young, tend to develop distinctive characteristics, as do all vital institutions. The familiar visitor soon learns to sense the institutional tone and atmosphere. Sometimes it tends toward social exclusiveness and educational dis- play; sometimes toward solid results. But probably from no group of American colleges are the regrettable features so largely absent. Christian education as interpreted by the able and de- voted men and women who set the standard and gave the _,. . ,. tone to the better nes;ro colleges, meant Discipline , i «> • ^ thoroughgomg and enective moral control. Discipline is therefore a sterner reality in these schools than in the average American college. The going and coming of students is under strict limitations. The over- sight of girls is especially conscientious and watchful. Because the negro as a race is unused to the strain of prolonged intellectual labor and also because many students are so poor as to be underfed, the care of health becomes a peculiarly insistent problem, and instruction in personal hygiene a fundamental part of college education. From the earliest times it has been a tradition that every student should give at least an hour of manual labor in addition to all other payments toward the cost of his education. This takes the form of dining-room and dormitory work [244] TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES for girls and industrial and agricultural work for boys, while a few of both sexes are employed in clerical capaci- ties. The strict regimentation of negro college life im- presses every observer. Yet its grounds are only partly racial. It is chiefly not because the students are negroes but because they are mostly in elementary and secondary grades. I question whether the negro student of collegiate development requires especial severity of discipline. College life from the student standpoint has many fea- tures in common with those of typical institutions. We have noted the unique insistence on manual labor. Naturally the constituency of the negro college is poorer than that of the average American school. This means a larger proportion of students who are working their way. There is probably, therefore, less surplus energy to be worked off by student devices. Social functions, however, are frequent and varied. A careful and rational control of the relations of the sexes is always maintained. While coeducation is the rule a few of the higher institutions have departed from it. Athletics are moderately developed and the " big " football game be- tween negro universities has most of the marks of similar occasions in the North. The culture agencies of college life are frequently superior. Lectures and literary socie- ties flourish. Musical organizations have a unique place and get magnificent results from the negro's rare gifts in this direction. " If you were a negro," wrote an enthu- siastic visitor, " your college songs would be written by a real poet, their music composed by a genius and sung by a highly trained student body whose rendering would do credit to the Handel and Haydn Club." The student press has an extensive development made possible by the frequent presence of printing as part of the industrial curriculum. [245] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH One familiar phase of white student hfe is almost totally absent in the negro colleges, namely, the playing of law- less and destructive pranks. Perhaps it would be equally so from the Northern college if the student knew that his exploits would be rewarded with lynching rather than laughter. The educational standards of the negro colleges are high rather than broad. Most of them have narrow and Educational traditional curricula, and probably not one Standard and absolutely reaches the standard of either the Achievement Northern or Southern college associations as to entrance requirements, teaching force exclusively given to college instruction, or developed course of study. This is simply the story of the American college in its beginning in all sections. The negro institutions have had a rare measure of that splendid personality and teach- ing ability which supplies a genuinely higher education in schools of small resources. Much of the work attempted has been of superior quality. Colleges no better developed have educated the majority of eminent Americans. I hap- pen to have gone immediately from a chair of psychology in a reputable Western college to the inspection of negro college work. I found standard texts in use. I heard classes and sometimes set examination questions. The re- sults were up to the average of student attainment as I know it in the white schools, and in individual cases were truly remarkable. Graduates of these colleges have now for many years gone in considerable numbers to the great Northern universities for advanced work. The represen- tative Fisk and Talladega graduate can make the junior year in Yale or the senior year in representative colleges of the IVIiddle States. The notable careers of exceptional negroes in some of the most famous seats of American [246] TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES learning are a splendid revelation of the capacity of picked men of that race in competition with picked men of ours. Nor is it always the extraordinary negro who comes North. Oberlin has seen a full seventh of her students black. The average negro is an average student in the Hues of his reasonable preparation. For the more accu- rate scientific work and for technical courses his schools have not hitherto been able to fit him. The checking of Northern beneficence toward the negro college is resulting in their rigorous sifting. The future Future of the will show its results in two directions : first, Negro CoUege in the acceptance of the secondary role by many ambitious schools which it is neither strategic nor economical to develop as colleges. Precisely this thing is taking place among the white schools of the South, and is being practised by the American Missionary Association toward its higher institutions. Second, in the achievement of real university standards and breadth along distinct lines by a small group of the best schools. The faith of their founders providentially wrote charters calhng for many-sided institutions. The needs of the race have re- quired broad foundations, and splendid superstructures will yet be built. Fisk, Atlanta, Talladega, Tougaloo and others will be able to raise their many departments of speciaHzed instruction to the highest grade and will thus justify the name university. G. Specialized Instruction Specialization in the negro college has not been able to wait upon theoretically complete preparation in its stu- dents. The manifold practical needs of the race have been too urgent. They have compelled the use of imperfectly [247] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH trained leaders. Technical and professional courses, there- fore, have been generally parallel to or assimilated with secondary and college studies. Theological. — Some of the most splendid and conse- crated personalities ever engaged in negro education — including a heroic group of Southern men — have given themselves to the task of training ministers ; and with notable results. Probably a greater proportion of negroes of first-class ability have gone into the ministry during the last generation than of whites. I can recall recitations of negro classes in systematic theology and in modern social problems which compared favorably with those of Northern seminaries. A large proportion of the students, however, are mature men — working pastors who recognize their own deficiencies and are seeking to remedy them. Their efforts by no means merit contempt. A goodly proportion of students are training for missionary service in Africa, for the redeeming of the mother continent is a growing aspiration of the American negro and is one of his unique spiritual assets. Instruction is directly adapted to racial needs. Teaching of Hebrew and Greek is the exception. The core of theological training consists in study of the Enghsh Bible and practical methods of religious work. The exceptional student who needs more can generally be helped on to a Northern divinity school. The theological departments of the American Missionary Association have always been recognized as entirely non-sectarian ; and however intense the denominational feeling of the negro churches, they have recognized the superior training of the Association's schools, and have been willing to trust their religious breadth. For example, take the history of the Talladega Theological Seminary: It has grad- uated and sent into the ministry sixty-five men. Of this [248] TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES number one-fourth have served or are serving other than Congregational peoples; five as pastors of Baptist churches, two as presidents of Baptist colleges, six in the Methodist communion — one being dean of a theological seminary, and another trustee of a college, while three be- came Presbyterian pastors. Sixteen students were enrolled in the Seminary during the year just closed. Of this num' ber one-fourth were pastors of local Methodist and Baptist churches, fitting themselves for better service in their con- gregations. And none are more emphatic in their commen- dation of the work of the Seminary than these men. Indeed many representative men of these dominant negro churches have had their training in it. Pedagogical. — The majority of secondary institutions for negroes offer their graduates special work in prepara- tion for teachers' examinations. Only a few of the better schools, however, have made a real beginning in the direc- tion of advanced professional courses. The presence of elementary schools in most of them affords opportunity for active apprenticeship. The plan most in vogue is to follow a three years' general secondary course with two years of intensive study of teaching methods and school adminis- tration, including a large amount of practise teaching. Howard University has a still more elaborate and exten- sive course. Domestic Science Training. — Beyond the required daily household service from all women students in connection with school dormitories and boarding departments, there has recently been an extensive introduction of facilities for a more scientific study of home-making in all its aspects. Many domestic science laboratories have been furnished. Model homes, for . which completely equipped buildings have been provided, are a distinctive feature of this train- [249] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH ing in several of the American Missionary Association schools. In them senior girls in all courses are given a finishing-off in housework and management just before their final going out into active life. Under careful super- vision they keep house for themselves for a series of weeks, each doing in turn the whole round of necessary work from scrubbing and laundering to planning for and presiding as hostess at a course dinner. Nursing. — In connection with the larger schools daily health inspections by regular officers and school hospitals for the care of the sick have been provided. The practical work of these has been expanded into a number of incipient professional courses for nurses. This profession furnishes one of the best opportunities to the negro self-supporting woman, the trained colored nurse having almost an un- limited field among the white people of the South. The best of these courses are approximating their standards to those of similar ones in the North, and extensive hospital practise is in some cases possible. Talladega College has been able to unite with the community in the establishment of a hospital receiving both students and out-patients, an ample building for which is in process of erection. Trades Instruction. — Missionary schools in the main have sharply differentiated themselves from those giving trades-instruction. They have insisted upon the necessity of general intelligence to make special skill practically effective, and have devised their industrial work as a part of general education rather than as trades-apprenticeship, with immediate view to a hvelihood. Many of the trades have indeed been in actual operation in connection with the building up and care of the plants of the larger insti- tutions and hundreds of students have thereby been enabled to work their way through school. A few missionary [250] CorroN Picking on School Farm Brewer Normal School, Greenwood, S. C. FOOTHAI.I. TeaJI Burrell Normal Institute, Florence, Ala. TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES schools which have large industrial equipment, like Tou- galoo University and the J. K. Brick School, North Caro- lina, have allowed a small number of pupils annually to take a minimum of academic work and to specialize through a series of years in a trade, receiving a diploma when it has been satisfactorily mastered. Courses in dressmaking, milhnery, cooking, blacksmithing, carpentry, brick- masonry, and stationary engineering have thus been pro- vided. In almost every school the various lines of repair are assigned to students who are working for their educa- tion and who in time become practically expert along va- rious lines. In the forty or fifty such institutions of the American Missionary Association hundreds of students are thus receiving actual training in the trades. Thus a system of apprenticeship has grown up, antedating and still rivaling the work of Hampton and Tuskegee. Agricultural. — The Federal government will not draw the color-line in education. The Southern states, therefore, in order to receive national appropriations for white agri- cultural colleges, have had to establish parallel institutions for negroes. Aiming as these do at agricultural training without thought for general culture, their constituencies have naturally been very crude ; their equipments have been meager as well and the grade of work correspondingly low. Yet if the destiny of the negro is to be worked out close to the soil, there is critical need of a trained rural leadership, such as the state schools do not give. The fol- lowing from the Tougaloo University catalogue indicates the range of such practical training in a well-equipped school : The attention paid to agriculture has been in- creased. Practical farm operations have been steadily carried on. The plantation now produces nearly all CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH the meat, milk, and vegetables for the boarding de- partment, which averages over two hundred, besides what is shipped to market. Eighty to a hundred cattle, seventy to eighty sheep, about the same number of swine, are yearly raised, the animals all being of good breeds. About a thousand bushels of sweet potatoes, the same of corn, one hundred tons of hay, cane enough for many barrels of molasses, made on the place in the open kettle fashion, cotton enough to show what can be done by intensive methods in producing two or more bales to the acre, are yearly raised. Several acres of strawberries, two hundred apple and two thousand peach trees provide fruit for table use, pre- serving, and shipping. Students do the work and the practical experience is of the highest value. Besides this field work there is school-room work in agricul- ture, by a special instructor, in the last grammar and first normal classes, and to special students in the higher grades. Lectures are also given regularly to all the grades. The central idea is that of uniting culture and high ideals of life with special skill for the betterment of rural conditions. Fisk has been a pioneer in the introduction of agricultural courses of college rank into its curriculum and Talladega is following with the appointment of a pro- fessor of scientific agriculture. Productive Scholarship. — A small but creditable amount of original work of genuine scientific merit has been done in a few institutions — notably in negro history and so- ciology at Atlanta University under Dr. DuBois, and in negro music at Fisk; while a large and distinguished group of negro professors has contributed to the scholarly as well as to the popular discussion of the race problem in many aspects. [252] TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES rV. THE OUTREACH OF THE MISSION SCHOOLS No mission school is merely a school; all are definitely intended centers of uplifting influence upon their com- munities. The policy of the diffusion of the educational opportunity means also the multiplication of such centers of moral life. The American Missionary Association schools constitute social settlements for some sixty negro communities. No concentration of equipment and endow- ment upon great mass schools can match this wealth of social ministration. In its least developed form, the mission school has a de- finitely parochial idea ; that is to say, it has felt bound to Parochial ^^J *° improve its environment. The monthly Responsibility report of each teacher has for forty years and Work asked, " How many calls have you made on pupils ? " " What community enterprises have you par- ticipated in.f' " Classroom relations have been regarded merely as the beginning of missionary service. Thus one of the most exploited ideas of a sociologizing age, " the school a social center," is an original and long-practised principle of the negro schools. The relations between them and the home have been most intimate. At their beginning, especially, many adults were enrolled as primary pupils and the grown-up negro has not felt aloof from the school as the average citizen does. His habit of clinging to his white folks has made the ties more binding. Thus mothers' meetings, sewing classes, talks on sanitation and care of children, besides manifold religious activities are among the earliest commonplaces of missionary method; and, however innocent of all pretensions, they have been carried on with sure common sense and an instinct for practical [253] CHRISTIAN EECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH results which have been an immeasurable tonic to the negro race. In an earlier chapter was noted one of the two vast movements of negro population, namely, that from coun- try to city. The city negro is a new thing tionofthe under the sun. Airica had no cities, nor Mission School had the old South. Such aggregation of to Urban population as it had, lacked completely the characteristics of modem urban life. Five- sixths of this population is still rural, more people being gathered in the cities of Massachusetts alone than in the whole South. Yet nowhere is the movement cityward more rapid or the social changes involved therein more critical ; and especially for the negro. All this means that the mis- sionary institutions must adapt new methods to meet the demands of the changing situation. Some of them have attacked the problems of recreation and amusement. The playground is recognized by modern Recreation and education as one of the most fundamental as- Amusement pects of the school. President Roosevelt told the recent Mothers' Congress, " A school without a playground is no school," and Dr. Woods Hutchinson said to the National Playground Association, " If you must omit either the schoolhouse or the playground, omit the schoolhouse." Now no one realized forty j^ears ago how marvelous the growth of Southern cities would be. The Association had no money to buy much ground and now that real estate is high and the vacant lots are built upon, our pupils are forced to play in the alleys and streets ; and the case is desperate. Almost without excep- tion our city schools are calling for play-places. Why do not the children play in the parks.? Does any one think that they are equally available for negro and [2j4] TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES Southern Parks white; that the negro boy can play in the closed to the streets as the white boy can ; that a group J^egro q£ colored young people can frequent a park for pleasure, or a gang of negro workmen rest there in the shade; that a black mother can take her child to a park for respite from the August heat? I do not know of a city in the South where this would be allowed. As cities have grown, have robbed childhood of its play space, and shut man out of immediate contact with nature, there has been practically no provision made for the negro of the substitutes which the city must furnish or else turn inno- cent and righteous instincts into vicious and criminal channels. Memphis has a negro reputed to be a million- aire, but he cannot use as a citizen a park which his taxes help to sustain. It has a beautiful tract of some two hun- dred acres of unimproved park, well out on the edge of the city, but we could not get permission to use it for an after- noon picnic for our Le Moyne school, even under most careful supervision. I have repeatedly urged city teachers to pay more attention to nature study. " Tell us where we will be allowed to take the children," they have invari- ably responded. Athletics have never held a very important place in the missionary scheme of education. Recently, however, some of our younger university men in principal- ships have begun to develop interest in scho- lastic games, arguing that city conditions make them necessary, and that their interest tends to hold boys in the school to the completion of their courses. The negro's pitiable lack of wholesome entertainment has also appealed to the schools. True, in large cities they ^ . are coming to have race theaters, the influence Entertamments /. i • , • i i, ,i -n -.7- ■ 01 which IS by no means altogether ill. Yet [255] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH no one can follow the year's entertainment course at such a school as Avery Institute, Charleston, or Straight Uni- versity, New Orleans, or Le Moyne Institute, Memphis, without realizing the superiority both of their musical and dramatic occasions. Every student of sociology is familiar with populations which have plenty yet starve from general underfeeding. The negro does not always have enough of any sort of food and a study of his dietaries proves that he rarely has enough of the right kind. Much of the irritability and criminal tendency of city populations is directly traceable to this fact. Several of our schools, therefore, have attacked the problem of the noon lunch. If you are a negro, you know, your mother is out at work and cannot get dinner for you; she went early and had not time to put up your lunch in the morn- ing ; so you have been in the habit of going to the grocery- store or to a cheap restaurant, where you have paid more than you ought for things that are not good for you. Some of our principals have realized this and have tried to meet the situation. Generally the work is planned and some- times it is done by the department of Domestic Science. A wholesome soup or stew is sold for five cents, and per- haps an appetizing dessert such as black children like. They sit down at decent tables and learn some of the pro- prieties of life while eating proper food under school supervision. So the noon hour passes without the demor- alization of children running the streets, and the school shows its adaptability to the new demand of the city. Few of our city schoolhouses close their doors when the children go home at dusk. Not only are there night schools for backward adults, for mechanics and seamstresses, or for teachers preparing for examinations, but frequently [2561 P imi. CoiJ.KGE ClIOIK, FiSK UnivEKSITV College Y. M. C. A., Fisk Univeksity TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES community libraries and reading-rooms are provided. The most extensive enterprise of this sort is the Crossett Educational Library in connection with the Le Moyne Extension Institute, Memphis, Tennessee. This is the ^^'■^ branch pubhc library for colored people sup- ported by public funds and supervised by the regular library commission. In many other ways Le Moyne, though a missionary institution, has grown to hold a place in popular esteem as a semi-public enterprise. The col- ored teacher's examinations are usually held there, and for forty years it has been the recognized fitting school for the teachers of Memphis and the whole surrounding region. Beyond all such enterprises conducted by the schools they have a large place as civic centers for manifold com- The Mission munity activities. Almost all non-sectarian Schools as and non-pohtical gatherings for race better- ivic en ers j^gnt meet in their auditoriums. Sometimes a glee club or orchestra or labor-union or any other of the dozen organizations is housed there. In a number of inter- esting cases the promising interracial conferences which took place throughout the South following the Atlanta riot found their natural meeting place on the neutral ground of the mission school platform. In brief, they tend to centralize the higher life of the whole negro community about them. With equal definiteness the rural schools have reached out and met the larger problems of their constituents. Their most effective method has been fair and helpful dealings with their own tenants, for the Association is an agricultural landlord in eight or ten states as well as a producer on at least two-score farms. Such rural work is carried on most extensively by the Joseph K. Brick School at Enfield, North Carolina. On 17 [ 257 ] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH The Rural ^^^ educational side this institution is a sec- Social Settle- ondary school like those described in a previ- ™^°* ous section, but its equipment is immensely superior, consisting of half a dozen brick school and dor- mitory buildings, with shops, stock, and machinery all on a magnificent domain of 1129 acres of level bottom land. No other negro farm school has so much fertile soil and few have so good a plant. There are seven families on the estate besides two grown sons living at home who rent land independently, fifteen The Brick acres each. The farms average thirty to School Tenants forty-five acres to a family, or about ten acres per working member, and are rented generally for a speci- fied number of pounds of lint cotton. No mortgage is given and instead of the endless verbiage of Southern crop lien contracts, there is a simple agreement of twelve lines requiring that no part of the crop be removed until the rent is paid, and plainly stipulating the amount of rent in cash or produce and the repairs or other betterments to be allowed the tenants. The most significant clause is as follows : " I also agree that there shall be no use of intoxicating liquor except for medical purposes, prescribed by a physician, in the house in which I reside, or upon the lands which I rent, and no violation of morality injurious to the farm, and no conduct which is not in harmony with the teaching of the school." Naturally this acts as a selective influence and with the fair treatment and excellent school privileges secures a superior class of tenants. Six of the seven families have been on the place from six to ten years each. Each is furnished with a clean, well white- washed, four-room cabin which, compared with the average farm habitation, is clearly entitled to be called a model tenement. The Brick School tenants (though by no means [258] TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES equally reliable and free from vice) are without exception deacons in Baptist churches. At present they furnish an aggregate of twenty children to the school. Number 1, for example, has been but two years on the place. He drinks and has no credit, consequently is not allowed to go in debt at the store. He could only pay half of his rent in 1907. He has no stock save a mortgaged horse, and his expenditures are disproportionate to the size of his family. His is decidedly the poorest record. Yet the school does not despair of him. It has taken poor material and made men of it. Number 2 has been on the school-farm eight years. There are three working members in his family. He paid his rent in full and had $200 cash surplus in 1907. His advances at the store average $350 per year. Though somewhat in debt he owns a horse, a buggy, a mule and wagon, a cow, and some poultry. His agricultural habits and methods leave much to be desired, for his grown son, a graduate of the school, raises four times as much cotton on fifteen acres as his father does on thirty and borrows money at the bank at 6 per cent, while the father still pays from 12 per cent to 20 per cent to the merchants. Number 3, a widow with two sons of laboring age, had $250 surplus last year and is probably out of debt. She owns a horse, cow, buggy, wagon, and poultry and lives industriously and comfortably on thirty acres of land. Number 4 has a working family of six. He drinks and only just about came out even last year. He is perhaps $200 in debt now, but has more stock than most of his neighbors ; namely, two horses, three cows, hogs and poul- try, besides a buggy and wagon. He has been nine years on the place. Number 5 has a family of seven working members. He [259] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH was $10 short on his rent last year, but this was due to serious sickness. He is probably not in debt. He has fewer possessions than the average man, but lives with corresponding economy. Number 6 has been eight years with the school and is easily the star tenant. Last year it took only half of his cotton to pay his rent. He is out of debt and has extra credit. He owns three horses, three head of cattle, hogs, and thirty chickens which yielded him two hundred dozen eggs last year. His son is studying architecture at Cor- nell University. Number 7 is a tenant of ten years' standing who has educated his children and now has a crop of grandchildren in the school. There are now six working hands. He had fourteen hundred pounds of cotton after paying last year's rent and is even at the store. He has no vices and though he lives closely, his large family of the third generation keeps him poor. He has a horse, three cattle, hogs, poul- try, and a buggy. An unmarried son who rents inde- pendently owns a three-hundred-dollar horse. It is interesting to note how these more than average tenants used their surplus last year. Number 2 bought a mule and buggy. Number 3 traded for a better horse and got a new buggy and furniture. He had also to pay a large doctor's bill. The model tenant. Number 7, made a small payment on the eighty-acre farm but could not resist the temptation to buy an extra horse and new buggy. Per- haps the conditions of tenancy here are too ideal to excite ambition for landownership. Nevertheless the lesson has not remained unlearned, as an individual case testifies. When the school began, twelve years ago, Mr. Hil- liard Phillips lived about twelve miles away on a farm [260] TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES rented on tlie " mortgage system," and lived other- wise as the mass of negroes are living in rural dis- tricts. He had the usual number of poor dogs and ignorant children. He worked hard and spent much for tobacco, snuff, and dram. He did not see how he could spare the money to send even one child to school. I reasoned with him that if he would quit his habits we would take his girl in school for what his tobacco, snuff, and dram cost him, amounting to four dollars a month. We allowed the girl to work out the other four. She came to school that one year, where she learned to cook all the necessary foods for the home family. She attended school five or six years in all. She is now one of the best teachers in the county. She is a fine seamstress and a good housekeeper. Mr. Phillips has bought and paid for one hundred and three acres of land near our school. He has built a four-roomed cottage on it for himself, and two other cottages adjoining his for his two married sons. He mortgages nothing, but pays cash for what he wants, and can get money from the bank. He raises his own feed and table vegetables. He has the best house and the best farm of his community, cleaner premises and cleaner crops. Whatever he is to-day he attributes to the influence of the school. I might name any num- ber of old and young men who live on their own places as the result of this school. Families which once lived in filth and crime now live in clean quarters and in healthful conditions. Better schoolhouses, better churches, better homes, good gardens, and clean community life. Good pictures have taken the place of whisky and tobacco advertisements. Sunday- schools, literary societies, farmers' meetings, and reading circles have supplanted Sunday baseball, chicken fights, and neighborhood dances. In nearly all the homes there are Bibles, in about all are Chris- — - CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH tian papers, in very many of them are found the Wo- man's Home Journal and The Woman's Companion. I had the privilege of attending the Annual Farmers' Day at Brick School one Washington's birthday. The A "Farmers' gathering was mostly of tenants and neigh- Day" Gather- bors, parents of pupils, with some well-wishers *^ from the village and from greater distances. There were morning and evening sessions with a barbecue and picnic between. There were four invited speakers, two white men, an expert from the State Agricultural de- partment and a visiting minister, and two negroes, a pro- fessor and a lawyer. The expert preached the gospel of diversified farming, of green-manuring and deep plowing. He explained the bacteriology of the soil and praised the peanut as an article of diet. He especially advised atten- tion to forage crops and the development of stock-raising in the South. The professor spoke of the negro's superior advantages in the country ; warned against the evils of city life, and exhorted parents to make the rural home more attractive. The lawyer dealt with the crop mortgage system. Mortgages, he said, were not an evil but an advantage to the borrower and lender. They were in- tended to be kept and should therefore be understood. The negro should know both his obligations and his rights and insist on the latter. He must have education enough to figure his own bills and decline to pay illegal rates of in- terest on advances. The minister talked about the farmer's life from the side of expenditures, health, and amusement. Education and character, he said, are more important than lands and goods and no people ought to be satisfied with mere material prosperity. Each speaker was repeatedly interrupted with eager and intelligent questions. An open [262] TYPICAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES parliament followed at which successful farmers told their vicissitudes and triumphs. All questions showed the gen- uine and practical influence of previous farmers' confer- ences and for the first time the old plantation owner, who had had some of these men and many of their fathers as his slaves, came to compare his farming experience with theirs as freedmen. These are typical examples of the in- fluence proceeding from every mission school, constituting a vast outreach for the well-being of the most representa- tive negro — the farmer. Every practical effort for the freedman from the begin- ning has had to face the staggering fact of his poverty. Ph'l th ■^^^ °^^^ ^^ *^^ whole fabric of missionary education a philanthropy which has cost mil- lions — but the annual conduct of every school involves innumerable individual cases of the assistance or relief of the poor. Its methods range from the sale of old clothing from barrels from the North (a ministry not to be despised since it annually involves goods worth tens of thousands of dollars in the aggregate) to far-reaching land-acquire- ment schemes, combining philanthropy and five per cent. The policy of the Association has been to confine its activities primarily to school and church work. Incident- ally, however, it has founded, fostered, or sympathized with almost every form of organized charitable service. Its institutions have never been called homes or orphanages, but have annually performed the functions of both. Every school grants free tuition in special cases and carries a minority of free pupils from year to year — some of them from infancy to independence. I happened to be at our Marion, Alabama, school one day, when the principal re- ceived an early morning gift of three homeless children; a man brought them in a mule-cart, said they were for the [263] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH school and departed. This is no rare experience. Many teachers have undertaken the rearing of abandoned chil- dren — sometimes legally adopting them. Probably the Girls' Industrial School at Moorhead, Mississippi, is car- rying this phase of service further than any other school at present. Its recent new dining-hall has a large ward on the second floor as a dormitory for small girls. Here some forty are cared for by a motherly colored woman. By no means all of its pupils belong to the needy class but some are orphans, others motherless, and more father- less. They are sent from as far as California, to share with children from along the bayous of the delta, children from the sawmill quarters, illegitimate children of Greenwood or Indianola merchants and children of prosperous, aspir- ing Tougaloo graduates, " the pure atmosphere of a happy. Christian home. The law of kindness and obedience is the natural law in this, to them, charmed spot. Orderly habits, pure language, the daily devotion, grace at each meal, the study of the Bible, the weekly prayer-meeting, the large, enthusiastic Sunday-school, the gospel service of song have an indescribable power." Thus, as always, the outreach of the mission school is also an upreach which tries to teach the little child why the cup of cold water is given him and in what Name, that he, himself, may become a giver as well as a receiver. 264] IX. PROBLEMS AND PROGRAMS OF NEGRO EDUCATION PROBABLY more Americans hold cherished opinions upon negro education than upon the education of their own children. The average parent is bliss- fully unconscious- that the whole educational field bristles with interrogation points, yet he is very likely a parti- „., , san on race training. Ask the principal of Partisanship a New England academy or Middle West on Negro high school whether his institution is solving Education ^^^ social problem in its own community. He will look blank and reply that it never professed any- thing of the sort, and he is too busy teaching school to think about it. Then he will turn and express grave doubt whether negro education is solving the race prob- lem. Only in this case is the nation conscious of the close relation between schooling and statesmanship. Thus it does negro education the honor of applying to it more than ordinarily exacting standards. And this is well for negro education, which already need not be ashamed of any competitive showing. In J p. working out through conflict its own pro- Service to gram it has done some pioneer thinking for Education the whole nation. Both the experimental at Large ^^^ ^^iq logical foundations of the most sig- nificant of present educational movements — that of incor- porating industrial education into our common school sys- tem — go back to Hampton. Armstrong is positively the [265] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH nation's most original educational genius. Popular ability to appreciate current discussions of educational statesman- ship is the product of debates about how to train colored youths. It is well, too, that much be required of the school ; then perhaps much will be given to it. Only by ceasing to be The Propriety "lere school-teaching and undertaking defi- of Severe nitely to meet social aims, can education get ^^^^^ proper regard from popular judgment. Let other schools meet the same test. Judge them by their success in solving their peculiar social problems ; then frankly admit that it is the business of negro education to be the most influential single factor in assimilating to our national civilization the largest and most deficient group of incomplete Americans. This is why it is important and why its claim upon patriotic philanthropy is so good. Philanthropy does well to insist upon a sound social policy in its administration, and the South is perfectly justified in insisting that the Northern benefactor think of the deep effect of his gifts upon the entire and complicated problem of its dual civilization. That the school wields immense power over national destiny ; that " through edu- cation society can formulate its own purposes, can or- ganize its own means and resources, and thus shape itself with definiteness and economy in the direction in which it wishes to move " ; ^ and that the test of social eflSciency must be met, we wish both to admit and to insist. The practical task then is to work through the mani- fold problems of negro education to a program which meets this test. * Dewey, " My Pedagogical Creed," p. 17. [266] NEGRO EDUCATION I. HIGHER vs. INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION The earlier negro schools founded by Northern philan- thropy were intended less to teach the negro than to teach Higher Edu- the nation. Their attempts were to help him cation an meet the white man's — especially the South- Attempt to g^^ ^j^-^g j^^^,g _ ^gg^ rpj^jg ^gg|. ^^g j^^^ Meet the White Man's utihtarian but ideal. It was reported that Test John C. Calhoun had said, " Show me a negro who knows Greek syntax, and I will then believe that he is a human being who should be treated as a man." ^ At any rate the argument for slavery had finally rested upon the alleged natural inferiority of the colored race; conse- quently the first task of freedom was naturally to prove the capacity of the race. The early-founded universities were thus a testimony to that capacity, a demonstration in the persons of a selected few of what the negro mind could do. As such they admirably succeeded. Hundreds of negroes during the reconstruction period learned to read Greek as part of the higher education of the age. Both instinct and theory maintained that such would con- stitute the natural leaders of their people in its new era. Further than that this higher education was not designed to adjust the race to the immediate practical demands of its life. There was no fundamentally thought-out program for leadership to follow; no clear recognition of stages of necessary development. Was this failure an essential error, or was it part of a deeper wisdom.'' We shall re- turn to this question a little later. In view of its theoretical impulse the ideals of higher * See Crummell, "The Attitude of the American Mind toward the Negro Intellect," Occasional Papers of the American Negro Academy, No. 3, p. 11. [267] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH education for the negro were simply and easily formulated. The motives underlying " industrial education " on the p p, other hand are more obscure, having emerged of Industrial from a more complicated course of evolu- Education — tion. It was originated by Annstrong at ms rong Hampton ; urged as a social policy and in- adequately practised by the South; developed and used by Booker T. Washington for the upbuilding of Tuske- gee; and given a theoretical basis by Northern scholar- ship. Each of these four interesting phases may be briefly traced. It is a sorry caricature of the original impulse of Hamp- ton to define it in the terms of a pedagogical ideal. It was rather a man incarnate — Armstrong himself, multi- plied and in action. Born on missionary soil, he inherited the devotion and profited by the experience of noble efforts for the uplift of a backward people. At Hampton, first under the Freedman's Bureau, a httle later with the com- mission and support of the American Missionary Associa- tion, he had to face the problem of masses of ignorant negroes, deficient in the very rudiments of civilization. His practical solution was to put them at manual work in connection with elementary schooling. This was the mani- fest, immediate solution and indeed the ordinary one in all the mission schools. For whatever his theories, the man at the front is always an opportunist — or else he does not stay long. But Hampton so bore the stamp of Armstrong's personal genius, and that genius was so splen- didly independent and pervasive, that its ideas and general methods became a shibboleth. He was wholesomely dis- gusted with the veneering process which conventional mis- sions had frequently employed upon undeveloped peoples. His sincerity and sense of instant need united to demand {268] NEGRO EDUCATION that negro education should rest upon sohd foundations ; yet he never urged the Hampton policy as exclusively right, nor doubted that the higher institutions were also necessary. It was a matter of emphasis. He was not devising a panacea; the Hampton way was simply his way. And industrialism is altogether too lean a name for his way. The personal and ideal incentives which he put into manual work were the secret of its chief virtues. In- dustrial education has never been in other hands what it was in his. No other has been able to mix its elements with such consummate art, or so to inform them with the Christian spirit. His instrument has mastered lesser men. He alone could bend his own bow. Worlds away both in motive and method was industrial education for negroes as it came to be the sectional pro- gram of the South. Its coming was on this wise: In spite of the tremendous social and political upheavals of Reconstruction, habit, that great balance-wheel of our Th S th' D humanity, held the men of that generation layed Demand largely to the substance of the older order, for Industrial There were new external relations, but those whose life and thought were hardened before the war remained inwardly much the same after the war. It was only with the dying off of that generation and the wearing away by time of habitual race relations, that the South began to realize how profound was the revolution that had befallen it. The North does not realize it to this day. Many of the most deeply disturbing results of eman- cipation were not manifest during Reconstruction, and this explains why the second generation of Southerners is frequently more bitter over it than was the first. The change which most impressed the South was what it took to be the deterioration of negro labor. Slavery- [ 269 ] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH trained craftsmen grew fewer and fewer, and there were none to take their place ; while the will to work under white direction seemed steadily to wane. Thus arose a demand for institutions which should teach the freedman to do the things for which he had been trained on the plantations — to become a skilled workman in the simpler manual indus- tries. The negro's education was to be vocational, with no expectation that he would want to change his vocation. Education was not conceived as a key for wider opportu- nity, but a tool for the negro's use in his present status. This was a splendid ideal in that it was a frank attempt to adjust men to some of the actual possibilities of life, but deficient in that it limited those opportunities by a narrow expectation. To the South the negro was naturally inferior, and it had not faith to approach his educational problem with those incentives which were the soul of Arm- strong's method. Industrial education by no means meant the same thing to him and to the South; yet because they favored common external forms of schooling they had the immense practical advantage of being able to work to- gether. From the standpoint of national peace and good will this must be counted an immeasurable gain. Virginia subsidized Hampton as Alabama later did Tuskegee. Dr. Lyman Abbott has recently observed that the most significant thing about them is that they are state-sup- ported institutions. The third great factor in working out the ideal of negro industrial education has been the personahty of that great- Washington at est Southerner of his generation, Booker T. Tuskegee Washington. Inspired by his teacher Arm- strong, and by liis own experience as a Hampton in- structor, he undertook the foundation of a similar insti- tution at Tuskegee for the service of his race. In the [270] NEGRO EDUCATION fashioning of pleas for money for this institution, and in its defense, largely against negro critics, he has formulated his educational philosophy and bolstered it with mildly theoretical arguments. He early saw that the external features of Armstrong's gospel — plenty of manual work for negroes — might . win the favor of the South. Convinced that ton and his " ^^^ friendliness of his white neighbor is prac- Temperamental tically more important to the negro than any Aversion to immediate exercise of political power, he has been content to gain that favor by holding controverted issues largely in abeyance and by emphasiz- ing what the South likes. For this " quiescence, if not acquiescence " in the South's race policy he has been at- tacked with incredible bitterness by the more militant party within his own race; but he has steadily and wisely, per- haps desperately, held to his own clue to the difficulty, namely, that the negro as a producer is indispensable to the South. He may so maintain and strengthen his econ- omic hold that political and social privileges also must be granted to him in the long run. The negro in the South has it within his power, if he properly utilizes the forces at hand, to make of himself such a valuable factor in the Hfe of the South that he will not have to seek privileges : they will be freely conferred upon him. To bring this about the negro must begin at the bottom and lay a sure founda- tion, and not be lured by any temptation into trying to rise on a false foundation. While the negro is lay- ing this foundation he will need help, sympathy, and simple justice.-^ On one hand this is making a virtue of necessity, but it 1 "The Future of the American Negro," pp. 220-221. [271] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH probably also reflects Mr. Washington's mind. Undoubt- edly the material prosperity of his race is his most sponta- neous interest. Only by taking thought does he appreciate the significance of spiritual affairs. His secondary em- phasis upon them is a sincere thought, but an after- thought. He leads his race after the pattern of his own heart. Every oratorical period is ended with a plea for character and service ; but these things are not original passions with him as with Armstrong. One does not doubt the worthiness of it, but one feels the transition from im- mediate to remote enthusiasm. Mr. Washington's earlier attacks upon mere bookishness in negro education were never as necessary as he thought, either to put his own people right or to attract Northern philanthropy into profitable channels. They served, however, to point out the needs of Tuskegee. The institution, however, certainly did not lack positive grounds of appeal. Its marvelous success is the most impressive single evidence of negro energy and practical ability. By reason of this great achievement, and of his persistent and peace-loving opti- mism, Mr. Washington has become the official ambassador of his race in its group-relations to the nation. Particu- larly he has given the doctrine of industrial education for the negro national standing. The extraordinary appeal of his ideas to the North is due partly to Mr. Washington's rare eloquence and tact in their persistent presentation ; partly to an of Economic increasing desire in the North to accept Progress Ac- what is also acceptable to the South ; but N^rth ^^ *^^ partly also to the circumstance that these ideas fall in with prevalent theoretical ten- dencies. The social theorizing of to-day is largely domi- nated by the idea of the primacy of economic progress [272] NEGRO EDUCATION in human development. Men must first acquire, then use wealth. The effective exercise of the higher capacities of a people is conditioned upon their possession of a mate- rial surplus, which permits complete nutrition, efl5cient labor, a normal play of incentive, and finally the turning of interest to ideal pursuits. If there is any racial justifi- cation for Greek it can only appear after victories have been won through industrial education. This is the negro's first need. Influential Northern journals, like The Out- look, have figured largely in popularizing this view.^ In practical outcome neither the higher nor the indus- trial idea has had any sufficiently wide application to negro Higher and education. The typical agency, whether Industrial public or private, has been and is an elemen- uca ion tary school in which the rudiments of leam- auke more _ "^ Talked about ing are bookishly taught. Many more dollars than Practised have been spent on such institutions than on all others combined. The most important exceptions to this rule, numerically speaking, are not schools supported by the South, nor yet Hampton nor Tuskegee, but the large missionary boarding-schools which have had to main- tain themselves and their students largely by productive work. The chief administrators of these schools have done essentially what Armstrong did, though less consciously, systematically, aggressively. They have been oppor- tunists who, in setting out to train leaders, have found it necessary first to educate masses of raw material from which to choose leaders. Whatever the theories of men in Northern offices, the men at the front have become fun- damentally interested in this more extensive task. How broadly they have met it appears in detail in other chapters. • For a typical utterance, see Hyde, A National Platform on the Race Question, The Outlook, May 21, 1904, p. 169. 18 [273 1 CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH Higher education, then, has been more talked about than practised. There is not actually a surplus of negroes who can read Greek. With the exception of the ministry, sta- tistics show that all professions are numerically under- manned by negroes. A trained colored physician, just out of school, has an immeasurably larger opportunity to start out with a good practise than an equally trained white man. Negro teachers are proportionately only one-half as numerous as white ; and if quality and character count in the ministry there is no calling more in need of highly trained men. Out of the ten million negroes in the na- tion there are to-day less than seventy thousand in all schools higher than elementary — academic, industrial, commercial, and professional, North, South, East, and West. Nor, on the other hand, has industrial education begun to be adequately furnished. As practised in its chiefly exploited centers it has had limited scope and confessedly has come far short of the ideals of its leaders. Only about one-third of the present enrolment of Hampton (1300) is actually receiving industrial training either in agriculture or trades. Less than fifty per cent of its graduates and less than twelve per cent of Tuskegee's have followed the industries in after life. In an address on the trade-school ideal, Major Moton, commandant at Hampton, said: Hampton does not by any means approximate its ideal in trade-school work, for it is necessary now — and probably will be for a long time to come — to teach a large number of undergraduate pupils, who learn their trades while they are taking the academic course, but post-graduate work is without question [274] NEGRO EDUCATION the ideal toward which trade-school work should be tending.^ He added that for its first thirty years of existence, Hampton did not teach the trades in any adequate sense. Most of the purely state-supported agricultural and in- dustrial schools for colored citizens are feeble indeed. North Carohna and Mississippi have creditable institu- tions; a larger number of states scarcely do more than transmit Federal funds, leaving their negro institutions largely to shift for themselves. Probably there are a dozen missionary institutions which have incidentally done more in actual industrial training than has any state insti- tution in the South. To-day's need, therefore, is for many more schools of more sorts than the original contestants over negro edu- XT , f cation dreamed. This need has become unde- XSeed oi more Schools of niable by reason of the actual social and all Sorts economic differentiation of the negro popula- tion. While the white men were debating what kind of an education was best for him, the negro has been quietly en- gaging in all the activities of life, until no one who studies his census record or learns his varied functions in any representative city can doubt that he needs an all-sided training to fit him for his actual opportunities. The question of the relative emphasis upon different forms and types of training is now being settled for any p . . given locality or calling by an objective scien- Agreement tific measurement of the extent of negro of Former opportunity in it. As a practical issue be- Partisans tween educators the old controversy is vir- tually dead. Of Mr. Washington's own development Prof. Kelly Miller justly writes: * " The Negro Artisan," Atlanta University Publications, No. 7, p. 65. [275 1 CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH He began his career with a narrow educational bias and a one-sided championship of industrial training as an offset to the claims of literary culture which had hitherto absorbed the substance of Northern philan- thropy. But he has grown so far in grasp and in breadth of view that he now advocates all modes of education in their proper place and proportion.^ The champions of higher education, on the other hand, are now consciously and confessedly emphasizing what they incidentally tolerated all along. Within the last two years the American Missionary Association has added more than thirty industrial teachers and equipments to its edu- cational forces, while its higher institutions are engaged in putting an educational top upon the lower forms of prac- tical training by beginnings in advanced technical courses. From the vantage-ground of the present era of good feeling, it will seem rash and almost impious to turn back Which was to ask which emphasis of the past was right. Right? Indeed it would not be worth while to do so except for the fact that the essential issues may again be- come crucial in the future. Indeed they are even now be- coming so in the movement for " vocational education for the masses." Was the early insistence on higher educa- tion and the delay of industrialism wise or wasteful.'' Was it true statesmanship or a sentimental blunder .-^ I confess that I think it justified itself both psychologi- cally, as fixing the negro's favorable status in the mind of Christendom, and practically, as the most effective strategy of race development. It sifted out a group of leaders. These gains infinitely outweigh any loss from the postponement of industrial training. ' " Race Adjustment," p. 25. [276 1 NEGRO EDUCATION The parallel between negro and woman — although at first thought unflattering to woman — is extremely and Negro and suggestively close. Both are struggling out Woman of a status of legal and social inferiority ; both suffer transitional handicaps, such as inferior wages for equal work ; both have made their most striking initial gains not at all by evolution from below. The higher edu- cation of women was in no sense an attempt to adjust them to the practical demand of their lives, but rather to extend the boundaries within which practical demands might grow. Why did woman want to go to college.'* Not better to fit herself either for home making or for economic competi- tion, but to prove that her higher capacities were equal to man's. She succeeded; and no extension of woman's activity as an economic producer has had half the potency for fixing her modern status, both in her own mind and in the mind of the age, as the fact that Dorothy Klumpke has discovered stars, that Madame Curie tamed radium, and Mary Calkins elaborated a psj'^chological theory. Similarly, in the light of the proved capacities of his select men, civilization simply cannot regard the negro It ■ r* d as it otherwise would. Every race is judged Strategy to by its best as well as by its worst. It is good Exhibit the strateg-y to exhibit the best first. The insti- tutions of higher education set the standards of the emerged group — the negro's finest and racially most significant flower. Its achievements have been the ideal capital of the struggling masses. From the schools founded by missionary zeal, race leaders came to the king- dom for just such a time of early trial and development. Mr. Washington is wrong in thinking that the negro who most impresses the South is the thrifty, property accumu- lating negro. The dominant South bitterly and increas- [277 1 CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH ingly confesses that the ominous man from its standpoint — the negro whom it thinks about and fears — is the educated negro. Its social policy forces everj' other issue to be sub- ordinated to the issue of negro capacity on the higher levels. The higher education is still the white man's test. Mr. Washington is wrong also in arguing, " During tht; first fifty or hundred years of the life of any people arc- not the economic occupations always given the greater attention ? " ^ This might be true of a people undergoing an independent evolution, but not of one whose chief prob- lem is that of its adjustment to an enveloping civilization, — one both highly complex and progressive. Under the negro's circumstances in America the first problem was to fix his ideal status. Whatever their incidental blunders it is the imperishable glory of the Fifteenth Amendment and the missionary universities to have done this. II. THE GENERAL EDUCATIONAL PARALLEL For the more minute guidance of an educational policy for negroes the general educational situation is to-day American Ex- suggestive as never before. Now, for the perience with first time, the American school faces directly Industrial Edu-j ^^^ ^^ \arg-e the problem of special training c^&tion not Theoretically ^or different social classes in a democracy. Significant With the immigration of millions of new and incomplete Americans, with their stratification into social classes, their self-discovery, group organization, and various demands, vocational education for the masses be- comes a central issue. For Massachusetts, as much as for Mississippi, special types of industrial schools are being talked about. The large experience of the educator of ' "Future of the American Negro," p. 228. [278] NEGRO EDUCATION negroes with the problem enables him to give certain ad- vice and warning to the nation at large. At first thought the very idea of class education seems repugnant to democratic ideas. No one was bold enough ^ T^ to propose such an idea until it had been dis- Can a Dem- ft:' ocracy Toler- covered that whether we like it or not we had ate Class it already in our supposed uniform schools. In less than half of its range does our boasted pubhc school system meet any general popular demand; less than fifty per cent of entering pupils complete the sixth grade, and only three out of a hundred finish the high school. With the changed character of our population the upper grades have become merely schools of the more well-to-do classes. In atmosphere and general social tra- dition the average city high school is one of the most dis- tinctly marked of American class institutions. Furthermore, the great falling out of pupils at the sixth grade is not chiefly due to economic necessity. Why do Y 'f 't P - parents allow their children to stop here who vides Enough can well enough afford to continue them for Class Schools the seventh and eighth elementary years .'' o go oiin Frankly, because they see nothing profitable in those grades in the present schools. Pupils stop, not for lack of means, but for lack of interest. The discovery of this fact by the Massachusetts Commission is epoch- making for American education. Schools which more than half our people do not want, nor use, are class schools, become such by failure to respond to the widening needs of the varied groups of our population. The policy of uniformity has broken down. The only solution, and the one adopted by all progressive European nations, is the establishment of more class schools — enough to go around. Munich, for example, has forty kinds of indus- [279 1 CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH trial continuation schools. The practical problem is how to secure an educational policy in America which shall offer a similar variety of opportunity, and still be faithful to the ideals of democracy. The moment of this attempted readjustment through the multiplication of class schools is fraught with grave The Danger dangers to our dearest convictions. In the of the Attempt letting go of old forms of democracy, osten- sibly in order to get a better hold on its essentials, some part of our faith in its spirit may easily be lost. Back of this cry for vocational education is an economic demand which lacks much of being pure patriotism or philanthropy. The master classes, North and South alike, want to train workers for a particular industrial status. They are con- cerned about the creation of productive agents who can compete with other sections or with Germany at a profit to themselves. They do not think of fitting human beings for the enlightened satisfactions of expanding lives. The simple-minded educator is deceived by the glitter of " in- creased national efficiency " and caught by the promise of more money for schools. There is great need to sound in America the noble word of the English Consultative Com- mittee, that no education is truly vocational which does not prepare for life as well as for livelihood. However much the schools may create special skill, only justice to the worker can furnish motive for efficiency. Thus, though all must bow in the temple of industrial training, we need not worship the commercial Education Rimmon. In the South, Mr. Washington must be Safe- wisely uses and cooperates with sectional sen- S'pict'i^ed ^™^"*' ^^* without accepting it as final. In the North educational policy must shrewdly fall in with economic demand, while avoiding its narrow- [280] Domestic Science Labor atorv, Talladega College Blacksmith Shop, Tougaloo LMvehsu v NEGRO EDUCATION ness and lack of heart. Democratic education in America will undoubtedly be secured in the future through a multi- plication of special schools so as to match the needs of all social classes. This should be cordially admitted for the negro. His friends should welcome all existing interest in his industrial education while profoundly distrusting much of its motive — both Northern and Southern. III. EXPERT INTERPRETATIONS OF THE LESSONS OF EXPERIENCE Apart from its epoch-making but untheoretical experi- ments with the training of the negro, America has practi- English and cally no experience in industrial education, Continental either sufficiently old or extensive to be en- Expenence lightening. England and the Continent are more fruitful, and the lessons of their policies are recently made available through current educational discussions, notably by the Report of the Massachusetts Commission on Industrial and Technical Education. All experience unites to commend Browning's counsel, "Oh, if we draw a circle premature, Heedless of far gain. Greedy for quick returns of profit, sure, Bad is our bargain!" Thus the application of the vocational idea to the ele- mentary school consists simply in keeping its general The Elemen- spirit in touch with the practicalities of the tary School child's life. The illustrations and activities of the school day should relate to the life of his parents and community and his own probable future. Problems in arithmetic, for example, should be such as a child will be likely to meet as one of the world's workers. He should [281] CHRISTIAN RECONSTEUCTION IN THE SOUTH have nature study, gardening, manual training ; but upon all this educational authorities insist, on strictly peda- gogical grounds, without any hint of vocational motive. In short the vocational method as such does not apply to the elementary school. All experts agree that no sort of specific trades instruction should begin before the child is twelve. For the youth who is between the ages of twelve and fifteen it is agreed that industrial education should be The Lower distinctly vocational, but not technical. This Secondary distinction means that the schools should im- School part general rather than specialized indus- trial skill, and at the same time maintain in full measure the other elements of education — cultural, humanistic, and manual. The Report of the English Consultative Committee on Higher Elementary Schools (1906) is es- pecially adverse to specialization within these years. Em- ployers, it says, are unanimously against it on practical grounds. Even commercial technique (stenography and typewriting), which requires slight manual effort, can- not wisely be undertaken yet. Skill must come first in processes involving only the simple, coarser, and more massive muscular coordinations. There should be special pre-occupational schools for those classes of pupils who are later to learn trades, teaching them fundamental in- dustrial processes ; but technical trade-methods are neither psychologically nor practically as yet justified. In virtual agreement the Massachusetts Commission's Report declares that, while short-cut trade-courses for younger pupils at first increase their productive wage- earning power, yet the " child commencing at sixteen overtakes his brother beginning at fourteen in two years." More particularly it specifies: [282] NEGRO EDUCATION That the responsibihty of the child is not devel- oped is declared to be the weakness of such schools. The employer has discovered by bitter experience that the fourteen to sixteen-year-old child is physically un- developed, and irresponsible for any sort of work except the actually unskilled. The development of poKcy in the industrial world and the experience of educators shows that the pro- ductive power of the child before fourteen is nega- tive, and that it has not the power to handle any- thing but the simplest processes in the simplest and smallest way; that from fourteen to sixteen he is of productive power only for the large processes of manufacture, or for errand work; but that the child in those years, by teaching, may gain the principles of industrial work, which may be put into practise after sixteen ; that, therefore, the training before fourteen should be in the simpler practical lines only ; that between fourteen and sixteen it should combine the practical training in specific industries with aca- demic work, as applied to the industrial problems, to develop intelligence and responsibility. After sixteen the pupil may wisely enter upon different trades education, but even then the acquirement of genuine Higher Second- industrial efficiency is no slight task. Mod- ary Schools em, and especially American, industry is so excessively specialized that men do not live by trades but by branches of trades. " If they are manufacturing shoes of the heaviest kind in one district and of the lightest kind in another, the teaching must be adapted to each place separately." The expert further continues thus: We do not say to the artisan students. You shall be acquainted practically with the whole trade ; but we say, There are some things in the shoe-trade that. CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH if you claim to be an intelligent worker and desire to advance, you should be acquainted with. We have put those subjects in a general section. At the same time we say there are also some subjects in which you will no doubt wish to qualify as a practical man and get your living by it. We allow you to select any one of these special subjects. Thus even the trade-school has its general and its special courses, and even when they are finished the trade is not acquired. No mere school training is sufficient for that. Sir William Mathers, who headed a committee of the British Parhament to investigate industrial edu- cation throughout the civilized world, brought his wisdom to the Massachusetts inquiry. His last words were these: Please take notice of what I said about the avoid- ance of teaching a trade to the extent of causing a lad to say, after leaving the industrial school, " I am a printer," " I am a cotton-spinner," " I am a mechanic or a carpenter." In the first place, it is detrimental to the lad's own interests. He becomes somewhat conceited before he has got through the proper training by actual practise. It tends to de- terioration of skill and intelligence in trades, which can only be fully acquired through work done on a commercial scale. It will tend to discredit industrial education.^ Similarly, in the light of the best American experience, Mr. Charles F. Warner of the Springfield (Mass.) Tech- nical High School says: Whatever method of teaching trades in schools may be adopted, provision should be made for continuing * Report of the Commission on Industrial and Technical Education, p. 164. [284] NEGRO EDUCATION the training by at least one year of work under actual shop or factory conditions ; and no certificate of proficiency should be granted until this require- ment has been satisfactorily met.^ The application of these lessons to the education of the negro must of course allow for his peculiar social and AddIi f f industrial situation in the South. He hves in these Lessons an industrially backward section, one given to Negro largely to agricultural pursuits. His lot is by no means that of the Northern urban populations. Nature is inexorable ; she may be hurt but not hurried; the psychological objection to prema- ture specialization is as great for him as for any other race. But social policy must have regard to the pecu- liar environment in which he must work his way. Much might have been said yesterday showing that the expe- rience of the older civilizations does not apply to his case. But the South is not standing still. Already its in- dustry and agriculture respond to, where they do not lead, modern progress. The peculiar and critical mission of industrial education is to the exceptional man exactly as is that of the colleges. Its unique justification is that it serves the negro in a crisis. He is as yet economi- cally indispensable to the South, but his opportunities, especially in skilled labor, are menaced. The race needs industrial leaders to lead their people into efficiency. With- out this they will certainly fail in competitions now im- pending. Just so far as the South becomes modernized, the negro is thrust into the world's struggle. The * Report of the Commission on Industrial and Technical Education, p. 190. [285] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH preparation of his people to meet this struggle is Mr. Washington's central idea, which he has by no means as yet satisfied at Tuskegee. He says: Just now the need is not so much for the com- mon carpenters, brick-masons, farmers, and laundry- women as for industrial leaders, who, in addition to their practical knowledge can draw plans, make es- timates, take contracts ; those who understand the latest methods of truck-gardening and the science underlying practical agriculture; those who under- stand machinery to the extent that they can operate steam and electric laundries, so that our women can hold on to the laundry work in the South, that is so fast drifting into the hands of others in the large cities and towns.^ This tallies exactly with the doctrines of the Massa- chusetts Commission : " Our technical colleges have pro- duced superintendents — captains of industry ; there are plenty of helpers and lumpers and young labor among the rank and file of the army, but there are no expert journey- men, second-hands, foremen." ^ The demand, then, is for highly skilled men. No second- rate industrial education fits the negro's case. It must give him genuine efficiency in accordance with the rapidly advancing standards of his economic life. This principle immediately rules out much that the Inadeauacv of South understands and means by industrial the South's education for the negro ; such crude pro- Version posals, for example, as the following from Governor Hoke Smith of Georgia: ' Washington, " The Future of the American Negro," p. 81. 2 P. 90. [ 286 ] NEGRO EDUCATION TEACH NEGROES TO WORK There Is one suggestion which I desire to make, which I have made before, and which I wish again to make with reference to the negro schools in rural sections. Education to be useful must have In view definitely the future of the child and the condition of the child. I believe that the negro school, to be of any benefit to the negroes, ought to teach them how to work. I commend to the county boards of Georgia the pro- priety of requiring that a considerable portion of the time at the negro schools be given to actual labor. The land immediately by the schoolhouse could, in most instances, be utilized for the labor, which should constitute a large part of the training which the young negroes receive in the rural schools. The negro should be taught how to put the land in proper condition, how to protect it from washing, how to cultivate it so deep that moisture can come to the roots of the plants from below, and should be made to do the work during the school hours. In- struction of this kind can be given with practically little expense and the time taken away from book study will be worth more to the negroes than the time given to book studies.-^ This means that the negro child shall be taught the habit of industry — which is well ; but it assumes that his life will continue to be narrow in ambition and outlook. In opposition to such a policy the best interests of true industrial efficiency, as well as all larger human standards, demand that the negro child In the common school be in- structed as any other child is, in the rudiments of human ' Report of an Address at Summerville, Ga., September 14, 1907. — — - CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH knowledge. Manual and agricultural practise should not be absent. All instruction, indeed, should be based on ac- tivity, but for psychological, not racial, reasons. No one can be taught to work well by being worked too young. The elementary schools should be vocational in atmos- phere, but not technical in method. And Governor Smith does well to conclude, " I do not pretend to have worked out the problem in detail." In negro city high schools, in which pupils of a given grade do not vary greatly in age from those of similar white schools, there are the same objections need such — both educational and industrial — to pre- Schools as do mature specialization, as European and Corresponding Northern experience has discovered. Actual Whites . trades technique should not be begun before the last years of the high school. Yet the South, while it professes to want the negro to be well trained as a worker, flies in the face of all educational counsels in not generally admitting his right to a sufficient preliminary schooling. In general it provides him no high school at all. In the rural secondary schools for negroes the physical and psychological objections to speciahzation are largely The Case of overcome by the greater age of the pupils. Rural Second- These pupils are frequently old enough in ary Schools years to begin the acquirement of their trades at once. This they have all along been doing at Hampton and Tuskegee. Nature permits it, but the social and economic wisdom of such a policy is open to ques- tion on three grounds. First: Modern industrial efficiency demands an ever broader general intelligence in the worker. England has found it necessary to give its Reform School boys culture [288] NEGRO EDUCATION studies to make good their trades skill. Germany has outdistanced the world commercially and industrially by The Negro giving the maximum of general education fails from Lack along with high technical training. In ad- ^o. '^ ^ sence jesting himself to his changing social condi- from Lack of tions, the negro has as often failed through Skill lack of intelligence and integrity in social relations as through deficiency in special skill. Entangled as his practical problem is by the complicating color-line, he needs an education which develops the broader eco- nomic virtues, involving both knowledge and character. To take the simplest case, no matter how good a work- man he is, unless he can " figure " he is sure to be beaten cut of his earnings ; unless he has decided moral and social resources he will be debarred from the trade union. Second: Remember that the supreme function of in- dustrial education just now is to train negroes who can lead their race through an industrial crisis. Schools fail to This involves something more than skill, and Train Proper this " something more " existing schools Industrial largely fail to give. The American Mis- sionary Association employs annually more than fifty industrial teachers, more than half of whom are negroes. It has found difficulty in using the average graduate of Hampton and Tuskegee in such capacities. This is not strange in the light of the report of 190T by Principal Frissell of the former institution: Nearly seventy-five per cent of the boys are in the night school, giving their days to the trades or agriculture. Many of them leave the school after having learned their trades, although they have only completed a year and a half of the four years' aca- demic course. Last May, sixty-three boys were candi- 19 [ 289 ] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH dates for trade certificates ; of these only three were candidates for the academic diploma ; nineteen re- turned to go on with their studies, and forty-one did not return. It is most desirable that a larger num- ber of trades students should complete the full aca- demic course and graduate with the school's diploma. The academic superintendent feels that while the trade-school boys receive too little academic training, the day school boys receive too little industrial train- ing. Progress has been made in combining academic and industrial training but the problem is not yet solved to the satisfaction of the school authorities. Educationally interpreted, the facts thus confessed mean that forty-one students with trades certificates, but with- out an ordinary common school education, went out from Hampton in 1906. If the nineteen who returned could have finished their academic course there, they would still scarcely have begun standard secondary work. Such re- sults are not meeting the ideals of industrial education as recognized by the best educational authorities. Might Hampton and Tuskegee not supply successful craftsmen though not good teachers? Yes, but not effi- cient industrial leaders. The inability to organize and communicate their special skill, and weakness in the man- agement of men, condemn them as race-saviors in an age of industrial revolution, of a " new agriculture," of an ever-deepening envolvement of economic in social and racial problems. They have been educated under arbitrary con- ditions — far from home problems — and are at a loss to apply their educational achievements to the small re- sources and limited opportunity of the average negro community. This is the common difficulty of all school- trained skill, which pupils of all races have to overcome. [290] NEGRO EDUCATION But in the case of the negro industrial-school graduate the defect is deeper. He has generally not acquired the inner means of making practical readjustments. He has — to borrow Dean Russell's distinction — the " educa- tion of habit," but not the " education of insight." But what the average Southerner — and probably the average Northerner — means by industrial education is the education of habit, such teaching as enables a man to work by rule and rote ; to work as profitably as possible under fixed social limitations ; in brief, to perpetuate the rule of some class and trade-tradition of a departed or departing age. This does not at all meet Mr. Washing- ton's sense of his people's needs, and is what Hampton is confessedly trying to get away from. It is not a criticism, then, of the best ideals of these greater negro industrial schools, but only of their average present achievement, to record that the Association has usually found its effective industrial teachers and organizers in the more thoroughly educated graduates of its own schools. These have frequently been deficient in technique, but such deficiencies have been more than made up by their broader theoretical background, and by the more practical char- acter of their apprenticeships in the daily work and actual building up of institutions. Such experience has devel- oped adaptability and resourcefulness. The industrial schools themselves have always found their best teachers among college and university graduates. Without such neither Hampton nor Tuskegee could run for a day. A Fisk collegiate graduate is now at the head of the J. K. Brick Industrial School, at Enfield, North Carolina. He has managed some highly difficult feats of rural en- gineering on the school's eleven-hundred-acre domains and has set up engines in its shops which are the wonder [291] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH of the white neighborhood. They ask, " Where did you learn it? " He rephes, " Oh, studying Greek at Fisk." Finally, mere industrial education fails most signifi- cantly because it cannot supply motive to industry. It is vain to teach better methods of production to those who can already produce more than they know how to want or to use. The psychological problem of inefficiency is really more serious than the economic problem. At this point particularly the negro fails. He is often content to live for five days on the earnings of two. He must be led to want more before he can be made to work more. The problem of consumption is prior to that of produc- tion, as hunger is prior to hunting. Even for, perhaps especially for, the poor man, an awakening imagination is the root-cure of practical ills. Armstrong supplied this dynamic by the infection of his own religious and moral genius. Every teacher must supply it somehow. It is the final justification of the cultural and ideal elements in education that they create incentives ; they give a scope to life which necessitates the efficient making of a liveli- hood for its fulfilment. No " blind alleys," then, are wanted in negro education. No amount of increased production through industrial efficiency could repay the loss to society if the schools should hold to lower levels men whom nature had destined for leaders. Georgia, in instituting the nation's most ex- tensive experiment in agricultural secondary education, was wisely aUve to such a danger with respect to a part of its citizens. We were, therefore, to arrange for technical agri- cultural and industrial schools of secondary grade which would provide technical occupational training for the eighty-five per cent of the young' farmers who [292] NEGRO EDUCATION would attend no higher school, and, at the same time, give a good education for citizenship ; open at the top, so that the other fifteen per cent, who through ambition and fitness should desire to pursue their studies in college, might do so, on equal terms with pupils from other schools. The law forbids the re- striction of the farmer's boy and girl to the three R's and manual labor; it forbids the shutting of the door of opportunity to those as the means of keep- ing them on the farm; but required a high school course equal to that offered in technical schools for other occupations and preparation for higher col- lege training.^ The report significantly adds: We want no " blind alleys " nor inferior training for the white youth of our state. Shall we understand by implication that an inferior training is good enough for the negro youth? No one will admit it who sees the race's need for competent leader- ship of its own, or feels its right to lay the higher products of its genius in the lap of a common civilization. All this argues that, for the negro as well as for the white, specialized industrial education should be based p, , . upon and postponed until after a thorough as to Negro general education is acquired. This general Industrial education should include the manual arts, as tiducation justified alike by pedagogical theory and vocational purpose, but should not enter upon technical trade-training. For the actually needy classes, earher specialization is justified as a social makeshift, for the same reason that the Manhattan Trades School is justified * Report of J. S. Stewart, p. 3. [293] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH in New York City. Even Professor Kelly Miller, author of a " Brief for the Higher Education of the Negro," advises special schools for domestic service in Southern cities. But nature imposes physical and spiritual penalties upon short-cut methods. They cannot solve the negro's main economic problems, nor satisfy the ideals of indus- trial education, let alone those of human progress. For a very few, in its postgraduate course, Hampton is doing what ought to be done, and probably as well as it has ever been done anywhere. For example, she has graduated seventeen students from her advanced agricultural course, which approximates the ideal of a secondary industrial school. Most of Hampton's trades courses, however, rep- resent, I believe, specialization without sufficient general education, as do Tuskegee's. These schools are willing to give the negro a type of schooling which Georgia is un- willing to give to even the humblest of its white children. On the contrary, the accepted ideals and standards of industrial education, as they have been worked out in the general educational field, agree in demanding thorough general preparation for technical training. The trouble with the negro trade-schools is that, under their prac- tical and sectional limitations of the past, they have not even been practising good industrialism. Yet a large part of the nation has mistaken or approved their make- shifts as a permanent policy toward a handicapped race. Now when the ideal of this chapter is popularized and its standard practised, when it is made the Ad^Sonof ^^^^^ °^ appeal for money and money is Ideals of spent on it when received, the old contention Higher ^f the partisans of higher education will in all its substantial elements have been adopted. Except in temporary, social-emergency schools, industrial [294] NEGRO EDUCATION education will he an advanced form of popular schooling. In policy and purpose it will complement rather than con- flict with general education. No sting of racial implica- tion will remain in it. Democratic opportunty will be allowed by groups of coordinate institutions, not sacri- ficed by inferior schools for the poor. The technical and agricultural college, neither of which yet exists for ne- groes, will take its place beside the college of liberal arts, as independent institutions or as a department of the great negro university of the future. rV. PRINCIPLES OF DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION In the light of these leisurely approaches, first histor- ical, then educational, a group of principles emerges. They are controlling for negro education only because true for all. They may here be enumerated and briefly characterized. 1. Of course, democracy must be true to its genius. It must conceive education as a means of equalizing op- A Policy of portunity, of assimilating incomplete Ameri- Education for cans to the best national type, and endowing a Democracy them with their full social heredity as sons of this crowning age. No expression of this principle could be nobler than the recent declaration of the Southern Educational Association (1907) : (1) All children, regardless of race, creed, sex, or the social station or economic condition of their par- ents, have equal right to, and should have equal op- portunity for, such education as will develop to the fullest possible degree all that is best in their indi- vidual natures, and fit them for the duties of life and [295] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH citizenship in the age and community in which they live. (2) To secure this right and provide this oppor- tunity to all children is the first and highest duty of the modern democratic state, and the highest economic wisdom of an industrial age and community. With- out universal education of the best and highest type there can be no real democracy, either political or social; nor can agriculture, manufactures, or com- merce ever attain their highest development. (3) Education in all grades and in all legitimate directions, being for the public good, the public should bear the burden of it. The most just taxes levied by the State, or within the authority of the State or of any smaller political division, are those levied for the support of education. No expenditures can pos- sibly produce greater returns and none should be more liberal.^ 2. Education as a social policy must follow probabili- ties while keeping an open door to possibihties. It must therefore be adapted to the special needs as well as to the general needs of the people. A wise democracy will not offer its masses merely the schools of the professional or leisure classes, but will multiply class schools until there are enough to go around, and thus one to fit each Ameri- can group. 3. As an invitation to the fairer possibilities — because the best wealth of a nation is always its poor boys — all these diverse groups of schools will be " open at the top." The State, as destiny, must never forbid the university to any child because he is poor or black. 4. A just educational policy toward any group which has recently suffered, or is suffering from social repres- * Quoted by Baker, " Following the Color-Line," pp. 284-285. [296] NEGRO EDUCATION sion, must seek to find adjustment, not to its present frag- mentary and distorted manifestations of natural capaci- ties and traits, but to its future completely emancipated mind and genius. The immediate task of education with respect to such a group must be to rouse and discover that suppressed capacity. I am afraid that the justest and most generous thought of the South does not give this consideration due weight as regards the negro. The ninth resolution of the Southern Educational Association on negro education was as follows: On account of economic and psychological differ- ences in the two races, we believe that there should be a difference in courses of study and methods of teaching, and that there should be such an adjust- ment of school curricula as shall meet the evident needs of negro youth. ^ This needs examination and elucidation. In the first place, millions of white Americans, and in the South, have an economic status exactly parallel to that of the negro. His psychological traits are largely the result of that status and are shared by the corresponding white groups. In the second place, the differences in courses of study and methods of teaching might easily be — in the South would inevitably be — such as tend to fix the belated group in its present distorted and limited mental expression. The woman-parallel is again in point. The deepest dif- ficulty in applying the ideal of vocational education relates to her. What is woman.? At any rate not a completed being. President Stanley Hall, the psychologist, ventures an " Outline of a higher education for girls based on their nature and needs, and not on convention or the demand ^ Quoted by Baker, "Following the Color-Line," p. 286. [297] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH of feminists." Her scientific training, for example, should omit the theoretical rigidity and advanced technique of the man's and should lay stress on the moral and es- thetic aspects of nature, " the poetic and mythic factors, and some glimpses of the history of science." ^ And all along the line her education should suit her psychical peculiarities. But immediately comes the anthropologist, Professor Thomas, to exploit the " adventitious character of woman," asserting that in many of her seemingly most distinctive traits she is not a natural but a social product. Her characteristic mentality is only her inner response to her social status. Like the negro she gains her ends by deceit and Hes, because those are the natural — and legitimate? — resources of unprivileged classes. She is an instinctive dinger, as is the negro, but this reflects her long-time economic dependence. Even her alleged inca- pacity in the most rigid scientific fields. Professor Thomas argues at length,^ is a cultural rather than a natural lack. In short, the mind of woman is the result of centuries of social pressure. Man's thought of her and her con- sequent thought of herself have restricted and artificial- ized her instinctive character, but have not maimed her mind beyond repair through freedom and opportunity. Professor Thomas' point is clinched by a conclusion from a highly scientific study hy a woman of the psychological differences of the sexes.^ A program for the education of woman cannot therefore be made until the true woman is recovered, and President Hall speaks too soon. The evident first business of a scheme of feminine education is to find the true woman. ' Cf. "Adolescence," vol. ii., ch. xvii. ^ " Sex and Society," pp. 30-61. 3 Ihid, p. 257. [298] Theological Gradua-jes, Talladkga College Trained Nurses, Talladega College NEGRO EDUCATION In his chapter on " The Mind of Woman and the Lower Races," Professor Thomas directly touches on the present application of the argument to the negro. The general conclusion is, " Differences of sex will, I think, hold also for differences of race." Well, then, a program of negro education must wait upon the recovery of the true negro, upon the unloosing of his repressed capacities, the unbinding of his normal self. First find your man. This should be the immediate business of education; for lack of it any policy toward him is sure to blunder. " What a thing is when its be- coming is completed, that we call the nature of a thing," said Aristotle. Because strong sentiment in the nation persistently urges a type of training which would fix the negro in his incompleteness, let the educator, patriot, an- thropologist each beware. This is the crux of the problem. 5. When this central issue is secure it freely follows that the immediate economic and practical needs of any historically peculiar or socially handicapped group of Americans, such as the juvenile delinquent, the Indian, the immigrant's child, the unskilled worker, may dictate a temporary policy of special training for them. The ac- tual employment of such a policy can be justified only by a detailed sociological study of their actual situation. But such a study reveals that the negro's case is not parallel to these cited. His life is infinitely broader than that of any social group. His millions contain groups of all degrees of development. The only analogy for him is the analogy of white population in its entirety. He needs not one but all kinds of American education for the diverse grades and classes of his people. 6. The profoundest educational right of any people [299] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH is the right to have its inner resources of character util- ized for its own uphft. For the teacher of negroes there should be no commentary here like his own heart. What keeps the exceptional and gifted man at liis task, — a task so appeahng yet disheartening as that of the education of negroes under American conditions? What is the secret of victory and patience for Strieby or Curry, Armstrong or Cravath? Nothing short of some personal version of that experience to which Matthew Arnold testi- fies in his " East London." "I met a preacher there I knew, and said — 'lU and o'erworked, how fare you in this scene?' ' Bravely ! ' said he ; ' for I of late have been Much cheered with thoughts of Christ, the living bread.' O human soul ! as long as thou canst so Set up a mark of everlasting light. Above the howUng senses' ebb and flow. To cheer thee, and to right thee if thou roam — Not with lost toil thou laborest through the night ! Thou mak'st the heaven thou hop'st indeed thy home." In other words, the deepest need of any man is the need to have the inner resources of his own character released to energize his service. Equally the deepest need — yes, right — of any race is to have its inner resources utilized for its own redemption. It is the only way. As to the negro, this is denied. He is contrasted, to his great discredit, with the Indian. The Indian thwarted all attempts to enslave him by dying. When he could no longer be free he ceased to live. The negro, on the contrary, thrived in servitude, thus showing, it is alleged, his essentially servile nature and adaptibility to external compulsion. But there is more than one way to resist oppression, [300] NEGRO EDUCATION as a glance into any schoolroom shows. Here and there one finds the child rebel, the Indian fiercely resisting by overt acts all encroachments upon his personality. The more usual type of uncontrolled pupil is the mind-wander- ing, docile child, who conforms outwardly and inwardly follows his own devices. The proud teacher, deceived by appearances, may exclaim, " See my well-behaved and stu- dious thirty," when, all told, she has hardly the equivalent of one child at work. Nine-tenths and more of each, though physically present, is spiritually absent — on the ball-ground or some other juvenile Island of the Blessed. Limbs and lips are at school but hearts are far afield. Woman, in the main, has followed the negro's rather than the Indian's method of resisting oppression. There have been a few feminine revolutionists and radical inno- vators ; most of the sex have seemed to yield — and con- trived to manage. Woman has ruled by indirection, but she has ruled. Now the lazy, adaptive negro has adjusted himself to necessity exactly as our wives and children chiefly do. He has given the minimum of work and obedience necessary to save his skin, and has stubbornly maintained the free- dom and integrity of his own inner life. In labor power one Northern worker was worth a half dozen of slave- time plantation hands or house servants. I know nothing more creditable to the negro's humanity than this. He has never worked well under compulsion, and, before God, I hope and beheve he never will. Only the full oppor- tunity of American manhood will prove sufficient to sum- mon the whole negro to life's task. Subject groups, whether children, women, or dependent races, while they cannot be controlled unless their own souls are enlisted in the task, may be and have been warped and [301] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH distorted by external pressure. It can hinder but cannot help. It never succeeds. The modern school confesses that when it fails to awaken the child's own interest its failure is absolute. Some are bold to believe that the world-wanderings of the " new woman " will lead her back to many of her old tasks, but if so it must be because her heart comes around to them again. Her return cannot be of compulsion. At all hazards she must follow the inner light. The question of incentive is equally central for negro education. Vocational efficiency in the long run must be the same as social efficiency. Train, indeed, for the child's " actual condition in life," but be quite sure that condi- tion is understood. We inhabit many-storied houses and our true calling is to occupy them throughout. The effort to make any man a good worker without making him a full man will fail ; and could it succeed, it would but give us a bhnded Samson grinding in the prison- house of spiritual bondage. 302] X. THE OLD MEN OF THE MOUNTAINS FOR six years the fortunes of the author of this book were identified with a prosperous and progressive border city of thirty thousand people. It was located on two trunk lines of railway, giving unusually direct access to the four corners of the Union. It sup- ported several worthy institutions of higher learning and was surrounded by a county of great agricultural pro- ductiveness; yet most of the tributary country within a radius of a hundred miles consisted of a rough, infertile land, inhabited by a decidedly rude and under-developed population, an offshoot of the larger Appalachian stock. No equal area east of the Great Plains had so small a railroad mileage. I have sometimes taken friends, repre- sentatives of completer civilizations, on hunting or fishing trips through this back country and have afterward been chagrined at the accounts of it they have written for Eastern papers — as though it represented my environ- ment and opportunities. They described the picturesquely primitive as they saw it, but forgot to record the common- place — that there were also electric lights, colleges, wealth, and an extremely self-conscious life which thought itself as good as any in America. Having thus suffered with their kind, from the confusion of the injudicious, I am the more anxious to speak of the people of the South- em Appalachians with discrimination, justice, and pro- found appreciation. [303] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH I. THE PROBLEM OF THE MOUNTAINS The Southern Appalachian region is roughly six hun- dred miles long and two hundred miles broad. It includes GeoOTaphical* ^"^^ hundred and twenty-six counties in nine Southern states as follows: Maryland 4, West Vir- Appalachians ginia 35, Virginia 42, eastern Kentucky 28, eastern Tennessee and the Cumberland Plateau in middle Tennessee 46, western North Carolina 24, north- western South Carolina 4, northern Georgia 26, north- central Alabama 17. Their combined area is 101,880 square miles, or twice as large as the state of New York, and their gross population nearly four millions of people (1900). Their average civilization is decidedly below that of the general standard of the nation, but the submerged fy , minority, whose excessive backwardness Unequal "^ ' Development greatly depresses the average, is but a of their fragment of the whole. Within this area ivi za ion jj^^ some of the most vigorous and pro- gressive of Southerners. Not only is the great Appa- lachian Valley, running from Pennsylvania to Tennessee, one of the most ancient of national thoroughfares and a most poetical, productive, and beautiful region, but In the Appalachian province are located mighty industrial cities like Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tennessee ; Bristol, Virginia; and Birmingham, Alabama; while just at its southern border Hes Atlanta. There are famous health resorts Hke Asheville, North Carolina, with Its magnificent Vanderbilt estates adjoining. Appalachian Tennessee even boasts of four ancient colleges, locally renowned and widely useful, three of them dating back to 1795. Much of the capital which has developed the industries of these [304] THE OLD MEN OF THE MOUNTAINS cities and smaller centers is from the North and the mix- ture in them of Northern and Southern population and ideals against the mountain background creates one of the most interesting and stimulating of American envir- onments. Yet even these progressive centers tell the tale of their human sources of supply. Knoxville has 71.81 illiterate white children of native parents per thousand, Chattanooga 39.3, Atlanta 34, against 8 per thousand in the most backward of the Northern cities, and then only in regions notoriously affected by Southern immigration.-^ Very unequally then, within this general area, have the mountains been a barrier to participation in the best of national life. We must find out to what degree and dis- cover the particular local areas of backwardness. A glimpse at the population maps in the volumes of the last census reveals the fact that the mountains are Areas of peopled to an average density about that of Special the agricultural states of the Mississippi Backwardness Valley and of the rural South. The much exploited feud-counties of Kentucky, for example, have about the same population per square mile as Iowa. Only in West Virginia, in small areas including the great Smoky Mountain between North Carolina and Tennessee, and in parts of the Cumberland Plateau in middle Ten- nessee is the population notably slight; while, just be- tween these two last-mentioned areas, the valley of the upper Tennessee and its tributaries has been since 1810 one of the most densely populated of American regions of equal area. Manifestly, then, isolation, as a ground of back- wardness, is present in very unequal degrees. Other cen- sus maps show great unevenness in the distribution of improved land, of agricultural productiveness, and of » Census Bulletin 26, p. 53. 20 [ 305 ] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH transportation facilities, while the statistics of manufac- turers show similar irregularities. Wherever there are people, farms, railroads, factories, there is likely to be education, an ordinary development of civilization, and a fair degree of progress ; but where deficiencies in all or most of these things coincide in the same area — where there are few people, little productive land, no markets, no industrial development — one finds, in all of these nine Appalachian states, whole counties of extreme backward- ness of life. Throughout all of this area there exists also a submerged class, the product of former isolation and lack of opportunity, in the midst of the generally hopeful population. Manifestly the true strategy of philanthropy is to find out these particular areas of need and to devise help for especially backward classes. The various attempts at a numerical estimate of these ... . . backward classes are more interestins; than Attempts at . . ° Numerical instructive. To tell the truth, nobody Statements of knows ; the statistical means of finding out do not exist. The following quotation cer- tainly implies a gross overstatement : Berea's work to-day has an absorbing interest to the scholar and the patriot. The institution has dis- covered three million British descendants who have been in a very real sense " lost " in the Southern mountains. Naturally, it is possible to quibble over the meaning of being lost, but in- no just sense does three-fourths of the Southern Appalachian population constitute a specially needy class or call for national philanthropy. On the other hand the following from an experienced educator in the mountains as surely understates the case: [306] THE OLD MEN OF THE MOUNTAINS Of the four million inhabitants of the region per- haps only one-tenth are very backward. The rest compare favorably with the inhabitants of any other section. The physiographer, Brigham, speaks of two millions of people of pure American stock waiting to be assimilated to modera conditions.^ President Samuel T. Wilson of Maryville College, Tennessee, the chief Presbyterian au- thority in this field, writing from a vantage-point of life- long intimacy and educational service for the mountain people, ventures to guess that there may be from a quar- ter to half a million of the lowest and really degenerate class.^ President Wilson very properly defends his people against the charge of generally inferior character and Compensations intelligence, and insists that mountain back- of Back- wardness has compensations in the greater wardness ruggedness of body and mind preserved there, the resourceful strength and the absence of urban vices and follies, with their train of too strenuous nerves and tempers. No one who knows the mountaineer will fail to make these allowances, and every one who writes of him should insist that his readers make them also. Illiteracy by no means always indicates lack of mental alertness. I recall Uncle Jimmy Yeakley, who could neither read nor write, and did n't much need to. He could remember the exact terms of every transfer of land back to the beginning of records. As telephone-king of his region he had strung hundreds of miles of wire from tree to tree over which to talk with his neighbors; thus avoiding the necessity of writing. No one who had ever ' Brigham, " Geographical Influences in American History," p. 323. * "The Southern Mountaineer," p. 38. [307] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH undertaken business dealings with him doubted Uncle Jimmy's mental capacity afterward. How far is the backwardness of the mountains due to inferiority and how far merely to lack of opportunity? jj , . This is their deepest problem. To some ex- Backwardness tent undoubtedly the mountain environment due to In- has been selective, choosing for itself such enon y types of mind and character as preferred and were fitted to its ruder life. To get the bearings of this problem we need to take a more accurate look at the physiographical peculiarities of the Appalachian area. The Great Appalachian Valley is recognized by geog- raphers as the axis of that mountain system. For de- tailed descriptions of its internal relations the reader must consult special authorities ; -^ but it is at least possible to note that all the true mountains — typified by the peaks 't)f the Blue Ridge of North Carolina — lie to the south and east of this valley; while a larger mountainous area lying to the north and west of it — the so-called Alleghany and Cumberland " ranges " — is really only a prolonged plateau. Now, curiously, It is not in the true mountains with their higher peaks, their broader and deeper valleys, but on the scarred and broken top of this long-weathered plateau that by far the greater part of the needy mountain population Hes. They crossed over and around the true mountains, passed the fertile and smiling valley, and paused in the rugged Cumberlands, almost in sight of the Blue Grass and rich Mississippi plains — hke Moses just outside of the Promised Land. Why did they not go on and complete the crossing, the most marvelous and epic movement of American history? ' Brigham, "Geographical Influences in American History," p. 81. [3081 THE OLD MEN OF THE MOUNTAINS Why did they stop in the mountains ? Were they too weak to go on? Was it always the " tragedy of the broken „, ,_ axle"? Were they afraid? All of these. The Moun- ^ , i i i ... , tain People ^^ ^'^^ ^"^ hand, the mountain barrier caught cannot be and held such people as lacked physical re- 7 sources to overcome them. On the other hand, to some extent at least, it sifted the westward emigrant, and kept the less energetic and resourceful for its own. And, indeed, the transition was not easy. It took daring to meet the strange conditions of the plains, to abandon the mountains for the prairies. The tradition of the author's family tells that when its forbears left the Tennessee mountains for a prairie state, they hunted out a spot in the bluffs of the Mississippi River and grubbed out a farm from the timber while thousands of clear acres were at hand for the asking. For the moun- tains were doubly indispensable to the imagination. They both overawed and won the hearts of their children. Thus, in its most backward areas, the mountain stock represents a part of the original colonial emigration whose hearts failed at the sight of the prairies ; who loved hunt- ing and fishing and the rude old ways. The conserva- tive element and the incapable element mixed together, be- came further depressed by the poverty of their land, and were fixed in the mental traits of reckless but curiously unadventurous men. We can never disentangle the in- fluences at work or give them numerical expression ; but all educational effort in the mountains discovers plenty of natural capacity only awaiting opportunity, along with not a little hopeless stuff sifted out and left behind by the sturdier stream of American progress. Thus part of the mountain shiftlessness may be removed by the in- struction of one generation in rural economy, part rests [ 309 ] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH back on the original shiftlessness which left its victims on the far side of the hills from civilization; part of its incapacity utterly disappears when the tools of progress are put into the hands of its youth, part persists in a deep-seated nervelessness and apathy before the more com- plex demands of modem life* No more than the negroes can the mountain people be saved wholesale. The offer of opportunity only compels them to register their inner differences and thus completes the ancient sifting. In terms of general educational need the problem Statistics of ^^ ^^^ mountains has been most carefully Educational measured by the Southern Educational Deficiencies Board. In that portion of West Virginia, Virginia, Ken- tucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, LITERATES ILLITERATES PER CENT ILLITERACY West Virginia Virginia Kentucky North Carolina East Tennessee South Carolina Georgia 202,459 107,790 93,530 102,918 134,138 42,577 44,813 24,229 20,422 25,851 25,460 30,127 6,572 9,651 10.68 15.94 21.65 19.83 18.34 13.37 17.72 Totals 728,225 142,312 16.34 and Georgia?, contained between the foothills of the Blue Ridge on the east and those of the Cumberland Primitive Industry of the Mountains Modern Industry ou the New South THE OLD MEN OF THE MOUNTAINS Mountains on the west, there were in 1900, in a total number of 870,537 male whites twenty-one years of age, over 142,312 or 16.34 per cent, who could not read and write. The table herewith gives the figures for the Appalachian section of each state. Figures for illiteracy may not be very accurate, but where sixteen per cent of the white voters report themselves to the census as illiterate, it means that at least fifty per cent of the white population over ten years of age is wholly without letters.^ The case of a typical mountain county, Harlan, Ken- tucky, reveals both extreme educational poverty and rapid A Typical recent progress. This county has fifty-nine Kentucky districts, none of which previous to 1904 had County ^ graded school nor one with as much as a six months' term. Even according to Southern standards its teachers were miserably prepared. Half of its fifty- three schoolhouses were built of logs, and the total value of the fifty-three was less than ten thousand dollars. Not three-fourths of its school population was enrolled, and the average attendance was but forty per cent of the enumeration. Its only graded and reasonably efficient schools were two conducted by missionary societies, each of which had four or five teachers. It will be noted that the county did not lack for schoolhouses, such as they .were. Indeed there were altogether too many. But meas- ured by any reasonable standard its educational deficien- cies were awful to contemplate. Its school period was far too short, its teachers wofully inferior, its facilities ridicu- lously inadequate; besides, half of its children were not using even such opportunities as were afforded. Probably more than fifty per cent of its white population was illit- ' Quoted by Wilson, " The Southern Mountaineers," p. 69. rsiTi CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH erate. That it might have been better is proved by the rapid progress since 1904. In a single year, under the inspiration of the general educational revival in the South, and with the aid of state funds, ten schools lengthened their terms to over six months, a considerable proportion of teachers acquired higher grade certificates, salaries were decidedly advanced, seven new schoolhouses were built, and the average attendance was raised to seventy- seven per cent of the enrolment. Though desperately poor, Harlan county chiefly needed and needs stimulus from without and a practical expression of its solidarity with the more favored regions of its state. II. HOW THE MOUNTAIN MAN LIVES It will help our understanding of the life of the moun- tains to study Harlan county further as one of its char- acteristic seats. Its many streams constitute The Head- waters of the ^^^ head-waters of the Cumberland river, Cumberland, Surrounding their valleys rises an almost a Typical unbroken circle of mountains cut only by distant gaps and otherwise crossed, if at all, by incredibly rough bridle-paths. Within this encircling barrier of lesser mountains lies the great Black Range. On either side are Piedmont valleys, themselves carved by streams into lesser valleys two thousand feet and more deep. The mountains have narrow, winding crests and steep sides, interrupted here and there where some ledge of more resistant rock has remained to uphold a bench or "cove" of gently sloping land just above it. Along the lower courses of the greater valleys are narrow strips of tillable bottom land which disappear higher up into broken gullies. Farming is crowded out of these too-narrow quar- [312] THE OLD MEN OF THE MOUNTAINS ters onto the lower slopes and even the high benches of the mountains. My first incursion into this " Lonesome " country was on a magnificent morning in November. Before light I had left the regular railway on the Virginia side, had boarded a coal company's train for a dozen miles' ride over a rough spur of track, and had been met at the mines by the principal of the Black Mountain Academy. The mist was still in the valleys when we took the mail-carrier's trail leading over the very ridge of the Black Range. More than once we were forced to take to our feet and hands while the horses scrambled up the trail ahead of us. Two hours of breathless climbing brought us to the top, where, through magnificent portals of gray rock, we passed into Kentucky and began the descent, the path soon finding and following the windings of a mountain stream. Into this snug nook even winter had failed to penetrate. We rode under great chestnuts still in leaf and just dropping their nuts. The wealth of laurel and rho- dodendron fohage in the deeper ravines gave the land- scape almost a look of spring, while all along the way the holly flamed under its burden of berries. The ragged flanks of the mountain rising on either side of the trail nowhere afforded a level space as large The Moun- as a city lot, yet we passed no fewer tain World than a dozen cabins in half that number of miles. Tliis is the mountain home. It clings to its steep slope ; frequently it consists of but one room ; usually it is built of logs and rough hand-split shingles, its chinks and chimney being daubed with mud. It is uni- formly windowless, though perchance furnished with a solid shutter or two. Its surroundings are less slovenly but poorer than those of any negro settlement I have CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH ever seen. Attached to each house is a half acre or less of sickly corn patch, clustered among the gaunt and pro- testing ruins of the forest. The Indian was cruel to trees as well as to man, and the mountaineer clears his field by the savage's wasteful method of girdling the standing timber, which remains until it rots and falls. All " carry- ing " is done with a sure-footed ox and sledge, for no wheeled vehicle could possibly be handled on these steep hillsides. Behind the cabin huddles a rough shelter of logs and pine boughs for the single work-beast. The only other stock, a scant dozen of razor-back pigs, sweeten but rarely fatten on beechnuts and the plump acorns of the chestnut-oak. This is mountain agriculture. On the lower slopes we pass lumbering oxen, slowly dragging great tulip logs to the skidway, whence they go crasliing down to the stream below to wait a " big tide," which will float them to the lumber mills on the lower river. This is mountain industry. Suddenly the trail turned and showed a glimpse of a cluster of cabins below. " There," exclaimed the Princi- pal, " is n't that a fine spot for a town? " I agreed that it was beautiful but ventured a suggestion that the space was too narrow to afford much room for growth. " Well," said he, " this is the largest level spot in the county." Such is the " pent-up Utica," the mountain town. But it is not fair merely to cross over the mountain ; one must also ride up the valley. This is the thorough- A Ride up fare of the county, a way infrequently trav- the Valley ersed by wheels. The horses splash through Poor Fork innumerable times, while pedestrians cross on logs or leap from stone to stone. Manifestly this bridge- less road might be cut into fifty sections by an hour's thunder-storm. After an ordinary summer freshet I have 1314 1 THE OLD MEN OF THE MOUNTAINS squatted on the river bank for half a day and watched the gathering knots of mountaineers waiting for the water to fall. A similar group gathered on the other side. They showed no evidence of haste, little speculation, and no in- clination to take risks. We simply waited until the mail- carrier, whose pay was at stake, ventured to try the ford ; then the rest followed after. Such contingencies are not conducive to school going, and " Reckon ye kin ford the branch to-day.? " discourages much social intercourse. Many of the valley homes, however, are in striking con- trast to those of the slopes and shoulders of the moun- tain. Here is compressed all that that mountain calls wealth. Where the bottom-land widens, agriculture may yield a fair subsistence or even a rude plenty. Two-story, soHdly framed houses are not Infrequent. In some of them I have seen and envied bits of colonial furniture or plate, reminiscent of tidewater Virginia. The spinning- wheel still hums and the loom clatters, keeping alive the fireside industries and preserving a tradition of beauty in weave and color. Farm touches farm for miles along the valley, and some traveler or other on his jogging mule is rarely out of sight. At intervals one passes a rude cabin country store — for the valley is Broadway as well as Fifth Avenue — or a grist-mill with great, pic- turesque water-wheel. The schoolhouse is not absent. In- deed, as we have noted, the county has fifty-three, most of which stand in the valley. The Principal reports that on his recent round of eighty miles to solicit stu- dents he passed seven. Four were built of logs and three of slabs ; four had windows, two had shutters, and one had no light save from the open door. There were two stoves for the seven schools and two blackboards ; while in two the only seats were rough planks laid across [3151 CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH stones. We passed, however, one framed and neatly painted building revealing the uplifting influence of the academy, and of the general educational revival. Down the valley, at the confluence of Poor Fork and two other streams, is the county seat, the mountaineer's metropolis. Its type is well depicted in Fox's Seat; Con- " Trail of the Lonesome Pine." Its central tacts with the features are a squat court-house of brick and Larger World ^^ jail in which rough-hewn stones set a few inches apart in its frowning walls, like the embrasures of a fortress, serve in lieu of windows and bars. Perhaps two dozen frame buildings, with a single corner brick store, house the merchandise of the community. Blacksmith and harness shops are in evidence, for the hitching racks are hned with horses, and the streets (there are almost no sidewalks) are filled with booted men. There is a hotel, chiefly frequented by lawyers at court time or by an oc- casional drummer ; a small sawmill ; frame houses for the merchants and county ofiicials, while the cabins of the poorer population crowd back into the gullies or hide on the mountainside. There is probably a doctor or two and several lawyers, but no regular dentist and no editor. President Frost of Berea used to tell of twenty contigu- ous mountain counties without a printing-press. Four or five church-houses may be found, in varying stages of dilapidation ; but not one will have a pastor who gives his entire time to his congregation. The preacher is usu- ally a farmer who preaches irregularly and makes his liv- ing by some other calling than the gospel. Ser\dces are held in each church " once't a month." The preaching is apt to be vociferous, intensely sectarian, but sometimes shrewdly pointed. As repository of doctrinal weapons the Bible is much on the lips of the people, and the backwoods -— THE OLD MEN OF THE MOUNTAINS county seat probably hears more religious " argifying," iu a day than the whole of New York. A revival, like a hanging or an election, will fill the settlement with a motley, high-strung crowd, generally armed with carnal as well as spiritual weapons; or perhaps instead of the revivalist there is a politician organizing the more ad- venturous into a mountain army with which to descend to intimidate a legislature or slay a governor. Twenty miles away, beyond the Gap, is the railroad. That and the river yonder are the infrequent avenues to the dimly-imagined larger world, the Blue Grass, the city, the college, and even the nation's capitol. But poverty and a strange inertia, half fear and half conceit — far more than mere physical remoteness — keep the mountain masses less responsive to the world's call than are the Slavic peasantry of eastern Europe. III. MOUNTAIN LIFE REFLECTED IN THE MOUN- TAINEER'S TRAITS In economic development the life of the mountains rep- resents an incomplete transition from the hunting and fish- The Stamp of ing to the agricultural stage. Partly from the Primitive an unconquerable love of the wild and partly from the pressure of necessity, forest and stream are regu- larly searched for their store of food — wild turkey and occasional deer, fish, and honey, with a relish of nuts and berries. Often the call of the chase is louder than the more prosaic call of the corn-field, and lures the moun- taineer to the neglect of his little farm. Even in the face of extreme need he remains a spasmodic and irregular worker, and when caught by the coal or lumber company his first industrial efforts are highly unsatisfactory. The CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH professional trapper is a familiar character, and his pelts form a habitual currency of mountain exchange. Isola- tion from the world means two things — first, a lack of industrial instruments and of resources for the easing of human misery, but also poverty of aspiration. Thus it happens that many children of the mountains look back- ward ; not toward American civilization, but toward the life of the savage. Shut out from the characteristic cur- rents of their age and standing on an inadequate basis of economic resources, they tend to be forced back upon the primitive, which in turn stamps itself upon their minds. I recall one of my earliest visits to a mountain home in company with a man who had come to inspect it with Farming with reference to a real estate loan. Examination Hoe, Axe discovered eighty acres of limestone debris and Gun ^^^^ a^ backwoodsman's cabin. The family consisted of middle-aged parent's and four half-grown children. Absolutely their only implements of labor and livelihood were hoes, axes, and guns. Livestock was limited to a few fowl. There was no draft animal and on this farm not even pigs. Naturally the loan had to be re- fused; yet this man called himself a farmer, and with such slender resources was vainly trying to support him- self from the soil. The distinctive social and institutional traits of the mountains show clear marks of their environmental origin. Environmental ^^^ ^^^" loyalty of the feudist, for example. Origin of comes by historical descent from the Highland Social Traits Scotch. It has survived also in the South- ern Appalachian because it is the natural cooperative re- source of poor and weak men who have been forced by a limited habitat to excessive intermarriage. They strive with instinctive ferocity to maintain the blood-bond. The o z < s < Oh &H < D O THE OLD MEN OF THE MOUNTAINS author's mountaineer ancestors preserved their clan or- ganization through successive migrations covering at least four states, the habit surviving long after the necessity had passed. On the other hand, there is an almost total absence of those more complex human relations, to express and con- Lack of Social trol which social institutions are developed. Institutions The breakfast-table of the " middle Ameri- can " may hold food products from a dozen states and from lands beyond both oceans. These stand for ten thousand human ties, each of which has some systemized and interrelated social process to guide it. The moun- taineer's table holds the scant product of his own acres, raised and prepared by the labor of his own hands. Hence there is little sense of the need of institutions beyond the blood-bond. The primitive barter of the country store, the irregular religious services of the settlement, the short term school, and periodic visits to the county seat are too far apart and too often interrupted to serve as centers for definite and dominating organization. Local institutions, therefore, do not rise to break the clan allegiance. In contrast with his feeble sense of the community, it is interesting to discover in the mountaineer a unique sense The Unique °^ ^^^ nation. That he is part of a larger Sense of the life he has two impressive reminders — the Nation revenue officer and the soldier. The one forces from the mountains tribute to a social order of which they are not conscious. Their manner of life does not depend upon a vast machinery of civilization which must be supported by taxes ; consequently they are not convinced of the nation's right to impose such burdens upon them. But the soldier reminds them of a relation of which they are most conscious. The mountains know CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH and are proud of their record in war. In the chapel of Berea College I saw a student body of over a thousand arise, almost as one man, to testify that they were children or grandchildren of Union soldiers of the Civil War. On winter evenings in the lonely cabins, the battles of the nation are mingled with the battles of Israel in fireside story, and tradition keeps the memory alive of how the mountain men bulwarked the nation against the Chero- kees or followed Jackson to New Orleans. The call of war has always touched their natures and stirred their profound instinctive loyalty to an abandon of patriotic response to their country's need. In '61 they followed the nation against their own states. These war memories, moreover, are the clue to mountain politics. Not from any sense of present national issues, but because of that party's association in their minds with the cause of the Union are they so stubbornly Republican. The nation exists for them as a far-off, mighty tradition, an unknown but extremely genuine object of allegiance; but between the clan and the nation there is no intermediate insti- tution which holds their hearts. Community life, the manifold relations of local citizenship, the complexity of civilized institutional activity — of these they are innocent. In the characteristic traits of mountain family life, es- pecially in those concerning the relations of man and Relations of woman, there is much that suggests the In- Sexes dian. The man lives an essentially outdoor life, using the house rather as a place to eat and sleep than as a home. To the women is consigned not only the household drudgery, but often the cultivation of the soil, while the man leads the woodsman's life. This is univer- sally the primitive division of labor. Like all similarly situated peoples, the mountaineer makes little outward show [320] THE OLD MEN OF THE MOUNTAINS of affection. Not often does he frolic with liis children, and even the mother holds her babe stolidly. At public gatherings, like church services, the sexes generally sit apart ; while the assumption of masculine superiority is clearly written in the simple yet unyielding fabric of mountain convention. The callow youth and even the schoolboy assume this pose as their natural birthright. The girl on the contrary accepts, as does the woman of the Old World, the social estimate put upon her and would be horrified beyond measure at the independence which the modern young woman claims as her due. Even when one comes to know the mountain girl well as a student he is made to feel in a hundred ways an unfathomable reticence which is both a defense and a barrier. Frequently even considerable education fails to eradicate the old in- stinct, and the cultured and well-equipped girl returns to the cabin life as the fulfilment of her nature. All this necessarily affects marriage relations. The most subtle and exquisite interpreter of the mountains, herself born of them, puts it thus: A rift is set between the sexes at babyhood that widens with the passing of the years, a rift that is never closed even by the daily interdependence of a poor man's partnership with his wife. Rare is a separation of a married couple in the mountains ; the bond of perfect sympathy is rarer. The difference is one of mental training and standpoint rather than the more serious one of unlike character, or marriage would be impossible. But difference there certainly is. Man and woman, although they be twenty years married — although in twenty years there has been not one hour in which one has not been immediately necessary to the welfare of the other — still must 21 [ 321 ] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH needs regard each other wonderingly, with a preju- dice that takes the form of a mild, half-amused con- tempt for one another's opinions and desires. The pathos of the situation is none the less terrible be- cause unconscious. They are so silent. They know so pathetically little of each other's lives.-*^ I have seen just this trait characteristically illustrated in families which I have known intimately for a number of years. An apparently contradictory but equally characteris- tic primitive trait — and one of the most interesting — Social Au- ^^ ^^^® unusual respect sometimes given to old thority of Old women. One whose body and brain have run Women ^}^g harsh gauntlet of privation and labor may develop a lean and wiry endurance and a practical re- sourcefulness, which with age ripen into a unique social authority. The Savage woman used frequently to achieve a similar position by reason of her dominant share in primitive culture. In a social group as dependent upon itself as are the mountaineers, the home industries in the hands of women produce most of the comforts of life and much of its wealth. I noted that Jackson's " old woman " was the real head of the house. I understood why, when I saw her heaps of homespun blankets (enough, she ex- plained, for all her daughters' children; and they expect large famihes). She would not sell one at. any price, though for a sufficiently large sum my companions secured enough jeans for a suit. In such characters we discover under mountain rudeness the same capable woman of whom the Hebrew Proverbs sing, examples of capacity left in the rough, as in a statue of Rodin's. ' Miles, "Spirit of the Mountains," pp. 69, 70. [322] THE OLD MEN OF THE MOUNTAINS "She riseth also while it is yet night. And giveth meat to her household. And their task to her maidens." "She girdeth her loins with strength, And maketh strong her arms. She perceiveth that her merchandise is profitable: Her lamp giveth not out by night. She layeth her hand to the distaff, And her hands hold the spindle." " Her husband is known in the gates When he sitteth among the elders of the land. Strength and dignity are her clothing; And she laugheth at the time to come. She openeth her mouth With wisdom. And the law of kindness is on her tongue. She looketh well to the ways of the household, And eateth not the bread of idleness." Savage or civilized, highland or lowland, she is rare; but where she exists " her price is above rubies." The religion of the mountaineer, too, feels the modify- ing touch of the wild. As a personal solace and an emo- The Touch tional energy and resource in the hour of of the Wild crisis, it is a genuine and momentous thing, upon Rehgion g^t, on the other hand, the mountain barrier has prevented the institutional development of the church. It has defeated the missionary in common with the other agents of civilization. Throughout the mountains there is a large lack of the most characteristic outward expres- sions of church hfe — buildings, regular services, a pro- fessional ministry, a systematic parish organization, mani- fold activities of present-day Christianity. Besides this, the mountains have produced a temperamental change in religion. The original Scotch-Irish stock went into the mountains Presbyterian. Their descendants are now most largely Baptist and Methodist. The breaking off of the Cumberland branch from the Presbyterian body marked [323] CHRISTIAN EECONSTEUCTION IN THE SOUTH a tendency toward the present characteristic type of re- ligious Hfe; more emotional, less staid and orderly than it originally was. It is with great difficulty that pupils in certain mission schools are induced to attend Episcopal services, and the admirable work of this church has had a difficult handicap in the distaste of the mountaineer for ecclesiastical form. The ill-balanced temper of the poorer population, reflecting their under-nourishment, craves religion, as it does whisky, as a stimulant. The " right hand of fellowship " concluding a mountain preach- ing may be as frankly primitive as the negro's most bois- terous church service. Both are reversions to the religious spontaneity of the earlier ages. Naturally, religion cannot become the reenforcement or guaranty of a social system which the mountaineer does not have or believe in. It does not tend, for example, greatly to back up the revenue laws. On the other hand, it does mightily reenforce clan loyalty. It is tribal rather than Christian (as indeed is much of the religion of more privileged people) and does not demand the exercise of Christian virtue toward those beyond the pale. It is in- termingled with a larger number of particular supersti- tions than is that of the average American ; for the moun- taineer's thinking has not been persistently schooled away from the early race-imagination, which peopled the world with mysterious powers. And because the mountain en- vironment is niggardly, the religious impressions drawn from it are fearsome rather than tender. Thus the mys- terious " T'other mountain " does not yield the adventurer " glimpses which should make him less forlorn," but rather an ever-present sense of impending danger. Finally, the brooding temper of the mountain, wrought upon by the potent spells of forest and stream, fiercely fed by omen [3241 THE OLD MEN OF THE MOUNTAINS and arbitrary Scripture, shows itself in all manner of quaint and sometimes dark vagaries of theology and re- ligious imagination. The mountains are prolific of seced- ing sects. Marauding faiths, like Mormonism, find apt pupils there, and contradictions of personal character occur like that of old Red Fox in " The Trail of the Lone- some Pine," mystic and assassin, preacher and traitor! Enormous ilhteracy and an almost total absence of books and of the habit of reading, such a phenomenon as that of r, J. . twenty contiguous counties without a print- Kudimentary . -^ ° ^ Literary and ing-press, naturally do not tend to those Esthetic outward expressions of literary and esthetic n eres s interest to which completer civilizations are accustomed. Nevertheless the mountains have a tradi- tional literature, an elaborate and highly artistic folk-lore, a simple yet genuine musical tradition — coming straight from the ballad makers of the Scotch border, as well as a conventional art, by no means despicable, in their old weaves and dye-colors, their basketry and furniture pat- terns. They use many archaic words and phrases, pre- serving a pure and ancient English speech from which we have departed. There is a curiously complex mingling in their folk-stories of myths from over seas with those of the Cherokee Indians. Another genuinely artistic crea- tion is a rude minstrelsy — less primitive, original, and emotionally penetrating than the negro's, but equally characteristic of its people. No American group is more dependent on, responsive to, or critical toward, the spoken word, as many a Northern missionary has found to his sorrow. Oratory is still the chief art, and eloquence is vital rather than traditional. Thus the mountain fiddler, the looms, and dye kettle of the valley, the fireside story- teller, and itinerant preacher attest the life of the imagi- [325] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH nation ; while the mountains themselves perpetuate the sense of awe and stir the quick love of beauty. His fundamental lack of a sufficient basis of economic support needs to be insisted upon as the real explanation Less Amiable ^^ ^^^ mountaineer's less amiable traits, both Qualities: mental and moral. His deficiencies, Uke the Violence negro's, are the legitimate results of his so- cial station. His violence, for example, is primarily the fruit of under-feeding and poor housing. Ill-nourished nerves crave " moonshine," and in lives touched by the wildness of nature, deficiency in motor control expresses itself in sudden murder. The sensational exploiting of mountain communities by novel and newspaper, grievously misrepresents their average social condition. Yet they undoubtedly surpass the rest of the nation and even of their section in the reckless taking of human life. I am sure that the holiday season, in the immediate region of the mountain town where I recently spent six months, was a time of more killings than would occur in a rural county of the Middle West in ten years. It is probable that the habit of homicide was fixed in the mountains by the bush- whacking exploits of the Civil War — such as the fratri- cidal strife of " Rebel Jake " and " Union Jerry " in Fox's story. One who has spent his life among them tells me, " Before the war they used to fight with their fists." Thus from the great struggle in which the mountains bore so splendid a part, has come the custom of avenging wrongs with the bullet. Such an explanation seems not to fit such a mountaineer as the late Judge Hargis of Breathitt County, Kentucky, the reputed king of feudists and assassins. He was neither poor nor ignorant, and had had no little contact with pubhc affairs in the larger world of men. The mys- [326] THE OLD MEN OF THE MOUNTAINS tery is dissolved by the reflection that habit tends to live on after the original conditions which created it have disappeared. In each generation there are still enough mountaineers whose poverty keeps them wild to renew con- tinually the springs of violence. The contact of the moun- tain masses with the higher stimulus of the larger world is still extremely limited. Lacking as they do the antidotes of a completer civilization, they are persistently inocu- lated by the more violent minority, and the homicidal habit is propagated by social tradition. The mountaineer's most irritating fault is the fatalistic acceptance of unnecessary evils, especially apathy in the . ,, • presence of misery. It also goes back to the the Presence economic deficit. These are the marks of men of Misery ^Jth whom life has so long been niggardly that they have ceased to hope. The hardness of the moun- tains soon wears out the most buoyant. One of my earher pleasure trips into a typical region led me to Zach McDowell's. Zach's home was more spacious than most in the settlement and in it he entertained strangers for a price. My roommate for that night was a burly United States deputy marshal in search of timber thieves. Dur- ing the evening a merry group of neighborhood young people had been singing around the " parlor " organ, and we had both commented upon the fresh and wholesome face and full voice of Zach's youngest daughter. Two years later I came that way again, and was horrified to find her a sunken-faced and back-bowed mother. Her husband was a mountaineer above the average. They had had only the common adversities of their people, but she had broken under them. This was my first introduction to a group phenomenon, the early fading of the mountain woman. For their chief tragedies are not th e slaughter [327] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH of men but the sufferings of mothers and children. The struggle with the wild means not only racking labor, but frequent accidents, far from civiHzed help. It in- volves such risks, for example, as the jamming of the log raft so thrillingly described in Fox's " Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come." I think I never saw a school with so many maimed children as Black Mountain Academy. Childbirth without a physician; an unequal struggle for the poor necessities of life; a lack of the essential ele- ments of civilized dietary ; miserable cooking and result- ing dyspepsia ; the absence of dentist and oculist ; the lack of social stimulus to make pride preserve what it can of the victim's wreck — all these conspire to depress the mountain woman's soul and to rob growing childhood of its strength. The result is paralysis of the will to strive, as exeraphfied in one of Mrs. Miles' mountain types : I have never seen anything greatly resembling Mary Burns. A certain maid, once of the village of Naza- reth, may have had the same pure, modest sweetness, but her loveliness was of a type belonging to an- other race. For this Mary's hair was rich chestnut, and her eyes were blue — such a blue, softened by lashes of a length one notices on the lids of children. There was little light of intelligence in those eyes, but one felt that Mary's capacity for doglike devo- tion was unlimited. Excepting its innocence, the rich coloring of her face was its most striking feature. She had such a complexion as the first masters, know- ing the effect of Southern sun, painted without stint of olive and golden velvet and perfect rose. Gentle- ness and simplicity are characteristic of the faces of mountain girls. There are those of a genuine exquisite modesty who have never in their lives slept in a room apart [ 328 ] THE OLD MEN OF THE MOUNTAINS from the men of their household. But this was a child's face, with a child's ignorance behind its lovely mask, a child's readiness to flash into smiles at the least provocation, a face that ought surely to have met only with tenderness everywhere. And with all her beauty she had not even the mountain woman's poor best of cheap calico to wear! I tried to imagine her dressed in a white dimity, such as young girls wear in more favored regions, but even this seemed incongruous, although she could not have been more than seventeen years old. As we coiled and fastened her hair, I asked if she were going to the feet-washing, knowing how dear to the moun- taineer heart is the privilege of attending every form of religious service. *' I reckon not," she answered, in her sweet, hushed, nun-like tones. " I ain't been to church sence my shoes wore out, sometime last March." So she had trodden the freezing mud of early April with bare feet ! It would never have occurred to her to hide her poverty or her present physical distress ; she hardly realized that in this respect she was ill used by her husband. Superstition ascribes misery to mysterious sources and forbids rational remedies. To the cabin where a mis- The Tragedy sionary was entertained came a mountain of Sickness father at night-time carrying a child delirl- and Age Q^g ^ith fever. He wanted to borrow an old shoe to get water out of a healing spring! The deep capacity of the Scotch stock for varied, tender brooding degenerates into mental vacuity. When the body rests there is little energy left for intellectual effort. When the body fails an almost unconquerable apathy sits and watches its decline. [329] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH A new missionary teacher thus describes her first ex- perience with sickness in the mountains: We had heard that SalHe's mother was sick and consequently that SalHe could n't come back to school this year. So yesterday Miss B., the matron, with a group of schoolgirls, started to carry them some necessities, with a little jelly and fruit; and I went along. It was about three miles, and the path fol- lowed the Pacolet, at this point a mountain stream breaking into innumerable rapids and cascades. We found the cabin in a deep gully, surrounded by a clear- ing of about half an acre, thickly covered by gravel brought down by a recent freshet. A few stalks of sickly yellow com still stood, and an old white pig, who came to meet us, was the onl}'^ living possession of the family. Sallie's brother of twenty is a " farmer." In the winter he gathers chestnut bark for the Old Fort tannery. They have no other means of support. The cabin seemed to have suffered from freshets, too, for the foundation had been washed away at one end and it lopped down into the damp earth. In- side, where the floor had come in contact with the ground, it had rotted away, leaving jagged holes either side the fireplace, which furnished the only heat for the two rooms. In one comer lay the sick mother on a disorderly bed, with horrible dirty cov- erings and no linen at all. She was all bloated with dropsy, but shrilled out many blessings on our heads for the presents. Sallie and two other older sisters were pictures of helpless inefficiency. It made me wild to see them sit and sit and do nothing. Miss B. im- pressed upon them repeatedly that they must put the fresh linen on their mother's bed and not eat the oranges themselves, but I am not sure what happened when we got away. [330] THE OLD MEN OF THE MOUNTAINS When the body dies, isolation compels its consignment to the ground with the slightest delay, in the expectation that in six months or a year a funeral service will be held at the church-house. This custom of deferred burial rites is frequent even at the county seats and railroad towns. Thus a habit born of mountain necessity survives in popu- lations now far beyond its compulsion. Similarly the general mental cast of the region is touched by the traits of the most backward. The constitutional nervelessness and apathy of the minority deeply influences the energies of the whole group. On the other hand, where the struggle with nature has not too deeply depressed the body and mind, all of the Mountain splendid, homely virtues of the pioneer sur- Virtues vive, and often take on rare attractiveness in the sons and daughters of the mountains. Their de- layed development conserves much that this age lacks of unspoiled elemental manhood and simplicity of spirit — both profoundly urgent moral needs of to-day. Beneath a reckless individualism and ignorant conceit one discerns resources of sturdy independence. The mountaineer faces his hard circumstances with a heart at once undaunted and resigned. A saving sense of humor breaks every fall and turns defeat into more than half a victory. Having shrewdly fathomed human nature as it exists in his nar- row range, he finds his judgments surprisingly just and accurate when opportunity comes to apply them to the larger world. He undertakes unwonted responsibility with a certain honorable largeness and perspective ; thus show- ing that wisdom is born of insight rather than of the mere multiplication of experiences. Lincoln was such a man and had such wisdom. " He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much." Training in the [331] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH school of adversity often develops in the mountaineer a practical capacity for making small resources count which spells marvelous success when once the instruments of modern life are put in his hands. Recently I watched a mountain student's first inspection of the newly installed hot-air furnace in a mission school dormitory. The moun- taineer, like the Indian, studiously refrains from confessing surprise at the unaccustomed ; but this boy's curiosity and interest got the better of him. Soon he was freely speculating on the operation and success of the innova- tion ; yet not for a moment did he admit to the world or to himself that he was not its potential master. He seemed to me typical of the mountaineer facing modem civiliza- tion. The mood of the forward-looking among them is the mood of conquest. Put it to the test by furnishing it an opportunity and it will justify itself as it has done ten thousand times. The conflicting traits of their people, evil and good, I have watched in successive generations of students, each ^ J J adding conclusiveness to the iudement that Good and *= . P Evil Traits the problem of the mountain is twofold ; of Mountain partly that of a suppressed population pos- " ^° ^ sessing but not utilizing the normal capaci- ties of Americans, and partly that of a remnant, sifted out in the westward march of civilization as deficient in energy and progressiveness. Education simply discovers these differences. We record this solemnly, as if the case of the mountaineer was unique. All peoples have these two classes and all education simply systemizes the proc- esses which sift man.-^ Thus it frequently appears that the mountain boy has too much inborn inertia to respond * Thorndike, Educational Psychology, "The Influence of Selection," ch. ix. [ 332 ] The Mountain Weaver The Cotton-Mill THE OLD MEN OF THE MOUNTAINS to the steady discipline of study. His nature is not sufficiently elastic to adjust itself to school conditions. Such a one was " Big Scotch," who strayed from the hills, and was laid hold of and made " center " on a college foot- ball team. The gridiron gave ample scope for the primi- tive in him, and he quickly became an academic hero ; but neither flattery nor abuse could keep him at his books, and only strenuous appeal to clan loyalty under the guise of college spirit held him through the season. At night, for utter homesickness, the big fellow would cry like a child; and when football was over for the year the call of the wild became irresistible. Back went " Big Scotch " to the cabin. Another year the college, in desperate need of him, tried by all manner of persuasion, including ample financial inducements, to dig him from his hills; but in vain. He remained a mountaineer, not of necessity, but through natural affinity for the life of the past. On the other hand, I count it among my chief com- pensations to have known somewhat intimately a number , , . , of mountain students in an institution of Mountains by higher learning. I have watched and in their Possi- some measure shared in their transformation, bihties They were raw material but most capable stuff. Gaunt and unawakened boys grew into alert, self- reliant, well-equipped modem men, invariably with a strong grain of idealism in their make-up, and able to stand the test before the kings of commerce and industry. There is only one finer thing than this, namely, that wonderful expansion of the mountain girl's nature under the new incentives of culture. Her earnest and capable womanhood is sure to be a center of wholesome home life as she goes back to her mountain community — generally first as a teacher in her own country school. Perhaps this back- [ 333 1 CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH ground of experience helps me when I sit in some little cabin on the Upper Cumberland and see the parent in- carnations of mountain simphcity. An old grandmother faces me. She sits tilted back against the wall, her rough- shod feet on the rungs of the hickory chair, and her knees mannishly apart. Her pipe is between her teeth and periodically she spits across the room into the fire; but her face reminds me of the Cumaean Sibyl, and an awe sur- rounds her, as if she were the Prophetess Deborah under the palm-tree in the hill-country of Ephraim. With an unexplored wealth of such material to work upon, the assimilation of mountain life to the best Ameri- The Moun- can standard waits but two things — first, tain's Needs: the development of the natural resources of Development -^g region by the larger instruments of civili- 01 Kesources; . . , , . Guidance of zation, capital, machmery, transportation ; Ideals and second, the extension of educational in- stitutions to furnish both technical skill and ideal guid- ance. These are both coming with almost alarming rapid- ity. Of men to respond there will be no lack. They are there waiting, offering a primitive American character, unspoiled and largely unused, plastic yet wholesomely re- sistant, to the touch of our full-fledged destinies as men of this crowning age. 334] XI. THE PASSING OF THE MOUNTAINEER PRESIDING over the future of the mountains are two ominous characters, the millionaire and the missionary. The passing of their characteristic Hfe is predestined on the one hand by two facts — the very heart of its region holds the largest unworked coal fields in the United States, while its superb scenery and equable climate, both summer and winter, make it a na- tional playground. On the other hand, neither the state nor the Christian conscience can longer endure the waste of mountain manhood for lack of opportunity. There is thus a new chapter in the history of the Southern Appalachians. I. THE EXPLOITATION OF THE MOUNTAINS BY INDUSTRY The mountaineer is not so much to-day the man who has been left alone as he is the man whom we will not rri, T.T leave alone. For the wealth of mineral and 1 he Man . i • i t Whom We of timber which these mountains hold, but will not Leave especially for the wealth of labor power, °^^ industry is fast penetrating their most in- accessible nooks and comers. The industrial exploitation of the mountains is far advanced, and with it the passing of the mountaineer. We call this progress, forgetting [335] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH that to this belated man it brings a strain of body, mind, and heart which the best of us can scarcely bear, and for which he is one hundred and fifty years unprepared. Consider first the effect of the cotton industry on the men, or rather on the women and children of the The Cotton mountains. The chief Southern seats of this Industry industry are the Carolinas. If you will study the location of the hundreds of mills which dot the up- lands of these states, you will find that they are parallel to and frequently in sight of the mountains. Twenty years ago there was scarcely one of them ; now this has become one of the great manufacturing centers of the nation. Whence came the men and women who labor in these mills.? Most largely, naturally, from the up- land farms of the immediate vicinity, but largely, and increasingly in recent years, from the fastnesses of the mountains. An intelligent mill owner has told me that the next census will show many mountain counties practically depopulated to swell the ranks of cotton-mill operatives. The unlovely life of the Southern cotton-mill town has been often exploited. It is a harsh measure of the pov- erty of the mountains, but in fact the mill town may con- stitute a decided advance in the conditions of life. First there is better housing, a steady cash wage, and a more varied diet of inexpensive food. The Scotchman redis- covers oatmeal, exchanges his com bread for wheat, and makes the acquaintance of rice. There is a steady up- ward pressure of institutional and civic life. Schools are few and poor compared with those of more favored sec- tions, and the miU child too often does not go ; yet the opportunity is there, which public opinion, through child labor laws and educational improvement, is steadily ex- [336] THE PASSING OF THE MOUNTAINEER tending. The imagination finds new food in the activi- ties and impulses of town and city. Those who have ears to hear, hear. In this crisis of transition, however, the economic and moral unpreparedness and even essential incapacity of part of the mountain population is also revealed. To them a cash wage means excess and drunkenness. They gorge themselves with newly discovered food. From being fixed by narrow isolation, they go to the other extreme and become industrial nomads. Such wandering families — for all ages and both sexes work — pass by hundreds from mill town to mill town, their scant possessions dragged about in sacks, or carried in their arms. The Southern mills have generally been short-handed in recent years, so that even the inefficient have been sure of a job. With mountain shrewdness, the father sets employer to bidding against employer for the labor of his wife and six, eight, or ten children — often no small labor force. To close a good bargain he will often throw in the labor of a child or two under the legal age. He himself does not work but is the walking delegate of his domestic trade-union. Naturally the down-draught of the city soon catches families of this type. They sink finally into a peculiarly inert and hopeless class of criminals and paupers. Thus the sifting proceeds. But not only is the mill drawing the mountaineer out of his mountains ; it is itself going up into the moun- The Going of ^^'^^^ to find him. I have recently traveled the Mill to three branch lines which lead from the main the Mountain jj^e of a Southern railroad into the moun- tains, and have been amazed at the degree to which in- dustry has followed the mountaineer into his own home. Here is a mill, fifty miles from a cotton field and eight 22 [ 337 ] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH miles from the end of a branch railroad. The cotton is shipped by rail and hauled by wagon over a rough moun- tain road; is manufactured, and the product hauled out again. What makes it possible thus to disregard all con- veniences of transportation.'' First, the presence of good water-power, but chiefly the accessibility of cheap labor. Here is a population unused to industry ; intensely in- dividualistic ; innocent of all knowledge of labor organ- ization ; which has handled very little cash, and is con- sequently willing to sell itself for an incredibly small sum in weekly wages. Adults receive perhaps $4 and children $2 per week. Their parents willingly swear that children are twelve, when they are only nine or ten, and " Every- body works but father " is not poetry here, but sober prose. There are coming to be many such mills among the mountains, as well as other industries. In the midst of the most picturesque stretch of mountain scenery in North Carolina the train suddenly stops over against a million dollar tannery, which is robbing the whole " land of the sky " of one of its most splendid trees, the chest- nut-oak, that the nation may wear tan shoes. Thus the old problems of the belated and ignorant highlander mingle with the new problems of child labor ,p, p , and of modern industry in general. But now, a Century while we have gradually worked up to this Unprepared industrial age through a century and a half, or n ustry ^.j^j^ man, our belated ancestor, our " con- temporary grandfather," is hurled into the very midst of its strange perplexity and struggle without preparation. Take the single aspect of sanitation. I know a mill vil- lage in as beautiful a valley as the mountains possess. The employer has honestly tried to create wholesome industrial conditions, yet as time has passed the sources [338] THE PASSING OF THE MOUNTAINEER of water-supply have been contaminated by drainage until the whole smiling valley is sodden with hidden corruption, and women and children drop and die with typhoid as regu- larly as months come and go. The only possible remedy is a thorough job of sanitary engineering, so expensive that the resources of the mill corporation could not pos- sibly justify it. Against this unwonted peril of sewage the mountaineer is helpless. His cabin has been cold, but well ventilated above, below, and on all four sides. Now he works in a steam-heated mill, and all the perils of the wilderness, the tomahawk of the savage, and the harsh struggle of the pioneer with the niggardly moun- tains, brought no such danger to life as is involved in bad air. Farther west, in Tennessee and Kentucky, there are few cotton-mills, but industry has searched out the nooks Coal and and comers of the mountains for their coal Lumber and timber, and there also the old mountain life is fast passing. We went a three days' horseback ride from the railroad over the Black Mountain ; down into the valley of Yoakum Creek; down that creek to its junction with Poor Fork of the Cumberland; up the fork; up Looney Creek, until we came at nightfall to the cabin of Old Man Jackson on the border of Letcher County. Old Man Jackson is a sort of nabob of the mountains, where the valley widens a little and furnishes the possi- bility of a bottom farm. He has a four-room cabin with three great stone chimneys, and there with his strong sons and daughters he dwells in self-sufficiency. His farm and pasture furnish food ; his wool, clothing. The loom stands on the back porch, and the family, both men and women, are chiefly clad in homespun. We slept under many thicknesses of homespun blankets, in a room where rings [339] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH of pumpkins were drying on spikes stuck between the stones of the great fireplace. The household is literally independent of " The butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker," for the only lights are the dipped candles and the flare of the open fire. If the mountains had suddenly risen and fenced the valley on either side, its life might have gone on indefinitely without ever missing the world, and I thought that of this spot at least I would be safe for fifty years in telling the old story of the mountaineer and his isolation. Yet, within three months, I read in a chance newspaper something like this : " The Blank & Blank Com- pany of Indiana will spend a million dollars in Letcher County in the coming year. It will build thirty miles of railroad and open nineteen coke ovens." And why.'' Be- cause the Lord sent a freshet which ran under Old Man Jackson's kitchen and laid bare a bed of coal. In the morning he could get up with his pick and get his fuel from underneath his house; and men heard about it. Therefore, where never in all the world had the shadow of one human habitation fallen upon another, a narrow valley will be crammed with crowded miners' huts. Those pure mountain streams will be fouled with the refuse of industry. Perchance a hundred negroes of the worst type — the irresponsible, unskilled labor class — will be thrust into the midst of a quiet mountain county which has scarcely seen a black face, and the worst possibilities of the race problem will be presented ; and Old Man Jackson's sons, who have never been in bondage to any man, now for more money, indeed, than they have ever seen in their lives, will toil under ground. The following press despatch indicates the Industrial [3401 THE PASSING OF THE MOUNTAINEER and financial magnitude of this present partitioning of the mountains by the powers that be: Bristol, Virginia, March 10, 1908. George L. Carter, President of the South & Western Rail- The Partition- ^oad, has just closed a deal for an im- ing of the mense tract of coal and timber property Mountains in eastern Kentucky, including ninety- by Financial two per cent of the total acreage of County and extending into other counties. The property was purchased in his own right, and some thirty thousand acres in fee simple. The consideration is not known. This pur- chase is a private investment of Mr. Carter, as the property will not be touched by the South and West- em, It is believed that his ultimate object is to build another railroad through Kentucky. The Martz Iron and Timber Corporation, of Ken- tucky, of which Mr. Carter is said to be the head, has just sold to J. H. Wallis & Co., Philadelphia Bankers, a tract of land in middle Tennessee and another in eastern Kentucky at $44,000. Attorney T. Irving Hart of Johnson City, in the employ of Mr. Carter, has just returned from Philadelphia, in connection with the deal. South <§• Western Meeting The annual meeting of the stockholders of the South & Western Railroad of Tennessee, will be held in the office of President Carter, at Johnson City, March 22, and will be attended by Thomas F. Ryan of New York, and probably Norman B. Ream of Chicago, Thomas Jefferson Coolidge of Boston, and other multi-millionaires interested in the project. The company now has ample funds to complete the road, and it is believed that it will be ready for [ 341 1 CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH operation early next year. It is now about seventy per cent completed, and will require in the neighbor- hood of $10,000,000 before completed. The Clinch- field Coal Corporation, which is allied with the Ryan and Carter interests and owns 300,000 acres of coal land in southwest Virginia, is actively preparing to open the mines next year, and the $2,500,000 appro- priated last year for this purpose is being expended. This is a $30,000,000 corporation, and is headed by George L. Carter, and for the development of which property the South & Western is being chiefly built.^ What will happen to the thousand families to whom this enormous project must mean sudden dislocation and a com- plete break with their whole scheme of life.'^ The more fortunate will receive a few hundred dollars for their land or mineral rights. Utterly unaccustomed to a cash econ- omy, they will not know how to use their sudden wealth, and will squander their lifetime's chance. It is exactly parallel to the case of the negro who buys a top buggy with the cotton surplus money he should pay on a farm. An agent, who has bought up such rights for years, tells me that rarely is the mountaineer wise enough to re- establish himself with the proceeds of his sale. Cut from his moorings he drifts ; out of sight of his landmarks he is lost. There is no sadder human fate than these banishments decreed by progress. This is the crisis of the mountaineer, the sudden pres- ence of that sifting process in which the negro is caught The Human ^" ^^^ ^'^^J- I^ ^^^ means progress for those Cost of who can enter its gates of opportunity ; the Progress chance of an awakened mind, of a broader outlook ; of wealth, with all its possibilities. But, oh, the > Knoxville Sentinel, March 10, 1908. [342] THE PASSING OF THE MOUNTAINEER tragedy of it for those not able to meet this sudden stress, and its unwonted temptations ; who cannot stand before the tremendous physical and mental and moral strain of what we call civilization ! What special need, then, that the mountaineer shall have just now the steadying, guid- ing influence of the Christian school and the enlightened Christian church! I have stood at twilight in a wonderful valley in Ten- nessee, where iron and coal he side by side in the moun- The Parable tains and are rolled down, by their own of the Blast- weight, straight to the blast-furnace below. I Furnace have watched the flare of the furnace fires against the deepening gloom of the mountainside; I have seen the molten iron run like fiery serpents down its path of sand, and heard the fierce hissing as the dross, shattered by streams of water, falls into the waste-pit ; and it has all seemed to me a terrible parable. For there are men in these mountains as well as minerals, and industry digs them out, to separate them, and to transform those who are fit unto better things. But industry does not care for the poor, the weak, the handicapped. God does ; and in his behalf the missionary must stand to supplement, some- times to neutralize, the harshly beneficent work of the milhonaire. II. THE EXPLOITATION OF THE MOUNTAINS BY LEISURE The tender mercies of the millionaire at play, even when The Passins? touched with much sentimental philanthropy, "Spirit of the are no less cruel than those of industry. Mrs. Mountains" jVliles puts the case so justly, and with such fine feehng, that I quote at length: [343] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH One day a hotel is built, a summer settlement begun, in some fastness of the mountains hitherto secluded from the outer world. The pure air, the mineral waters, are advertised abroad, and the sum- mer people begin to come in. Good roads are built in place of the old creek beds and trails, and rubber-tired carriages whirl past the plodding oxen and mule teams. Handsome cottages are erected in contrast to the cabins, and sunbonnets turn aside in wonder at bright creations of roses and chiffon. The mountain people come in groups to look on, some from homes so deep in the woods that the children take fright at the approach of even a home-made " tar- grinder " wagon. They are easily bewildered, of course, and cannot at once respond to the need of a new standard of values. Perhaps instead of a hotel it is a factory or a mill of some kind that presents the thin edge of the wedge, but the results are as certain to follow. When the cottages are occupied the trouble be- gins. The hotel may bring its own servants ; but for the summer people there are washing and sewing to be done by the women, and work in the gardens and stables by the men of the place. Later, they are hired as house servants, and as caretakers during the winter season, when the houses must stand empty. All this is hardly to be avoided, perhaps, but a host of evils follow. Here is an easy way of making money, and the old pursuits are abandoned. Men neglect their farms and the fashioning of sturdy home-made implements and utensils. It is easier, far, to buy city tools with city money. Their teams are con- stantly in demand for hauling, moving households up in the spring and down in the fall. They have never worked so hard before, nor been so well paid. The strenuous life has laid hold of them. It seems for a [344] THE PASSING OF THE MOUNTAINEER time that better days have dawned for the half starved and the ignorant among us. Is it any wonder that false ambitions creep in? The lady of the hotel or cottage, when she packs her trunks to go home, leaves sundry trinkets out for the mountain girl who has served her — half-worn cloth- ing such as the poor child has never seen before, trimmed hats, books and magazines, if she can read. The recipient plans for a similar donation next year. She does not willingly return to sunbonnet and home- spun. Her old mother cares little for the new clothes, but sees at once how much easier it is to buy blan- kets than to spin and weave. So the loom and wheel are consigned to the barn loft, where they fall to pieces with dry-rot, and the woman forgets her cover- let patterns. The hand of the worker in wood and metal loses its cunning. The growing lads scarcely learn to shoe a horse ; they are all too busy working for the city people. The value of money, the false importance of riches, is evident to their minds before the need of education. They become avaricious, they who were wont to share their last chew of tobacco, and put the children to earning, by picking berries or what not, instead of sending them to school. For by this time the city people have helped to build a schoolhouse in the dis- trict. The old-time hospitality is crowded out of existence, and under the influence of women, who imagine that a man who does not know when to take off his hat cannot possibly be courteous, the fine old manners disappear. The old music is supplanted by cheap Sunday-school song-books, that contain shaped notes and directions so clear that the wayfaring man who has learned to sing on the do-re-mi-fa-sol basis, though he knows not one key from another, need not err therein. The homespuns, with their delightful [345] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH dull colors of root and bark, are ousted by aniline- dyed calicoes which do not wear more than a season. The beauty of simple smoke-browned interiors is blotted out with newspapers pasted, coat upon coat, on the walls for additional warmth, since paper is easier come by than substantial chinking. Druggist barrel-house liquor takes the place of the clear, fiery product of the still, making the evil of drunkenness ten times worse. The old dances are given over to rowdies. A new standard of morals is set up amid the confusion. Even the old religion is passing, laughed away by empty-headed ones who never could understand a thing so sacred. This people who have no servant class are constantly made to feel them- selves inferior to the idle newcomers, and so fall into servility. The old dignity has slipped from them be- fore they are aware.^ I know a mountain community in which rich Charles- tonians have their own church. They bring their pastor D b" In- ^"^ ^^^ summer and hold services for the fluence of the transient population. Then they lock the Tourist church and go away, leaving the natives to themselves. The lonely missionary teacher, shut in with them by impassable winter roads, does not find the influence left by the careless flitters altogether sweet. Tlie native lads, who have made easy money driving smart rigs full of tourists to admire the mountain scenery, prefer to loaf rather than to go to school until next summer. Their wholesome standards of life have been overthrown. They see only the lighter side of more privileged civilization, pick up its vices and seldom understand its Titanic in- dustry and profounder meaning. Thus the mountaineer 1 Miles, " The Spirit of the Mountains," pp. 190-194. [346] THE PASSING OF THE MOUNTAINEER falls into the gap between the old and the new. The spirit of the mountains is broken before the spirit of the modern world captures him in its imperious but courageous grip. The saddest thing about the millionaire's ministry to the mountains, whether of work or of play, is that it is so T 1 4 1 largely exploitation rather than permanent Industry and & J r ... Leisure both occupancy. Just now the nation is waking Exploit rather up to the bitter fact that much of its in- ccupy (Justrial progress has been a squandering of natural resources ; and waste has been nowhere more ram- pant than in the South. I shall never forget the passion- ate appeal of one of the educational evangelists of Ten- nessee who argued that his state, however burdened with debt, must educate its mountain people in order to end its exploitation by alien capital; an exploitation which is not only sapping it of present profits but will be sure to leave its land stripped of original wealth. The mountains are full of decaying coal towns whose last state is infinitely worse than the first. John Fox's latest story vividly de- scribes the collapse of land and mining schemes and their effect upon an Appalachian county seat. The story of the lumber industry as managed by Ameri- can commercial wisdom is one of continuous economic atrocities. When the denuded mountainsides hurl down their torrents upon the lowlands, overwhelming the Caro- linas, and inundating Augusta, the nation begins to hear and pity the lowlands. These have tongues, a press, promi- T5 • u- xu nent representatives in Congress, which even Ravishing the ^ <. Mountains of Speaker Cannon cannot utterly' and forever Beauty as well ignore ; hence agitation for an Appalachian ^ ^ forest reserve. But the first tragedy of the fallen forest is that of the mountains themselves, which are voiceless. The thin soil of their slopes and shoulders [347 1 CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH is swept away ; stones bury the bottom farms, while sadder still, the people are robbed of their long heritage of the beauty of the hills — their one priceless possession. Or, with the tourist, comes the freebooter florist, whose per- nicious activity is exterminating some of the most charm- ing winter greenery of the Carolinas to deck Northern feast or fast. Must we bury our dead under branches filched from our Appalachian brother, leaving his body to lie amid crumbling stumps and his dust to be washed from his naked hillside.'* With the passing whim of fashion, winter resorts come and go. The wreckage of a million dollar hotel near Cumberland Gap, bought for a song, now houses a moun- tain school. Two other schools to my knowledge have ac- quired buildings under similar conditions. The toilsome climb up Walden Ridge to Grand View Institute recently made every brick for a new dormitory cost double by the time it arrived. A railroad used to run up there, but was abandoned with the waning popularity of the region as a health center. Tliese ebbing waves of industry and leisure cause some of the chief embarrassments of missionary policy. Fre- A Tragical quently what seemed a dozen years back a Recessional promising and strategic center of mountain hfe, turns out to be a decaying community, disillusioned, disheartened, hopeful neither for church nor school. Its more energetic people, the natural leaders, abandon it. The foreign blood and capital which tried to develop it are withdrawn. Sometimes they were genuine home-seekers trying to naturalize the fruit industry or even general agriculture in the milder climate of the mountains. Some- how they do not stay. Decaying homes and deserted schoolhouses are their tragical recessional. [3481 THE PASSING OF THE MOUNTAINEER Now all this raises the question of the residual strength of the hills to hold back permanently the fuller tides of The Residual civilization. The New York Central Rail- Strength of way following up the water level of the Hud- the Hills gQjj Iq iYj^q Mohawk gateway can travel sev- eral extra miles to Buffalo and still have immense perma- nent advantage over its nearest competitor, which must Uft its trains over the comparatively slight Alleghany barrier. All the resources of the modem world cannot neutralize an additional thousand feet of elevation. How much less will they quickly obliterate the height and breadth of the Southern Appalachians ! Thus Brigham writes : A few tons of coal are now enough to overcome the Appalachian barrier, and it is from this point of view, apparently, that a recent writer treats the Ap- palachians lightly, as if they were no barrier. They do not now stop or turn aside the movements of men and commodities, but they still interpose a peculiar belt of climate, soil, field, and forest between the At- lantic and the Mississippi, and their influence in early days was enormous. Geographic influences are no less real because they blend with other types of con- trol in the maturity of society.^ So much is clear: the old man of the mountains is doomed. Enough of civilization, especially of its e\als, is sure to come to break his dreams and wreck his peace, while the mountain barrier, as a stubborn physical fact, remains to make the bringing of the better opportunities of life a slow and difficult task for the statesman and pliilan- thropist. • Brigham, " Geographic Influences in American History," p. 318. 349] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH III. THE UPLIFT OF THE MOUNTAINS BY EDUCATION This is one of the two great national missionary prob- lems geographically located in the South, toward the solv- ing of which the organized Christian philanthropy of the North has reached out a brotherly hand. Shall these vast and impending changes make for human welfare and the nation's moral strength? Because of the crisis of the exploitation by industry and by leisure — because both of these disturbing forces are exploitations and consequently careless as to their human fruits — and because the moun- tains remain, even when exploited, a molding and re- straining power, the work of the missionary is of central importance. May there be a transformation as well as an exploitation, from old into new men of the mountains — men keeping all pristine virtues yet assimilating them to the better spirit of the age.'' Relatively speaking, as a problem of an unassimilated human mass, this problem is many-fold smaller than the Relative Maw- other one. There are at least ten, or prob- nitude of ably twenty times as many un-Americanized ou ern ro - jjga.j.ogg jj^ ^}^g South as there are mountain- lems: JNegro '^ vs. Moun- eers. The negro's present deficiency, too, taineer is deeper seated and his prospects more dubi- ous than theirs. From the standpoint of the nation, also, the negro problem is the more dangerous and pressing. It confessedly contains social dynamite, while the forgot- ten highlander might rot amid his stumps without dis- turbing the preoccupation of the greater and busier world. Thus, just because it is less directly emphasized in popu- lar agitation, or backed by self-interest, the regeneration [350] Black Mountain Acapesiy, Evauts, Ky, Elementary Grades, Black Mountain AcADEiMY THE PASSING OF THE MOUNTAINEER of the mountains makes a profound and unalloyed appeal to the Christian conscience. The missionary agencies which seek to do this work fol- low policies and use methods generally similar to those illustrated in activities for the negro. As in his case, their work will be illustrated by the typical but uniquely unsectarian institutions of the American Missionary Association. Its educational activities are frankly cooperative with and supplemental to the public school systems of the Ap- f^ .. palachian states. The will to educate the Cooperation ^ of Missionary mountaineer is everywhere present, as the Agencies with will to educate the negro is not. In the former case, therefore, it is merely a ques- tion of the state's ability, and the awakening of the moun- tain districts to add local responsibility to the state's re- sources. Wise and heroically conducted campaigns to this end are being persistently carried on throughout the South, and preeminently in the mountain states, to which, through the General Educational Board and the Peabody Fund, Northern philanthropy has largely contributed. The building up of state school systems, on the one hand, has largely distracted interest and gifts from the more modest work of the missionary institutions ; on the other, it has progressively relieved them of burden and will in- creasingly do so. The South is not yet able to educate its children without help ; but as it becomes able it will develop white schools first. Thus for philanthropy the mountains are not merely a lesser problem than that of the negro, but a more rapidly diminishing one. Where mountain mission schools exist, cooperation with the state is close. At present all of the American Missionary Asso- ciation's mountain institutions, save one, receive public [351] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH funds. These pay but a small proportion of the expenses of maintenance and contribute nothing to the support of higher grades of education ; but they secure the prestige — and sometimes the educational handicap — of state supervision, and express the cooperative spirit. In the crusade for better public schools, missionary principals have been the educational leaders of their regions. Some have served as county superintendents of education. The preparation of teachers has been a chief element of all missionary endeavor. Pleasant Hill Academy, Tennessee, has sometimes put fifty public school-teachers into the field in a single year. With this institution we may begin our review of typical mountain institutions of the American Missionary Asso- ciation, ranging from elementary schools to colleges and theological seminaries. Pleasant Hill Academy is a secondary school of the older type. Its field, Cumberland County, is notable upon Typical Mis- *^^ census maps for the poverty of popu- sionary Insti- lation and of agricultural production. Its tutions of three hundred pupils come from a surround- Gn^e-^Pleas- ^^S region, one of the most backward in the ant Hill United States. Some sixty of these pupils Academy a,re in the two years' normal course following the elementary school. There are a dozen teachers, includ- ing special instructors in music and girls' industries. While boys' industries are not at present systematically taught, the school has its own sawmill, and has on occasion burned its own brick, out of which it has built two three-story dormitories. This year a girls' industrial building was erected, chiefly by student labor. Pleasant Hill has the reputation of making a dollar go further than it does anywhere else. [352] THE PASSING OF THE MOUNTAINEER Around the school has grown up a modest and whole- some community life. There are half-a-dozen stores and shops and a cluster of homes, much superior to those in the neighboring settlements. Dignified and intelligent re- ligious services draw splendid audiences. The attendance at a mid-week prayer-meeting would be a surprise and a gratification in a metropolitan church. The school brings also a superior grade of lecturers and entertainers. Prob- ably no mountain institution has so completely become naturalized in the heart of its region. There will prob- ably some day be a high school at the county seat, four- teen miles distant, but the Academy is founded in the affections of the people. It has identified itself with their interests. Even though the region should develop ade- quate public schools it will be needed, because of its sen- timental value. Dozens of New England academies are not educationally necessary, but antedating the public school systems, they have historic sanction. Pleasant Hill Academy has a similar guaranty of permanence. Grand View Normal Institute, a school of about the same size, situated in an adjoining county, shows a moun- Grand View tain institution in process of change from the Institute old missionary type into one adapting itself better to serve the expanding needs and economic prob- lems of the mountains. Its four years' secondary course prepares for the University of Tennessee, but its particu- lar ideal is to become an agricultural high school. A hundred-acre farm, including considerable tillable land, has recently been added to its domain, and a graduate of a Northern agricultural college has begun the task of appl3dng the scientific principles of farming to mountain rural conditions. The raising of general crops will not be largely attempted, but gardening, horticulture, for- 23 [ 353 1 CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH estry, and stock-raising are all possible on the Cumber- land Plateau. The science course in the high school has been reconstructed in correlation with practical farming operations. Laboratories and workrooms have been pro- vided for instruction in domestic science and household management. A shop for the teaching of farm mechanics has been erected and awaits equipment. Grand View is about equally distant from six county seats, and the center of an area which in no human possibility will have ade- quate common school facilities for generations. Its per- manence will depend upon a continuing need, but also essentially upon its adaptation to practical local interests. Of graded elementary schools, with five or six teachers and from one to two hundred pupils, Joppa Institute, p,, in Cullman County, Alabama, is an inter- Schools; esting illustration. The settlement itself Joppa In- consists of some thirty cabins, with two or ^ ' " ^ three stores, a blacksmith shop, and two church-houses. By far the largest dwelling is our eight- room teachers' home. A little distance from it stands a well-built and commodious schoolhouse. To-day the sixth grade happens to be reading essays on pioneer life. The wise Bostonian, who makes the school-books, thinks it important that the children of the generation understand the life of their great-great-grandparents of Massachu- setts Bay, wliich he describes in great detail — the clear- ing of the forest, the building of the log-cabin, the little patch of farm amidst the stumps, the hunt for venison and wild turkeys, and the solemn procession of Puritans to the meeting-house, each man with a gun in his hand. The children faithfully reproduce this valuable information as an exercise in English, while as a matter of fact every one of these experiences is a living reality for them, or [354] THE PASSING OF THE MOUNTAINEER at least a memory of the present generation at Joppa. They know at first hand what it is to grub out a Httle farm in the forest; they are hving to-day in log-cabins; the larder is still furnished with game ; and their men too often " tote " guns to church. The school-bookmaker forgot that we have " contemporary ancestors." In the narrow cabins of this little settlement were gathered some thirty pupils from other communities. There were no decent accommodations for them, no op- portunity for studious quiet, and frequently an undesir- able crowding of boys and girls in the same house. Some- times whole families came to keep house for themselves in unfinished attics. Such conditions of life were no ad- vance upon the homes from which they came, and the best the school could do for them scarcely overcame the handi- cap of their bad accomodations. It was felt that we must make a place where such students could have proper over- sight and the influence of a well-ordered Christian home. There was a large store building which some too ambitious villager had begun and had been unable to finish. It stood exactly between the home and the school property. This was purchased, with some two acres of land, and transformed into a dining-hall and dormitory. One is almost ashamed to tell how little it has all cost. The lady teachers and student girls, under the charge of a competent matron, occupy this building. The old teachers' home has become a dormitory for boys under the charge of the principal and his wife. That we dared to attempt to make this great addition to our equipment was due to the fact that the principal, a veteran of mis- sion service in Japan, was an expert carpenter and builder as well as preacher and teacher. The community cooper- ated most cordially, contributing the hauling of all mate- rial and much of the work. A fund for furnishing the [355] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH new building was solicited by the teachers. A roomy but rickety barn went with the place, and this has been re- built so as to include a commodious shop for manual train- ing. There is sufficient land for considerable work in agri- culture, and the institution must have a horse, cows, pigs, and poultry. With these it might not merely educate its pupils, but also lead the community in rural efficiency. Thus runs the simple story. The warrant for such a school's existence is the extreme present need of its neigh- borhood and constituency. It is admirably adapting itself at small expense to the day's task. Teachers from the hills are already demanding an advanced course to help them meet the rising educational standards of the state. As to the future, we shall see when the time comes ; meanwhile, and for its own place, its service is indispensable. The little mill village of Lynn, North Carolina, in the upper Pacolet Valley, shows the missionary school stand- Lynn a School ^^S ^y t^^ mountaineer in his hour of indus- in a Mill trial and social transition. Gathered here Village ijj rows of company houses, he has put off many of the external peculiarities of his isolated cabin life. He has changed his clothes, but not his manner of speech, nor his inner habit of thought. The school is helping him to modify both. Winter residents from the North, who befriended many such enterprises, and the Lynn mill owner, have, in time past, cooperated in the school's support. There are two teachers and some sev- enty pupils. Last year they had hard times in the cotton industry, and the mill ran with a depleted labor force, consequently the school was full. In normal times it is a great temptation to the parents to send their children to work instead, and the philanthropy of the employer, when he is shorthanded, is not altogether proof against his covctousness of the child as a worker. [356] THE PASSING OF THE MOUNTAINEER The schoolhouse is the community's sole public build- ing. Here in turn preachers from the neighboring town conduct services. The teachers assist the Sunday-school, devise entertainments, and make their mission home a center of social life for the young people. They go into the homes of the village with counsel and good cheer. With an additional worker the enterprise might be con- verted into a full-fledged social settlement. As it is, what- ever Lynn has of intellectual and spiritual inspiration must radiate from two devoted women ; otherwise it is drowned in the clatter of the spindles. Ten miles or so up the mountam at Saluda is a girls' boarding-school, a favorite type of missionary institution. The Girls' T^^G mistress of the mountain home holds so Seminary, critical a place in "the redemption of her Saluda people that she deserves special training. She needs to be taught equally how to cook and how to hope; how to tend a household and also how to nourish ideals before she comes to have a home of her own. She will almost surely teach in the log schoolhouse of her settlement. There come also planters' daughters from the lowlands over the South Carolina border, from homes less poor but equally crude and devoid of the graces of life. Added to these are the children of a few winter residents and the village boys as day pupils. All told, they make a company of some one hundred and twenty-five. School and home occupy, in common, an ancient and decrepit building set up in a gully in a day when the proximity of a spring was the chief consideration. Its stairways and halls are so illogical and labyrinthine that visitors sometimes threaten to unwind a skein of yam to help them find their way out again. Yet here, in the companionship of half a dozen true and gentle women from the North, the mountain schoolgirl learns lessons of char- [357] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH acter and taste. Instinctively she catches new ways of dressing her hair and gathering her skirts. Her slackness is partly drilled out of her, and partly crowded out, by new desires and incentives to personal adornment. Apathy gives way to interest. I recall a rare day when a group of such girls had an outing down in a valley where a gentle-souled man had placed a pipe-organ in a gothic chapel. The tempered light streamed through cathedral glass, and shadows plaj'^ed in the recesses of the timbered ceiling, while he poured his own tenderness and devotion through the organ tones. The girls' eyes were big with wonder. They said little, but the memory will never die. New depths and dimensions of experience were added to the old enchantments of mountain spring and the glow of the full-blown rhododendron. Thus simple opportun- ity expands the mountain maid's heart. The dilapidated mission-school building is no longer an advance upon her standards of thought. She deserves a better one, and must have it — a worthy girl's home, safe, sanitary, and beautiful. The project has been begun. The village has given a hilltop overlooking the old gully and promises a thousand dollars — no small sum considering its re- sources — while the release of certain funds through the progress of the mountains, elsewhere, will permit the Mis- sionary Association to erect a new dormitory at Saluda. Outside of the actual mountains, as its name sug- gests — though in sight of them — is Piedmont College, „. , T at Demorest, in northern Georgia. It in- Higher In- ' '^ stitutions: cludes elementary, secondary, and college Piedmont courses. As in the case of the higher in- ^^^ stitutions for negroes, only a small fraction of its students are of collegiate grade. The village of Demorest was founded in the eighties, by a company of Northern health and home seekers, who [3581 THE PASSING OF THE MOUNTAINEER sought to give their children school privileges which Georgia was not furnishing, by the establishment of a local institute. With the years the original colony was broken up and dispersed, while the community grew by the coming of recruits from the neighboring Appalachian counties. Thus the opportunity of educational ministry to the na- tive population increased at the same time that the hotels, boarding-houses, and other monuments of the colony's adventurous youth were on the market for a song. The situation was seized upon by representatives of the small but able and aggressive Congregational element in Georgia, centering in Atlanta, as an opportunity for the establish- ment of an institution which should both express their denominational aspirations and serve the roughest and neediest section of the state. In its missionary aspect it appealed also to the American Missionary Association, which finally acquired the property; it took over the In- stitute on a long-time lease, and has since been its chief source of support. The property consists of four large and several smaller buildings, commodious enough, but scattered, particularly on the several hilltops of the vil- lage, and ill adapted to school purposes. A board of trustees consisting of local citizens and representatives of the Association and of the Georgia Congregational churches manages the institution, subject to the approval of its financial budget by the Association. The situation is not without its problems. Though not superior in equipment nor in results to the more Problems of modest schools, the elementary and secondary the Higher courses of Piedmont College — wliich nu- Institutions merically are over nineteen-twentieths of it — are conducted at unusual expense. This is because they are included in a collegiate scheme of administration and [359 ] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH remuneration. The interesting and inspiring plan of unit- ing North and South, highland and lowland, in commun- ity and school is also expensive. A student minority, coming from the cotton belt, and even from the cities, is not satisfied with a standard of living which seems ample to mountain boys and girls. The lingering Northern tradition in Demorest is favorable to culture, but costs money. To attract and hold students of collegiate grade, especially in a state well supplied with higher institutions as Georgia is, the academic fashions of wealthier schools have to be imitated. This makes their financial support difficult, and their dependence on scholarship aid corre- spondingly great. Is it justifiable to take of scant mis- sionary funds to do at Piedmont what (except for the college department) is done elsewhere at much less expense? There is only one justification, namely, that Piedmont shall train leaders, that it shall make standards of the Th ■ T ffi- higher life for picked men of the mountains, cation in the as they return to share the transformation Training of of their native sects, or follow opportunity to the lowlands and the city. It is a young institution, as yet an experiment, but a brave and hopeful experiment, which, under gallant and tireless leaders, is steadily endeavoring to make itself a vital and indispensa- ble part in the redemption of the twenty-six Appalachian counties of North Georgia and of their needy and abound- ing human wealth. The case of this institution suggests two principles The Inevitable °^ missionary pohcy, which every sup- Cost of Such porter of such endeavor in behalf of our Training unassimilated peoples should understand. First, the inevitable cost of training for leadership. [ 360 1 Professors and Students, Atlanta Theological Seminary Girls' Dormitory, Piedmont College THE PASSING OF THE MOUNTAINEER Provision for the higher education of any people must necessarily approximate that of the standard institutions of the nation. Shorn of all extravagances and reduced to the lowest terms of support sufficient for efficiency, colleges must have a collegiate grade of instruction and equipment. Their product must compete on behalf of their people with our best. If they are really to furnish competent leaders they must have adequate fitting. Mis- sionary agencies should be very slow to undertake the responsibility of colleges, and very insistent that, after due testing, they be either properly supported or aban- doned as higher institutions. Second, the prior claim of the principle of diffusion of opportunity. This is the heart of missionary obliga- rp, p . tion. It must minister widely and in places Claim of the of special need. This principle is funda- Diffusion of mental from the standpoint of assimilating ppo urn y |.j^g under- Americanized ; it is also inevit- able in view of the relation of a missionary board to its constituency. The annual support of such a board comes chiefly from armies of relatively small givers, many of whom are by no means able to send their children to col- lege, from feeble churches, from children and young people. They are told of the needy masses of alien blood and narrow opportunity. However important the education of leaders from the standpoint of the strategy of group development, the larger number of givers in- tend that their gifts shall minister to these people on the humble levels of their need. This fact sets a strict limit to the proportion of its resources which a missionary organization may justly spend on the higher or otherwise more expensive forms of edu- cation. __ CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH The American Missionary Association has always held this principle sacred. As indicated in an earlier chapter, >-, J ^. it has graduated into independence some of Graduating ^ ... . , Missionary the largest of negro institutions previously Colleges into under its control. Berea College, incompar- epen ence ably the most influential single mountain in- stitution, was for many years fostered by the Association, which still holds certain trust funds in its behalf. Here are gathered about half as many students as in all the As- sociation's mountain schools, but they are educated at an annual cost many fold greater. In technical trade-educa- tion Berea can do for the young mountaineer — as Tuske- gee and Hampton can do for the young negro — what no school of the Association can do. Its work is abundantly worth all it costs, but it would not be a legitimate expen- diture of funds for the Association to support at any one place in the mountains, a school at Berea's scale of expense. For a missionary board the diffusion of oppor- tunity is the better part. The continuance of this prin- ciple necessitates the early graduation of another group of the Association's schools, both white and colored, into independent support. They are now absorbing more than a just proportion of resources. Their adequate develop- ment is impossible out of the current gifts of the existing constituency. Tliis the Association has recognized by de- termining at its last annual meeting to make the centennial of Lincoln's birth the occasion of a campaign for the endowment of five of the most advanced schools. In the case of Piedmont College, both Mr. Carnegie and Dr. Pearsons have anticipated this plan with conditional pledges, as has the Association itself by a special endowment grant. Training for leadership in one line, namely, the minis- [362 1 THE PASSING OF THE MOUNTAINEER try, is the accepted task of the Christian masses. Neither the state nor private philanthropy assumes this burden. ^j, . . ^. The churches expect, and more readily re- isters: Atlanta spond to appeals in behalf of schools for reli- Theological gious professional education. None has ever beminary ^^^ ^^ good a case as Atlanta Theological Seminary. The great city whose name it bears was created by the convergence of railroads at the southern extremity of the Appalachians. All the highways which touch the mountains meet here before passing on to every quarter of the South. The South, highland, and lowland com- bined, has but five independent Protestant schools for ministerial training, the most adequate of which are all located at the extreme northern boundary. Moreover the schism of social classes has left the churches of the humbler people virtually without an educated ministry. Undoubtedly, the relative provision for the training of negroes as ministers is greater than that for whites, whose need Is not less. There are also some two hundred little, scattered, and chiefly rural churches bearing the Congregational name, whose ministers must be educated in the South, If at aU. They are come-outers from un- progressive Southern sects, and for social prestige and financial ability by no means constitute a denominational asset. To furnish these with effective spiritual leader- ship Is a task offering httle sectarian, but great patriotic and Christian satisfaction. It touches the belated white man of the Southern lowlands, who shares the crisis of the sifting of the South as well as the mountaineer. Its ac- ceptance at the beginning only complicates the race situ- ation 'by Introducing the- problem of the ecclesiastical relations of white and negro churches. Before it Is com- pleted it will surely contribute to the Christian solution [363] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH of that problem at the point where the clash of races is now most violent. Externally, scarcely any school is less impressive than the Seminary. There is merely a none-too-modern brick Guidincthe dwelling-house, surrounded by the ruins of Pilgrims in once pretentious grounds, on a wind-swept their Crisis ^^^ overlooking Atlanta. The students, many of them ordained men with families, constitute an interesting and earnest group. A virile and aggressive president carries as a personal burden the annual solici- tation of nearly half the expenses of the institution, and pleads in faith for a modest set of buildings which shall de- cently house the school.^ These are necessary to perpetu- ate present achievement and to provide for a spiritually magnificent future. A little group of professors, whose names have been honorable for eloquence, teaching power and missionary service, are giving their declining years to this splendid, underpaid ministry. The active pastors of Atlanta share their time gratuitously with the institution. It has as many students as three Northei-n Congrega- tional seminaries. The earnestness and practical atmos- phere of its classroom is in happy contrast with the dry-as-dust spirit and scholastic coldness of too many insti- tutions, similar in name but not in practise. In a hundred years we shall garnish the sepulchres of these prophets ; we are starving them now. Yet they are meeting a crisis where the mountain paths converge and where the feet of new pilgrims are passing into the broader ways and sterner conflicts of a new South, and of the nation of which it is a part. In a region undergoing such radical transition as are ' Since the writing of the text, funds have been secured for a school building and a president's home. [364] THE PASSING OF THE MOUNTAINEER the mountains, corresponding radical readjustments of missionary agencies are frequently necessary. Thus at R d" I T - Williamsburg, Kentucky, was located one of sitions aud the largest and oldest of missionary schools, Radical Re- Highland College. The Northern preacher long preceded the railroad and reached the settlement before it ever had a church building of its own. Once a frame had been raised, and pulled doWn again on a drunken wager of ox-team against ox-team. For a quarter of a century a school was supported, wliich educated some of the brainiest of mountain politicians, which served as a center for educational and evangel- istic activity, and set the standards of the higher life for the entire region. Meanwhile the race issue had arisen. Berea had maintained for years the coeducation of negroes and wliites, and the Association's fidelity at Williamsburg to the same pohcy was the occasion of the establishment of a sectarian school. The deeper cause was the aroused spirit of progress in the mountaineers themselves. After the erection of the mission church in a neighboring settlement, they took hoes and scraped the primeval filth from the floor of the native meeting-house. At Williamsburg, emulation took the form of educational rivalry. With new ambitions came ability to satisfy them. The mountains at length produced the native millionaire. Through shrewd dealing in coal lands he made his The Coming fortune. He was willing to buy out the mis- of the Native sion school at a price coveiing the entire Milhonaire: property investment of twenty-five years, of the Old " -^^^ ^^^^ represented two-thirds of the tribu- Men of the tary population. Their school had caught Mountains ^]-^q contagion not only of culture, but some- what of liberality. Highland College was sold. It had [ oGo ] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH done its essential work and the investment was more needed elsewhere. The community had not reached the standard of the more favored regions either in wealth or culture, but it was on the way. Its distinctive traits of a quarter of a century ago no longer dominated it, and remained only as the badge of the submerged classes. As a social group its people had emerged and developed the institutions necessary to conserve their gains. The cooperation of missionary and millionaire had hastened the passing of the mountaineer. The future, material and spiritual, was safe in the hands of their joint product, the normally equipped American. Thus, locality by locality, the mountains cease to present a national problem, need- ing the ministries of special nationalizing agencies. What was merely temporary backwardness in their peculiar Ufe is left behind ; the rest, bad and good, merges with the common life of the nation. "I pass but cannot die." So somehow within the deed and heart of America will abide the contribution of the Southern highlander. [366] XII. DOES THE PURPOSE OF GOD THWART THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST? I. THE MORAL SIFTING OF THE NATION ON THE RACE ISSUE CENTURY after century has marched by since that great movement began which has monopohzed nine- tenths of recorded history and which we call the progress of Western civilization ; but never has Aryan supremacy been challenged until within this decade. At- T^T .J tila's Huns could not permanently threaten New Ardor . ^ -' and Stubborn- the racial balance of power ; an awakened nessof Race- Orient does. Our breed of men has met this ^ ^ challenge with an ardor and stubbornness of race feeling" new to Christendom. This feeling creates a crisis for Christianity itself. Once the heathen was a perishing soul, hard to get at — and we loved him. Later he became a consuming body, part of a world-market, worshiping idols made in Con- necticut — and we tolerated him. Finally he became a participating fellow in common civilization, a neighbor — and we hated him. Recently he has taken an active hand in affairs — and we propose to put him out. Everywhere it is the same — in Australia, South Africa, Canada, the United States ; all the seats of Anglo-Saxon Empire raise the cry, Exclusion ! Deportation ! Race prejudice, a natu- ral self-protective instinct, has roused and shaken itself. This compels heart searching in all our traditional Chris- tian activities, and puts the missionary impulse itself on trial. [367] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH Let us clearly understand why. Race-feeling to-day rises in the face of a tremendous fact, a new world-unity. It is Forced World-politics, world-science, world-commerce to Extremes and industry have made this earth an open- by Revul^^on ^qqj.^^ commonwealth of mankind. It also rrom the Social . . i , xt- i • Applications confronts a new religious ideal. Within this of Christianity new world men have seen the social vision of the gospel which compels them to look beyond individual salvation to the actual and active contacts of redeemed men in the kingdom of God. The impact of these two facts immediately forces race-feehng of a naive, instinc- tive character and compels it to forge weapons. Slave- holder theology believed in heaven for human chattels ; mercantile philanthropy thanked God for souls new-born in India ; the old missionary evangelism converted a heathen and left the institutions of Turkey or China to stand the moral shock and take the social consequences ; but convert a heathen at home, and American institutions have to stand the moral shock and take the social con- sequences. What these consequences are, race-feeling clearly discloses. One cannot evangelize a man and then shut the door of human fellowship in his face. Within twenty-five years, I venture, no American with a shred of honesty will dare engage in foreign missions unless race-feeling in America is conquered. These comparatively insignificant race-contacts will inevitably follow the spirit and fashion of the massive, permanent, and significant con- The Pickets tacts within the national life. Christianity will Cease to must face the social consequences of asking Fraternize ^^^ j^^^ ^^^ f^^^-i ^f q^^ rj.^^ ^^^^ ^^^. when the . . . '' i • i . " i Armies Begin sionary impulse is at stake in the struggle to Fight with ascendant race-feeling; for missions in the modern world must mean the participation of men [368] THE PURPOSE OF GOD in common civilization. Whether we shall evangelize at all is to be determined here — under the stars and stripes. A momentous phase of the present race issue in the United States is the growing consciousness that it is con- Critical Signifi- tinuous with the world-struggle of classes cance of and races and that its outcome is profoundly .■ fR _ significant for all mankind. Race adjust- Issue for all ment is a universal problem of civilization. Mankind The echoes of this fact already are heard in our controversial literature. Our negro press took on a tone of triumph at the victory of Japan over Russia as that of a colored over a white race. The later apologies for the white South's race-policy deliberately argues from Anglo-Saxon practise at the antipodes. Mr. Ray Stan- nard Baker shows ^ that in the large the negro's unrest is of a piece with the under-man's struggle all over the world. America is naturally the central theater of this struggle ; for here we have theoretically taken the most ideal ground upon race relations. The world is concerned in our endeavor to make good our theories. Succeeding or failing, we are molding the destinies of mankind. II. MORAL STRUGGLE COMPLICATED BY INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES The moral struggle in which we are thus involved is Assumed Au- peculiarly complicated to-day by intellectual thority of difficulties. The most critical of them is a 1 *^H^v' d \ peculiar authority which race-feeling gets Concerning from the belief that it is justified by science. Races Yesterday Scripture was appealed to in its favor; to-day, Sociology. For the myth of divine origin " Following the Color-Line," p. 269. [ 369 ] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH of favored stocks we have substituted the doctrine of chosen people by natural selection. The past, it is taught, revealed the sifting of human races ; the present sees the crowning of the fit to rule ; the future must witness the elimination of the unfit who else will inevitably beguile and entangle the chosen races to their doom. As a coun- sel of practical duty this doctrine takes two forms: first, it is a doctrine of the active suppression of the unfit — applied Darwinism, the gospel of racial aggression, which is the name of a better humanity, would crowd the nature peoples from the earth; second, it is a doctrine of the passive suppression of the unfit — race segregation, which is to be vigorously enforced by social policy until nature eliminates the unfit by her slow, inexorable processes.^ In its application to races this doctrine of the survival of the fittest gets the unfair backing of many instinctive Stated in its ^^^ carefully cherished prejudices. It can Widest Bear- only be j udged fairly in its broadest and ^^^ most general application not to races but within races. Logically it ought to demand the elimina- tion of our parents when they are old, of our children while they are weak, and of ourselves when we are sick. It saves, at best, not all Aryans, or Anglo-Saxons, but only long-headed blondes. President Roosevelt ought to have been slaughtered, and Sir Walter Scott before him, because of their puny youth. Actually the issue is often theoretically raised in most serious and authoritative sci- entific discussions of heredity as related to the pauper, the consumptive, or the alcoholic. In a savage society these would soon succumb. What is the effect on the future health and strength of the race of their preserva- * Finot, Race Prejudice, Pt. I, ch. i, "The Gospel of Inequality and its Prophets," §§ 5, 6. [370] THE PURPOSE OF GOD tion by the humane ministries of modern society — char- ity, the hospital, moral reform? By example and by heredity will they not perpetuate their weaknesses to the deterioration of the race? Is it not better that present victims be sacrificed than that the unborn should suffer? Logically this is a serious dilemma; practically it in- volves profound problems. It can only be met by an adequate scientific answer, which later we shall attempt to suggest. Yet when it touches those near-at-hand classes who are protected by the humane sentiment, the average man dismisses it with the crass comment of his morning paper, " a scientist talks nonsense." ^ We take this doc- trine complacently, however, when applied to the man of other races than ours. Half of us are quite wilhng to give him a push over the precipice (to use Nietzsche's kindly metaphor) ; most of the other half are easily re- signed to leaving him outside the pale of civilized asso- ciations till he vanishes before our expanding empire. There is still a further step; the missionary impulse is formally arraigned by the dogma of race inferiority ™, ,,. . on the authority of science. Pro-Arvan 1 he JMission- 1 ary Impulse champions take a vein of high solemnity. Formally " You can't afford to be kind to the lower Arraigned ^^^^^ . j^ j^ wicked." The spirit of Christ is definitely rebuked when it would exercise its nature toward the backward folk. Scientific qualms turn pious. We are warned " especially against the emotions of sym- pathy, of pity for the unfortunate race, the ' man of yesterday,' whom the unfeeling processes of nature de- mand in sacrifice upon the altar of the Evolution of ' See editorial in New York Times on Prof. Wm. Ridgeway's address before the Anthropological Section of the British Association, September 7, 1908. [371] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH Humanity." The issue is frankly put : " May not the strong Caucasian lend a helping hand to his weaker Afri- can brother, lift him up, and the two walk along hand in hand through the centuries? This is a very idyllic pic- ture — but a moment's reflection must show how inade- quate and unreal this dew of Hermon." ^ " All flesh is not the same flesh ; star differeth from star in glory " ; therefore concerning the races we are solemnly adjured, " What God hath put asunder, let not man join together." In like vein writes a Southern reviewer of " The Negro in the South " (by Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington). He finds the keynote to Dr. Du Bois' con- tribution in the following quotation : " Who can doubt that if Christ came to Georgia to-day one of His first deeds would be to sit down and take supper with black men, and who can doubt the outcome if He did.^" " The reviewer's comment is : " Upon the short-sightedly senti- mental ideal or Christian basis it may be admitted that Professor Bu Bois has the best of the argument. But," he goes on to remind us, " the laws of nature and not the imperfect and changing interpretations of the prin- ciples of any ethical system, Christian or other, determine the fates of men and of races in bulk." He concludes: " As the nation could not exist permanently half slave and half free, so it cannot exist permanently seven-eighths white and one-eighth black. White or black must perish in the end. Which is the most likely to perish.'^ " - The negro, it appears. His elimination is declared to be " an inevitable, far-off divine event," against which it is both foolish and wicked to strive. The axe is thus laid at the root of the tree of Christian > Smith, " The Color-Line," pp. x, 188. 2 "H. I. B." in New York Times. -_ THE PURPOSE OF GOD missions and its edge is this : Does the purpose of God thwart the spirit of Christ? May we evangehze and edu- The Axe at cate, or does God forbid? When Jesus says, the Root of " Make learners of all nations," does God the Iree g^^^^ "No, some haven't brains enough"? When the voice sounds, " Feed my sheep," must we reply, " Yea, Lord, thou knowest that we love thee, but what you take for sheep are only goats "? This is no academic question. So subtle are the infec- tions of race-feeling that thousands of men of Christian instinct (whether they have articulated the fear or not) are not sure whether, after all, God himself is not against missionary endeavor for the most backward races ; whether the full Christian hope, especially for the negro, is not mistaken ; whether the participation of his race with ours, in the Christian civilization of America, is not impossible, because of natural racial inequality which God intended. III. EXAMINATION OF THE ALLEGED VERDICT OF SCIENCE The remedy for this condition is chiefly moral. As a challenge to the Christian spirit it must primarily be met by the Christian spirit. Concerning instinc- tive race antipathy we have nothing to say; the passion of brotherhood must conquer it. But in so far as the difficulty is intellectual, it admits of intellectual treatment. The alleged findings of science may be met on their own ground. These Philistines also are men, and as such we may fight them. Race antipathy instinctively seizes upon distasteful physical peculiarities in other human varieties as evidences of their inferiority. Color is the most outstanding ex- [373 1 CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH ample. To say authoritatively what significance color may have, if any, is the business of anthropology ; and to this science we first appeal. First, then, the most violent pro-Ayran anthropology is infinitely milder than the popular prejudice it is al- leged to justify. That prejudice sees the lowest white man on the throne and the highest colored man licking the dust under his footstool. A supposed justification of it is found in the conception that there are feral races, physically intermediate between true man and brute. This view has not the slightest scientific standing. The contrary facts are that physically each race approaches the brute at some points, and departs at other points, but no race is feral at all points, or at so many more than others that it is thus distinguished. If in the exchange of interracial amenities, for example, one is moved to exclaim, " You great black brute ! " the retort courteous might be, " You great hairy brute ! " If one says, " Your long arms remind me of an ape," the scien- tific reply would be, " Your short legs remind me of the same beast." In brief, the white race has simian charac- teristics which the black race lacks, and vice versa. But the utmost that any anthropology claims is a slight average superiority in the white race. In height, bulk, strength, brain weight, skull capacity, development of forebrain, fecundity, longevity, or any other proposed test, that is all. Through most of their ranges of mental capacity the races are overlapping; most of the individuals of a given race have individuals to match them in any other. This means, to take the nearest case, that if one should line up all the American whites and grade them on the scale of 100, he would probably find few blacks to match those above 90, more to match those from 80 to 90, more [3741 THE PURPOSE OF GOD still as he went down the scale, the middle ranges being proportionately equal. No negro can possibly be lower than some white men. The bottom of hell is level. No one can say dogmatically that there are not ten million American whites who could be married to the ten million American negroes without biological injury to posterity. Of course the social injury would be immeasurable. But overlapping races can participate in a common civilization. Again some one will say — call his name Charles Francis Adams — " If the backward people have high natural High Capacity capacity why don't they show it ? Measure of Backward the unutterable distance between London and Peoples Khartoum ! If negroes have brains why don't they use them? " The answer is, They do. The back- ward peoples positively manifest a high order of mental capacity. We are not brainier than our fathers ; no one argues that we are a biological advance on the Teutonic bar- barians. They showed genius in the German forest as the savage in the African jungle. How? By not pronely accepting the world as they found it; by actively at- tacking and transforming their environments. As evi- dences of sheer ability to conquer by intelligence, no sub- sequent steps in civilization can remotely compare with the first. Edison is a poor second to Prometheus and Luther Burbank to the squaw who tamed the first dog. Still further, their method of mental procedure is ex- actly that which we glorify by the high sounding titles Superior °^ abstract reasoning and scientific method. Intellectual Modem logic is teaching us that every fruit- Processes f^i [^Qg^^ jg simply a plan of action, the valid- ity of which we discover by trying it. We have absolutely _- CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH no other resource, no esoteric Aryan guaranty of truth. Did the Hawaiians plant Captain Cook's iron nails think- ing that they would grow? Absurd? Then yesterday's physical science was equally absurd in its static concep- tion of matter. That iron would grow, and that matter was made up of atoms, were both perfectly worthy hy- potheses, but neither worked. Consequently the savant ceased to treat matter atomically ; the savage ceased to plant nails. Each used the same method, one profession- ally, the other popularly. One had more accumulated knowledge, but he was not wiser than the other; particu- larly he did not show some exalted mental faculty which the other lacked. Moreover, the most significant wisdom of all is that which counsels concerning human life. This is the core Practical of all philosophies. The Aryan masses do Philosophy not know Plato, but they have a popular philosophy infinitely more revealing of the race mind. But so has the West African. " Full-belly child says to hungry-belly child, ' Keep good cheer.' " We say, " It 's easy to bear others' misfortunes." Is our version better? " I 'm not so angry at the man who killed me as at the man who hurled me on the ground afterward." Is " add- ing insult to injury " apter? " Quick marrying a woman means quick unmarrying a woman." What more can one ask as a passport to our Christian civilization? In brief, the practical philosophy of life is for savage and civilized essentially similar. Or turn to the supreme moral quality, self-control. Are the nature-peoples popularly characterized as impulsive. Capacity for subject to uncontrollable instinct and chance Self-Control passions? Yet no life is so bound as theirs with ceremonialism, and ceremonialism means the subor- [376] THE PURPOSE OF GOD dination of impulses. The law of tabu hedges conduct at every turn. It says " No " to the most imperious impulses and is obeyed. Would the American starve rather than eat the sacred seal sporting before his hut.^^ The Eskimo will. Would he take the holy serpent's fang in his breast rather than kill it ? The West African will. Are our cities safe from civic looters because an unseen power guards them.'* Tlie Hottentots' possessions are in the jungle. The natural man is probably challenged and restrained by law at more points — not the same points, to be sure — under heathenism than under Christianity. Moral control is not a whit less real, inclusive, or effectual. In significant achievement, then, as well as in natural capacity, the races are overlapping. All of this does No Race ^^^ prove equality. We are not talking Unfit for about equality, but about the inclusion of Civilization |^j^g backward races in a common civilization. Can the negro be fitted for American citizenship.'* So far as anthropology testifies of his natural capacity. Yes. No race can be saved wholesale ; nor need any race be lost wholesale. All races, biologically speaking, are fit to survive and participate in and contribute to human society. But the argument must be pushed still further; for however favorable the verdict of anthropology concern- . ing the backward races, and however con- clusive against doctrines of their necessary elimination, either by the active or by the passive method, it is not immediately applicable to social perplexities. We asked whether the races could participate in a common civilization and were assured that all were capable and fit to survive. That is not an answer to our question. For such an answer we must go to Sociology — the sci- [377] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH ence of human association. Specifically, our question is this: Granting corresponding natural capacities and gen- eral mental endowments, may not the difference in detail in the mental tendencies of the races be so fixed as to make their inclusion in common interest and activities forever impossible? We know of brilliant individuals who could by no means hve together. May not this be the case also of capable races? We answer, They may learn to live together. There are no specific differences of race mind which are beyond the control of education. The organic basis of race traits can only be interpreted in terms of instinct. There are inborn tendencies which M t I Tr "L ™^^k^ ^^6 white act in a different manner of Race from that in which the black would act in the not beyond presence of the same stimulus. But what of Education -^p gij^ij^r and not smaller tendencies exist to make one white man act differently from another. Be- sides, there is nothing fixed or invincible about these dif- ferences. Psychology knows nothing of relentless in- stincts. Every one has lost dozens of them. Thus it is no excuse for race antipathy to call it " instinctive." Unchastity is equally instinctive. No specific race-trait is half so deep-seated as the common and elemental impulses which the moral life undertakes to control. Of those which intrude into the moral realm only two — the instincts of self-preservation and of the propagation of the kind — are especially unyielding. All the rest may be molded, suppressed, or recharged. Most of them, unless fixed and reenforced by habit, die of themselves. And among the most fleeting of them, the feeblest and latest bom, are the instinctive race-differences. The proof of such actual modification and the assimi- lation of one mental type to another is everywhere at [378] THE PURPOSE OF GOD hand. I will risk an illustration from our negro Congre- gational brethren. I sometimes go to their church con- ferences and find a gravity of manner, a sobriety of ex- pression, a restraint of religious utterances which I think overdoes the matter. They have, in short, the general denominational lack of rehgious spontaneity. Now, does any one believe that this result is due to a superhuman self-control whereby each colored brother painfully suppresses his inner tendency to explosive Halle- lujahs.? This is to attribute to him a grip on himself which we have not. Is it not rather clear that the ten- dency itself has suffered change; that liveliness of emo- tion, a proverbial negro trait, has been radically modi- fied? In this particular our brother has ceased to be a negro and has become a mere Congregationalist. It has been a change for the worse, too. Many negro traits may he^ hut ought not to be, obliterated by education, being of positive and sometimes of unique value to the world. But still the objector has a parting shot. " If race traits have no deeper organic roots than you say, why . .p are they actually so persistent, so stubborn.'' " petuation by Again the answer is easy though the appli- Social cation is hard. Race characters persist be- eredi y cause individuals coming into life, one by one, with perfectly plastic racial instincts, have these in- stincts fixed, one by one, in a similarity of habit, under the action of a common mental and social environment. The negro infant develops a negro mind because he grows up within a race tradition. He has a negro mother, a negro home, a negro community, a negro place in so- ciety. These give certainty and permanency to the faint organic racial tendencies which were othen^ase lost. The technical name for this process is " social heredity," the [ 379 ] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH newly recognized significance of which is effectively stated by Prof. Simon N. Patten: The striking aspect of the recent development of thought is the changing concept concerning the part heredity plays in life. Men have been trained from the earliest times to attach great importance to the influence of blood descent upon racial and individual character. Some families and peoples are said to be inherently superior to others, because they have possessed, generation after generation, well-marked qualities which others did not have. The differences between them were readily explained by heredity, so readily, in fact, that more influence was soon given to ancestry than to the environment into which a man was born. This unequal division of power seems to be destroyed by recent discoveries in biology, which are estabhsliing a new equilibrium between natural or inherited qualities and those acquired after birth. Many qualities are inherited, but the number is smaller than it was thought to be, and many of them may be readily suppressed by the action of the environ- ment in which men live, so that they do not show themselves for long periods in a particular family or a given race. This curtailment of the force of physical heredity gives more power to the acquired qualities handed on from generation to generation as a social tradition. A physical inheritance, simpler than we thought, is ours at birth; but there is a larger and increasingly important social heredity which must be constantly renewed through the con- scious efforts of parents and teachers.^ The conflict of the educator therefore is not with phys- ical heredity, but with that part of the social heredity ' " New Basis of Civilization," pp. 204, 205. [380] THE PURPOSE OF GOD of his pupils which he cannot control. A classic example is the acknowledged inability of the schools to teach the „ ^ , masses the mother-tongue. The trouble is Control , , , , 1 I • 1 i J.- throuo-h, and not that babes are bom predestmed to erratic of, Social spelling and grammar, but that homes and Heredity streets are also educators, and have the first and longest chance at the child. Now, no remoter guiding or reforming agency can interpose early or often enough between the mother and her child, the intimate group and its members, the isolated race and its people. Consequently family, group, and race traits are perpetu- ated from generation to generation, much as if physical heredity were the controlling factor. But for all that it is not the controlling factor. Social heredity is; and against it the teacher and reformer may do something immediately and in the long run, much. One thing of vast import that he may immediately do is to modify the beliefs of men. On the whole this is ^, „., - more significant even than any ability to The Role of , *= . ^ _.,. * i t i? • Chanced Be- change outward conditions. A belier, m a liefs in Social peculiarly intimate sense, expresses a man. Heredity Change it and the man is changed — as in the case of the mulatto. His case is of pathetic and thrilling human interest. On the misunderstanding that it was chiefly to be explained by the potency of white blood it has been used to rob the pure negro of most of his racial achievements. The true explanation is essentially psychological.^ Un- doubtedly the progress of the American negro has been » Contrast with this the biological explanations of Stone, Studies in the American Race Problem, ch. ix, "The Mulatto Factor." In general har- mony with the position of this book, see Ross, " Foundations of Sociology," pp. 320, 321. ^^^ 381] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH disproportionately the progress of a mulatto group ; its leadership disproportionately mulatto leadership. Be- Control cause the mulatto is biologically superior? through Social No ; because he believes in the superiority Heredity ^f j^g trickle of white heredity. Repeatedly I 've heard from men of low mentality, " You can't scare me ; I 've white blood in me." Result : they are not scared. Mere behef.'* Well, there is nothing mightier in the universe. " By faith the walls of Jericho fell down." The latest word of philosophy is that the nature of a thing is what it does. " That is different which makes a difference." Mentally the mulatto is not a negro, not because he is the product of mixed blood, but because he is the product of a mixed and modified race tradition. Any social group which experiences common modifications of an old race tradition is a new type, as worthy of sci- entific recognition as an " original " race. To think other- wise is a pure superstition of classification. " If any man is in Christ there is a new creation." This is a rigidly scientific statement. Social psychology teaches that men are transformed in essential personality by the renewing of their minds. There is no biological fate sundering the races, no Inexorable processes of nature thwarting the new faith in one's self and one's brethren inspired by the spirit of Christ. In so far as hard and cramping tradition is not chal- lenged and broken through by new and energizing beliefs, cj , ^. social heredity works out human destiny as belection ac- . « . i • i i i cording to relentlessly as if it were true physical hered- Social ity, and consequently beyond human control. ere i y j^^ effective results come to much the same thing. According to Its dictates men are selected for high or low estate. Custom, law, Institutions, possessions, [382] THE PURPOSE OF GOD and social pressure conspire to bring some into life, heirs of self-confidence and traditional prestige, controlling the accumulated wealth and the manifold machinery of civi- lization. Others, by arbitrary discrimination of birth, lack all these advantages and go in the mass as though naturally predestined to a lower place. As between races, belief and wealth exalt the white as the socially elect, and abase the black ; within the white race, they exalt the rich and abase the poor. There is not a vestige of scientific proof that these contrasts in any wise register the dis- tribution of natural capacity by physical heredity. Its distribution is indeed unequal but it does not at all follow racial or class lines. Vast and unmeasured numbers of the disinherited are simply normal human beings whose average capacities Suppressed are socially suppressed; partly through Classes under-nourishment and other environmental handicaps which lower their physical tone, and partly through paralyzing beliefs in natural inferiority which forbid them to hope for themselves and prevent society from doing its best in their behalf. The rich and the successful as a class have not more strength and capacity than the average run of natural men, nor the poor less ; but social environments in the latter case do not allow the effective expression of nature's gifts, nor even their self-discovery. An alien and pauper race included in a highly self-appreciative and arrogant civilization becomes, in the nature of the case, a suppressed class. It shows the typical traits of poverty-men which, in its case, espe- cially, are mistakenly charged to physical heredity. Such a social situation hardens into a caste system whenever ultimate sanctions are supplied to fix the results of arbitrary social sifting. Whenever the philosophy [383] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH and religion of a dominant group unite to justify its present advantage, and especially whenever a disinherited The Caste group comes to accept its place as in the System nature of things, a deadlock is reached which is more hopeless than if it were indeed the result of physical heredity. For physical heredity admits of great, though limited, possibilities of modifying the individual after he is born ; but the fatalism of the caste doctrine makes all endeavor hopeless. Such fatalism is the essential atti- tude of much American thought, particularly in the South. The Booker Washington program is declared to be no better than that of the negro radicals: it simply will prolong the agony a little; the negro problem has no solution. Such an attitude reveals the suppressive weight of social heredity at its worst. " Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood," but against diabolical ideas, against " spiritual wickedness in high places." A consideration of the fatal power of the caste idea should finally and forever forbid any confidence in statis- tical comparisons of social or racial classes in Its Results ,, . , , , 1 • 1 • no Measure their present status as havmg any bearmg of Natural upon relative natural capacity. In the most Capacity of advanced civilization eighty per cent of the population still belong to the " lower classes." Prof. Lester Ward writes : Statistical investigations prove that notwithstand- ing their superior numbers, they furnish less than ten per cent of the agents of civilization, and that rela- tively to population they furnish less than one per cent. Their influence in the progress of the world is therefore practically nil, although their capacities are the same as those of the higher classes, to whom, notwithstanding their small numbers, nearly all prog- [384] THE PURPOSE OF GOD ress is due. This is entirely the result of the social stratification caused by artificial inequalities. The abolition of social classes, could it be accomplished, would therefore increase the efficiency of mankind at least one hundredfold.^ This means that defective social selection, through false tradition and unequal environment, is robbing the race of most of its natural human wealth. However important, then, the improvement of the breed through eugenics, manifest duty and economy demand that society first cease to waste what it already has. Modem sociology, furthermore, comes squarely forward with an answer to the demand that the human stock be „ .., improved by the elimination of the unfit. Progress with- ^ ^ out Elimina- In the first place, do our best, we cannot tion through defeat the elimination of the least fit. Nature peremptorily dismisses them. That radi- cally defective individuals should not be allowed to repro- duce their kind, all agree. But the ordinary version of the doctrine of the survival of the fit attacks whole classes and races of probably average natural capacity. It proceeds upon the false assumption that those are unfit who could not survive the struggle for existence on the brute or savage plane ; or, more moderately, under Ameri- can pioneer conditions, or under such suppressive social institutions as, for example, the negro experiences in the South. But life is no longer under such conditions — at least necessarily. We have a new basis of civilization, " a kingdom of man," in which environment has been radically changed so that more and more of those who formerly were doomed to death are now adapted to sur- * American Journal of Sociology, " Social Classes in the Light of Modern Sociological Theory," vol. xiii, p. 627. 25 [ 385 ] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH vival. Fitness always means fitness under given condi- tions. Artificial modifications have become permanent and therefore natural. The stall-fed ox would be no equal competitor with Ursus of the ice age, nor could it endure exposure with the cattle of the Montana range; but it will never have to; domestication is its permanent lot. Weaker than its ancestors, it is better and fitter to sur- vive under present conditions. Similarly — to borrow Professor Patten's illustration — it is useless to "toughen" a child by making him go barefooted in the winter. The ability so to do is no superiority in a race which for good and all has adopted shoes and stockings. The efficient strength of the civiHzed man is greater than that of the savage, though the former is not adapted to survival in the jungle. Resources are now funded and may continue to be so indefinitely. " None of us liveth to himself." Under a life more fully socialized, the human units are not only individually sounder and more potent relative to their environment, but, also, in combination, even weakness is made strength. Thus for a long, long time, and with no limit which we can see, civilization may maintain its standard and still admit to privilege an immeasurable number of the now disinherited classes. Such a society will not merely have physical and moral health; it will possess also the inner forces of progress. Suppressed genius will be unloosed for its enrichment ; and, through organization, the present supply of genius will be made instantly serviceable to the world at large. When culture becomes cosmopolitan, as it is to-day, the success of a race turns much more on the efficiency of its average units than on the inventions and dis- coveries of its geniuses. The heaven-sent man who invents the locomotive, or the dynamo, or the germ [386 1 THE PURPOSE OF GOD theory, confers thereby no exclusive advantage on his people, or his race. So perfect is intellectual com- merce, so complete is the organization of science, that almost at once the whole civilized world knows and profits by his achievements. Nowadays the pioneer- ing genius belongs to mankind.^ Thus any man, group, or race which shall prove capable of serving the present age may be preserved without fear of his influence upon the future. Of revolutionary significance for problems of race is Sc' ffi O t'- sociology's extension to despised backward mism concern- peoples of the principles of j udgment which ing Backward she applies to the disinherited classes in white civilization. Thus Ross says: Social psychology ignores uniformities arising di- rectly or indirectly out of race endowment — negro volubility, gipsy nomadism, Malay vindictiveness, Singhalese treachery, Magyar passion for music, Slavic mysticism, Teutonic venturesomeness, Ameri- can restlessness. How far such common characters are really racial in origin and how far merely social, is a matter yet to be settled. Probably they are much less congenital than we love to imagine. "Race" is the cheap explanation tyros offer for any collec- tive trait that they are too stupid or too lazy to trace to its origin in the physical environment, the social environment, or historical conditions.^ In some quarters the whole science of sociology is now written without resort to the word or idea of race. So- called " races " are regarded as merely human groups with * Ross, " Foundations of Sociology," pp. S74, 375. * American Journal of Sociology, "Social Psychology," ch. i, vol. IS, p. 578. [387] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH special histories, temporary environmental marks, and signs of common social lot. Their heredity does not especially need improvement; it is already as good as the human average to which nature ever pulls back her more precocious children. Their special characteristics are easily modifiable. The gains of genius from any human quarter are easily transmissible to them. The uncontrollable powers of nature are as apt to fight for as against them, spontaneous variation being quite capable of bringing good out of Nazareth. What they need is to have ad- verse social pressure taken off, and to have the forces of social control exercised in their behalf. This is no in- terference with nature but the expression of the true nature of the human world as revealed by social control following Christian ideals. IV. THE PURPOSE OF GOD AND THE RACE QUESTION If God is the ruler of the universe it is proper to ex- pect to find some indication of his purpose in the natural Futility of tendencies of things. The argument of this Scientific Ver- book has been that these tendencies are not ic s o con- unfavorable to the backward peoples, and do vince concern- . . . ing Human not forbid the effort to assimilate them to Issues American civilization under the ideals of democracy and of Christian brotherhood. When the so- cial distortions of their natures are removed, all stocks and varieties of men express full human capacity and show promise that ultimately the downmost may be raised to participation in the life of the highest. To this effect we read the reasonable verdict of science. We do not expect this reading of the verdict, however, [388] THE PURPOSE OF GOD to convince those who on instinctive and dogmatic grounds deny the possibility of a democracy across the color-line. Not one human conviction in ten thousand is actually arrived at on scientific grounds. It was confessed at the outset that the argument could expect only to clear away certain intellectual difficulties for those who want to be- lieve the best for all men. It will not move the South — the South where thousands of earnest Christians passion- ately hold that the inexorable laws of the universe doom the negro to hopeless inferiority ; that its irreversible processes condemn him to extinction ; and that the at- tempt to raise him (" above his natural station ") is contending against the purpose of God. They cling, therefore, with desperation to the policy of social separa- tion, fearing that any relaxation of it will mean inter- marriage and the deterioration of the white race. Suppose that, scientifically, they were right and we wrong? What would we do about it.'' Having honestly attempted to put myself in the atti- tude of a Christian Southerner, I believe that there are Two more ^^'^ considerations that go deeper than any- Fundamental thing by which he thinks to justify the racial Considerations: policy of his section, or of any other like- and pLali?" ^ minded Anglo-Saxon group. First, the dig- of Personal nity and finality of personal solutions of hu- Solutions jjjg^jj problems. Whenever a negro has achieved character and self-respect; whenever he has reared a home, brought up children, acquired a modest competency, done useful work, counted on the side of social order, kept courage in his own soul and brought cheer to his fellows, honored God in his heart and in the deeds of his earthly pilgrimage, then the fashion and force of such a life has raised it above race barriers. And whenever a white man, [389 1 CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH the master of like achievements (and none can do more than these) has looked upon his negro brother without scorn, reverencing in him the same struggle and victory that he knows in himself, appreciating, yes and loving, the simple, effective goodness of him and the glory of his as- piration, then the galling, maiming, fatal aspect of the race issue is obliterated. Whenever these two men, dis- regarding classifications and traditions in the presence of vital experience, see eye to eye, so far as men may, un- derstanding each other in part, and for the rest bowing before the mystery of the unique selfhood of each soul, the race problem is altogether solved. Any one may solve it who will — a case at a time. It is solved between the Texas judge and his " Ned, nigger and gentleman." Wisely said Chancellor Barrows of the University of Georgia at the inauguration of a Northern white presi- dent over a negro university, " Forget race : think only of the individual." Whoever does this in one case, giving the individual simply and completely a standing of indi- vidual worth, is beyond challenge. The case does not con- flict with racial verdicts of science, for or against; it is simply outside of them. Now, such saving personal adjustments are everywhere admitted. They are infinitely more common South than North, and are the moral leaven of the race situation. Nothing could do the Northern philanthropist more good than to learn the cordial, affectionate, thoroughgoing Southern appreciation of the individual negro and the genuine equity of some of its relations with him. But, theoretically speaking, such adjustments are disregarded as exceptions. But what is an exception? In answering we will doubt- less be accused of lugging in a whole philosophy by the [390] THE PURPOSE OF GOD ^ . . ears. Not so ; for in any attempt at a iyxceptions are . -^ \ the Founda- thorough-going answer a whole philosophy tion-Stones of plunges in, inevitably, of its own accord. As we understand the nature of the universe, whenever any " two of you shall agree on earth as touch- ing anything " — whenever personalities, respecting and inviting each other to express whatever there is in them, come to an untrammeled, vital adjustment, there is created a new center of being and energy. Such a contract is a bit of the real thing — Reahty itself — and whatever else exists is only more of the same sort. All that appears as " star " or " sun," all that operates as the " tendency of nature," or lords it as " law," is at bottom some adjust- ment of personalities. Here is a process which cuts under any other. Was there a law of nature to the contrary a moment ago.f^ It is now abrogated by the original and underived sovereignty of the two who agree. Vast and venturesome language, this? At least it is time we were learning it. Too long have we been kept by conceptual scarecrows from the dearest of human possessions — the possibility of universal brotherhood. " Race," a mere word ; a classificatory device intended as a labor-saving in- strument of human thought ; a generic term, used of masses but true of no single individual, has fooled us into unmanly slavery. Philosophically speaking, race does not exist but only individuals. "For there is neither East nor West — Border nor breed nor birth; When two strong men meet face to face, Though they come from the ends of the earth." This is not poetical " bluff " ; it is the direct and logical outcome of a philosophy which believes that personalities CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH are the ultimate stuff of the universe, and that in their mutual interactions the world is a-making. There is another side to this doctrine. Whoever forces an adjustment with another personality which denies the full nature and right of both; whoever overbears the essential dignity of his brother's aspiration, and has con- tempt for its unique sanctity, he also creates a fragment of Reality, but creates it wrong. There is no blacker sin than contempt. " Whosoever shall say to his brother, Thou fool, shall be in danger of the hell of fire." That race antipathy is deeply entrenched in the universe we have no mind to deny ; we only deny that it is entrenched behind unyielding laws of nature. Its actual citadel is the unbrotherly spirit, the stubborn and baffling fact of which we dramatize as the Problem of Evil. This introduces the second consideration, which I ven- ture to think goes deeper than any of the philosophical 2 Th F' 1 foundations of the South's race policy, Solution not namely, that the existence of evil in the an Explanation universe presents a moral dilemma of which the final solution is not an explanation but a choice. Some of us believe that the order of nature is for us and for human hope; but if not we would go on doing just as we are doing. We do not for a moment admit that the trend of natu- ral processes has to be identified with the purpose of God. We do not find complete moral unity in the universe as it stands. It seems to us there is some real evil in it. Admitting that, we do not feel under obligation to wor- ship anything which looks like evil. In a universe in which one slaps a mosquito, he reserves the right to take issue with the law of gravitation, if need be. A big mosquito is not God; a big evil is not holy. The bigger, [392] THE PURPOSE OF GOD the worse ! If cruelty has entrenched itself in the processes of nature, so much the worse for them. We will follow the impulse of brotherhood against evolution as quickly as with it. Who says we must knuckle down to the phys- ical universe.'' We simply do not know yet how far it will prove plastic to moral effort ; therefore we will make the hypothesis of faith, " He has put all things under his feet." That this is faith, not demonstration, we cheer- fully confess. "We see not yet all things subjected to him, but we see Jesus," and choose to take his part who- ever or whatever is against him. Is there other ground of hope for anybody .'' Is Anglo- Saxon salvation based on the shape of the skull.'' Was Salvation for science crucified for you or were you bap- All if for Any tized into the name of anthropology? As a mortal man, is the white less transient and futile than the black? Has he any special revelation, a peculiar demonstrable clue to the mystery of life? When the author of " The Color-Line " dismisses negro optimism with the assertion " that the hopefulness of the majority is quite artificial, based on some rehgious faith or moral trust, and that the really weighty answers are given by the hopeless minority," ^ does he really mean to say that his own exceeding confidence in the earthly future of the white races is not also artificial in the sense that it is based on " some rehgious faith or moral trust " ? If not, on what, pray, is it based? I at least know nothing beyond the apostle's plea: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. » Smith, "The Color-Lin e." p. 177. [393] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH If this avails for any, it may for all; it cannot be bounded by the color of the skin. If, then, the most unfriendly anthropology should tri- umph over the lower races ; if they were scientifically Facing the branded unfit; if it were certain that their Alternative participation in our civilization meant a low- ered physical stamina, a decreasing mental capacity, an increasing moral tragedy for all, we would still carry out the program of the gospel at any cost. We may be beside ourselves, but " the love of Christ constraineth us ; because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died; and he died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again. Wherefore we henceforth know no man after the flesh." I have held in my hand the diary of Snelling. With a dozen Micronesians, including women and children, he was lost while making an evangelistic tour of scattered islands, and drifted in an open boat for fifty-one days. With vivid simplicity the daily entries tell how they starved to death and kept the faith. As the end approaches, the few survivors are practically crazy, and he in a delirium of worship, praising God and gasping Ufe away. I do not count that an inglorious end. I would be willing to have humanity finish earth like that! Humanity is out on the uncharted bosom of the uni- verse in as frail a boat, a huddle of black, white, red, and yellow. They do not know that any of them will get to land. Science least of all guarantees it. We live by faith. The white man might throw the colored man overboard — though since the Japanese-Russian war it 's a ques- tion who 'd go over first ; but craft might prevail against [394] THE PURPOSE OF GOD numbers ; the wliite man might take all the food for him- self ; it might sustain life until land appears ; he might reach his desired haven. Suppose he could. In a recent magazine story, Bully McLean, the " bucko- mate," finds a similar problem confronting him: The captain raised his voice and called to the mate to come aft. " All right. Captain, I 'm coming," bawled the mate. *' Shake her up, now, you lubbers ; and don't you stop work, or I '11 be the death of you. Walk her round, bullies ! I '11 be back in a brace of shakes." As he waited, the captain wondered how the mate would take the proposal to abandon the ship and leave the blacks to drown. Bully McLean hated all negroes, he knew — hated them whole-heartedly and impartially, because a gang of them had once tried to murder him in Baltimore. Indeed, he had shipped in the Brynhilda only to get a chance, as he expressed it, " to bullyrag a crowd of bloody blacks and raise Cain and kill Injuns generally." But then, these bucko-mates were not without a code of honor of their own, and one could not always forecast their conduct under given circumstances. " What do you want, Captain } I can't leave those black rascals long." The captain, suddenly confronted by the towering form of the first officer, asked nervously how much water there was in the hold. " About six feet, but not gaining as fast as it was." " She '11 go down pretty soon now," said the old man ; " and I guess — I think we 'd better abandon her at once." " Well, I '11 get the other boats over, then ; but I think we could keep her afloat till daylight." [895] CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SOUTH " The other boats are smashed up," the captain said hurriedly, hoarsely. " No use to launch them." " Well, that 's bad," commented the mate quietly. " The quarter-boat won't carry all hands." " No. It '11 hold the white crowd, but not the niggers. We '11 have to leave them." " What.'^ You mean the afterguard are to save themselves and leave the crew to drown .? " " There 's nothing else to do. Mate. All hands can't go in the boat, and white men take precedence over black." " Well, Captain," said the mate coolly, " you can do what you please, but I stand by the crew. What a captain's duty under the circumstances may be is not for me to say ; but a mate's first duty is to his ship, and his second to his crew, white or black. If I saved my life by leaving my crew to drown, I 'd never be able to — to hold up my head again among honest men." The captain emitted an energetic grunt, then mut- tered bitterly : " Oh, yes ; a captain should go down with his ship — that is all very fine, very heroic. But when a man has a wife and children dependent on him he 's got to think of the bread-and-butter aspect of things." " Maybe so — maybe so ; it 's all in the point of view, I dare say." ^ " It 's all in the point of view " ; the Judgment Day is no more. There is a point of view which thinks it sees that there is one moral law for the individual and another for the race; that the latter must save itself at all costs.^ Authority cannot settle that issue; it is a matter of moral taste, of an inner sense of the fitness of things. • McClure's Magazine, vol. xxx, p. 694. 2 See Smith, " The Color-Line," p. 190. [ 396 ] THE PURPOSE OF GOD We can merely testify to our point of view. Whatever the duty of captains it seems to an every-day mate not worth while to live at the expense of his crew — white or black. See the other alternative! In the splendor of morning the super-man stands in blonde glory on a fairer shore Man and than ever man trod. He builds his new life Super-man as far above ours as ours above the brutes. Intellect is ennobled, beauty perfected, gentleness en- throned. Women are more glorious than any dream, and all men walk in kingly freedom. They look into each other's faces, white and glowing, and are happy — until they go out to meet the silent and unwearied contempt of the stars, to hear all the sounding voices of the seas cry, " Where is thy brother.? " The finest breed of human animals may inhabit a moral hell. Better be lost on the pitiless waters, starving with a huddle of colored folks, delirious but not despicable, agonizing but not ashamed. For not idly is it written, " It is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell." And what shall it profit the Anglo-Saxon if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul.'* [397] INDEX INDEX* Abbott, Lyman, quoted, 270 Academic and Industrial School, Kowaliga, Ala., 136 Adams, Samuel Hopkins, quoted, 178 Africa and African traits, 117, 141, 197, 234, 248 Agriculture in South, 52, 107, 133, 146, 190, 233, 247 ff. Alabama, 47, 66, 69, 73, 122, 136, 137, 140, 147, 150, 219, 263, 304, Alaska, 23 Alderman, President E. A., 50, 55, 56, 111, 113, 121, 174, 185 Aliens, congestion of, in cities, 26 Allen Normal School, Thomas- ville, Ga., 87, 95, 215, 239 Alston, Leonard, quoted, 117 Amalgamation of races, 31, 32. Vide Miscegenation American Indians, 20, 23, 29, 45, 62, 300, 314, 320 American Missionary Associa- tion, vii, 34, 36, 40, 62, 73, 87, 90, 132, 135, 158, 161, 209 ff., 268, 289, 291, 351, 352 ff. American Negro Academy, Publica- tions of, 267 Anglo-Saxon, 112 Appalachian Mountains, 80, 304 ff., 308 ff., 312 Arkansas, 46, 53, 236 Armstrong, Samuel Chapman, 265, 268 ff. Asheville, 80, 304 Athletics for negro, 255 Atlanta Theological Seminary, Atlanta, Ga., 363 Atlanta University, 210, 214, 241, 243, 247, 252 Atlanta University Publications, quoted, 150, 151, 153, 155, 156, 158, 275 Avery Normal iNSTrruTE, Charles- ton, S. C, 228, 256 Baker, Ray Stannard, quoted, 42, 85, 105, 221, 369 Ballard Normal School, Macon. Ga., 224, 228 Banks and savings institutions, 142, 147 Baptists, 148, 150, 151, 152; 154, 155, 159, 209, 259 Barrows, Chancellor, 390 Beach Institute, Savannah, Ga., 175, 225, 227, 228 Beachton School, Beachton, Ga., 214 Berea College, 210, 212, 316, 320, 362, 365 "Black Belt," 72, 81, 86, 136, 210, 218, 219 Black Mountain Academy, Evarts, Ky., 313, 328 Border States, 100 Bowman, Rev. Charles E., quoted, 60 Bratten, Bishop, quoted, 115 Brev^^er Normal School, Green- wood, S. C, 236 ' For the convenience of those wishing to make a detailed study of the American Missionary Association, titles relating directly to its work are capitalized. [401] INDEX Brick School, Enfield, N. C, 38, 132, 251, 257, 262, 291 Brigham, Albert P., quoted, 19, 54, 307 "Brown Fellowship," 75 Brown, William G., 78 Brunner, Dr. W. F., quoted, 175 Bryce, James, 71, quoted, 112, 113 Building and Loan Associations, 143, 162 Calhoun, John C, 267 Calhoun School, 137 Canada, negro refugees in, 62 Carmack, Senator, x Carnegie Building, 38, 242, 362 Carver, Professor George N., 42 Census Bulletin, quoted, 171, 305 Charleston. S. C, 74, 104, 177 Charleston News and Courier, quoted, 54 Chattanooga Tradesman, 190 Child labor, 186, 337, 356 Christianity and race problems, 367 ff. Church as Americanizing agency, 58 Cities, problems of negroes in, 163, 254 "Color line," 101, 105, 116 ff. Columbia State, quoted, 103, 189 Commissioner of Education, reports referred to, 47, 49, 51, 52, 100, 210 Commons, Professor John R., quoted, 21, 24, 31, 32, 81, 122, 188, 191 Competition between races, 106, 120, 183, 185 Conference of Education in the South, 64, 157 Congregationalists, 90, 152, 156, 159, 160, 161, 163, 164, 227, 232, 359, 363, 379 Consultative Committee on Higher Elementary Education, 280, 282 Cooperation, economic, 121, 143; in education, 63 Cotton, 71, 73, 79, 136, 146, 336 Cotton Valley School, Fort Davis, Ala., 220 Criminals, negro, 37, 75, 82, 135, 164, 198, 202 Crummell, Alexander, quoted, 267 Davis, Jefferson, 66, 102 Death-rate, 75, 82, 168, 206, 226 Democracy, 28, 30, 32, 34, 64, 125, 295 ff., 382 ff. Denominational boards, 61 Department of Agriculture, 71; Year Book of, quoted, 52, 53 Destiny of negro. 206, 338 ff. Deveaux, Colonel, 226 Dewey, Professor John, quoted, 266 Distribution of population, 72, 132 District of Columbia, 140 Dixon, Thomas, 103 Domestic science, education in, 249, 352 ff. Dorchester Academy, Mcintosh, Ga., 232, 235 Dowd, Jerome, quoted, 184 DuBois, Professor W. E. B., 115, 135, 164, 165, 252, 372 Dunbar, Paul L., the poet, 164 Education, in Northern States, 47, 51 ; in Southern States, 47, 51, 55, 57, 58; principles of, in a democracy, 34, 57, 64, 278 ff., 295 ff . ; of negro (see Negro edu- cation) ; as served by negro edu- cational experiments, 265, 281 "Educational Revival," 57 Emerson Institute, Mobile, Ala., 140 Entertainment for the negro, 255 Episcopal Church, 59, 95, 104, 152, 154, 156, 209, 227 [402] INDEX Ewing, l^v. Quincy, quoted, ix Extension work, 257 Faduma, Rev. O., 158 "Farmers' Day," 262 Farmville, Va., 150 Fessenden Academy, Fessenden, Fla., 37, 236 Fifteenth Amendment, 123 FisK University, Nashville, Tenn., 100, 132, 163, 215, 241, 242, 243, 246, 247, 252, 291 Fleming, Walter, quoted, 73, 124 Florida, 37 Forests, 54, 72 Fox, John, 316, 325, 326, 328, 347 Freedman's Bureau, 63, 268 Friends, Society of, 209 FrisseU, Principal, 289 Frontier, social effects of, 25 Galloway, Bishop, quoted, 115 General Education Board, 65, 351 Geographic divisions in South, 66, 69, 70, 304 ff. Georgia, 60, 73, 86 ff., 100, 122, 123, 124, 134, 146, 152, 163, 172, 174, 175, 185, 209, 224, 226, 232, 235, 292, 304, 310 Georgia Medical Association, 89 German elements, 68 Giddings, Professor Franklin, quoted, 182 Girls' Industrial School, Moor- head, Miss., 264 Gloucester Co., Va., 135 Gloucester High and Industrial School, Cappahosic, Va., 135, 143, 236 Gr,\nd View Normal Institute, Grand View, Tenn., 348, 353 Group-economy, 84, 93, 96, 142, 146, 165 Hall, President G. Stanley, quoted, 297 Hampton Institute, 13J, 210, 232, 251, 265, 268, 270, 274, 288, 289, 290, 291, 294 Hargis, Judge, 66, 326 Harlan Co., Ky., 311 Hart, Professor A. B., 28, 74 Hawaii, 22 Health of negro, 118, 168, 171 ff., 256 ff. Highland College, Williamsburg, Ky., 365 Hill, O. J., 190 Hillsboro School, Hillsboro, N. C, 218 Hoffman, Frederick H., quoted, 185, 189 Holloway, Rev. William H., xii, 86, 96 Howard University, Washington, D. C, 161, 210, 240, 241, 249 Hutchinson, Dr. Woods, quoted, 254 Hyde, President W. D., 273 Idaho, 132 Illiteracy of negro, 46, 55 ; of South- ern whites, 46, 305, 310 Imitation, psychology of, 129 Immigration to United States, 20, 26, 121, 145 Immigration Congress, 107, 190 Inborden, Principal T. S., 257 ff. Indian Territory, 46 Industrial Education, history of, 268 ff . ; theoretical considerations, 269 ff . ; European experience with, 279, 281 ff. Inefficiency, psychology of, 292 Insurance, negro and, 94, 142, 147 Iowa, 48, 50, 132 Itahans, 105, 190, 191, 192 403 INDEX Jamaica, 62 Jeanes Board, 120 Jefferson, Thomas, 23, 63 Jews, 26, 29, 105 Jonesboro (Temi.) School, 132 Kelsey, Professor Carl, xii, quoted, 36, 72, 81 Kentucky, 47, 55, 69, 100, 304, 310, 320, 339, 341 Kowaliga enterprise, vide Academic and Industrial School, Kowaliga, Ala. Labor problem and race conflict, 77, 92, 106, 121, 145 Land, how negroes acquire, 136, 258 ff. Lee, R. E., 66 Le Moyne Institxjte, Memphis, Tenn., 228, 255, 256, 257 Library, Pubhc, 257 Lincoln, Abraham, 66, 117, 331, 362 Lincoln Academy, King's Moun- tain, N. C, 236 Lincoln Normal School, Marion, Ala., 236, 263 Louisiana, 46, 53, 108, 161, 236 Lumber industry, 347 Ltnn School, Lynn, N. C, 356 Maryland, 304 Massachusetts, 47, 49, 278 Massachusetts Commission on In- dustrial Education, quoted, 279, 281, 284, 285, 286 Mathers, Sir William, quoted, 284 Mayo, Dr. A. D., quoted, 209 Mayor's Report, Savannah, Ga., quoted, 179, 209 Memphis, Tenn., 255, 257 Methodist Episcopal Church, negro, 148, 150, 154, 155, 159, 209; Southern, 59, 60 ; Northern, 156 Miles, Mrs., quoted, 322, 328, 343 Miller, Professor Kelly, quoted, 159, 275, 294 Millsaps, Major R. W., 41 Miscegenation, 104, 238 Missions and missionaries, compe- tency of testimony, 35, 43; to various regions of United States, 45; in South, 59, 61; in negro education, 209 ff, ; to Appalachian Highlanders, 350 ff . ; various ac- tivities of, 36, 63, 209 ff. Mississippi, 41, 54, 55, 71, 72, 100, 105, 132, 191, 209, 236, 264, 275, 278 Missouri, 20, 46 Mobihty of negro, 81, 120, 132, 194 Montana, 132 Movements of population, 79, 81 Mulatto, 74, 85, 244, 381 Murphy, Rev. Edgar Gardner, quoted, 40, 126, 207 National Educational Association Report, quoted, 48 National Playground Association, 254 "Negro a Beast," pamphlet, 114 Negro, alleged shortcomings of, 166 ff.; physical, 171 ff.; eco- nomic, 183 ff.; moral, 114, 198 ff.; explanation as racial traits, 205 ff. Negro, American; numbers, 23, 46, 55, 62, 132, 166; occupations of, 38, 82, 91, 133, 183, 226; farmer, 42, 134, 185, 193; tenant, 89, 220, 258 ff. ; domestic servant, 40, 238, 239; artisan, 38, 40, 82, 97; professions, 83, 90, 93, 97, 226, 247 ff., 274; ministers, 90, 248, 362; business, 37, 38, 40, 42, 74, 89, 91, 98, 107, 190, 191, 202, 226; federal service, 90, 140; material progress of, 74, 404] INDEX 87, 88, 204, 219, 226; ownership of property, 88, 134 flF., 162, 219, 232, 233; landlords, 234; wealth, 76, 139, 219; institutions, 60, 95, 140 ff., 209 ff.. 234, 257; home and family, 85, 88, 141, 186, 201; marriage, 85, 88, 141 ; economic institutions, 94, 142 S. ; publica- tions, 151, 267; churches and religion, 148, 152 ff. ; schools sus- tained by, 60, 100, 209 ff.; phi- lanthropies, 95, 119, 164; social classes, 75, 84, 120; race leaders, 85, 119, 164, 265 ff., 360; public opinion toward, viii, 101, 102, 104, 110, 113, 200 ff.; handicaps, 116, 118, 169-170, 186, 187, 200 ff.; esthetic expression, 38, 83, 164, 245 Negro education, 47, 56, 209 ff.; ungraded, 213; elementary, 57, 216 ff., 281, 288; secondary, 100, 223 ff., 237 ff., 282, 288 ; collegiate, 90, 240 ff. ; professional, 90, 248 ff. ; industrial and agricultural, 215, 223, 230, 250 ff., 271 ff.; contro- versy over, 57, 211, 271 ff.; diffu- sion and concentration of schools, 210 ff., 240, 361, 362; discipline, 244; equipment, 242; constitu- ency, 243 "Negro, new," 85 Negro women, numerical excess of, 200; moral peril of, 117, 200, 222, 237; as breadwinners, 83, 89, 179, 186; education of, 237 ff., 249 ft'. ; organized activities of, 95, 142, 164; as home-makers, vide Negro, American, home and family New Mexico, 46 Normal and Industrial Col- legiate Institute, Joppa, Ala., 354 North Carolina, 46, 68, 69, 73, 100, 132, 137, 158, 160, 218, 275, 304, 310, 338 Northern people, attitude of, toward negro, 117, 166; toward the South, \'ii Northern States, wealth, 50; edu- cation (see Education in) ; com- parative progress, 47-51 Norwood, Judge, 197 Nurses, training, 250 Ogden parties, vii Ohio, 66 Oklahoma, 101, 132 Orientals in America, 24, 29, 45, 105, 367 Oyster industry, 135 Page, Thomas Nelson, 125 Parks and playgrounds, 254 Patten, Professor Simon R., quoted, 142, 145, 196, 380, 386 Payne, Bishop Daniel, 149 Peabody Academy, Troy, N. C, 158 Peabody Fund, 351 Peabody, George F., 64, 243 Pearsons, Dr., 362 Pennsylvania, 67 Peonage in South, 188 Physiography, 68, 69, 71, 73 Piedmont College, Demorest, Ga., 358, 362 Piedmont region, 56, 67, 72, 81, 218, 312 Pilgrim Fathers, 17 Plato, quoted, 120 Pleasant Hill Academy, Pleasant Hill, Tenn., 352 PoUtics, negro and, 122, 124 "Poor white," 75, 77, 102 Porto Rico, 22 Pou, Hon. James E., quoted, 137 405] INDEX Presbyterian Chiu"ch, Southern, 59, 154, 159, 209 Price, Principal, 143 Proctor, Rev. H. H., 163 "Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains, The," 76 Psychology and race, 128, 196 Public schools for negroes, 224, 227 Quakers, 68 Race and race problems, ix, 28, 99, 116, 206, 367 tf. Race consciousness, 93, 101 Races in America, 68 Reading-rooms, 257 Refugees, negro, 62, 216 Reversion of race, 234 Rockingham (N. C.) Church, 160 Roosevelt, O., President, 110, 254, 370 Rose, Professor Wycliffe, quoted, 49 Ross, Professor E. A., quoted, 76, 118, 128, 170, 171, 181, 185, 387 Rural conditions and problems, 49, 230 ff. Russell, Assistant Attorney-General, quoted, 188 Saluda Seminaby, Saluda, N. C, 357 Savannah, Ga., 174, 197, 198, 202, 225, 226 Scotch-Irish, 67. 68 Secret societies, 142 Segregation, 84, 87, 96, 119 Selection, biological, 373 ff . ; social, 78, 84, 377 ff. Sex and race, 109 Shaler, Professor N. S., quoted, 184 Slavery, 23, 33, 34, 69, 74 Smith, Governor Hoke, 122, 287, Smith, Professor W. B., quoted, 128, 173, 393, 396 Social classes, 278 "Social equality," 110 Sociology and race doctrines, 75, 114, 128, 141, 205 ff. Soil survey, 71, 74 South Atlantic Quarterly, viii, xi South CaroHna, 55, 103, 189, 304, 310 Southern churches, characteristics, 58 ; work for negroes, 59 Southern Educational Association, quoted, 295, 297, 310 Southern Immigration Congress, 107 Southern Mountaineers, 56-70, 304 ff.; history of, 19, 69, 130, 318; social types and diversities, 80, 306 ff., 317-334; in politics, 69, 320; in industry, 335 ff.; effect of recent movements upon, 79, 332 ; missionary work for, 62, 63, 343, 350 ff . ; esthetic expression, 325 Southern States, geographical variety, 66, 70 ; natural resources, 50 ; com- position of population, 75 ; poUti- cal and social traits and tendencies, 77, 100; educational problems of, 46, 224; race problem in, 99 ff., 119 ff. ; racial creed of, 114 ff., 226, 238, 263, 270, 287 Southern Workman, quoted, 135 Speer, Judge Emory, 185 Standard of hving, 194 State as Americanizing agency, 57, 251, 296 "State of Frankhn," 76 Statistics, of negroes in United States, 132 ff. ; of Southern edu- cation; of comparative sectional progress; limitations of, 76 Stewart, Professor J. S., quoted, 293 406] INDEX Stone, Alfred Holt, quoted, 33, 41, 171, 172, 185, 191, 194 Straight University, New Or- leans, La., 293, 256 Student life, of negro, 238, 240 fF. Slpreme Court of South Carolina on labor contracts, 189 Talladega Colf.ege, Talladega, Ala., 213, 241, 242, 243, 246, 247, 248, 250, 252 Tanner, H. O., the painter, 164 Taylor, Coleridge, the composer, 164 Teachers, professional training of, 240 ff., 247 ff. Temperance, 38, 258 Tennessee, 48, 50, 69, 73, 100, 151, 216, 257, 304, 310, 339, 341, 347 Texas, 100, 101, 114, 211 Thomas, Professor W. I., quoted, 298, 299 Thomas Co. (Ga.), churches of, 152 Thomasville (Ga.), negroes of, 86 ff. Thompson, Holland, quoted, 68 Tillinghast, Joseph A., quoted, 36, 181 Tillman, Senator Benjamin, 102, 103 Tillotson College, Austin, Texas, 228 Tougaloo U>avERSiTT, Tougaloo, Miss., 139, 161, 241, 247, 251, 264 Trade unions, 144, 226, 289 Trinity School, Athens, Ala., 216 "True Reformers," 147 Turner, Frederick J., quoted, 67, 68, 70 Turpentine industrj-, 37 Tuskegee Institute, 42, 219, 232, 251, 268, 270, 272, 274, 287, 288, 289, 290, 291, 294 Vagrants, 37, 38 Vardaman, Governor, quoted, ix, 102 Vice, 180, 198 ff. Virginia, 71, 81, 114, 135, 141, 143, 146, 147, 153, 209, 211, 304, 310 Vocational education, 247 ft'., 270, 278, 280 Ward, Professor Lester, quoted, 384 Warner, Charles F., quoted, 284 Washington, Principal Booker T., quoted, 110, 120, 157, 164, 165, 167, 268 f!., 271, 286, 291, 372 West Virginia, 69, 304, 310 Whitt, Rev. M. W., 161 Wilberforce University, 151 Wiley, Principal, quoted, 39 Willcox, Professor Walter F., 171, 172, 173, 183 Williams, Senator John Sharp, 103 Wilson, President Samuel T., 307 Women in labor problem, 77; in education, 277; progress of, 277, 297, 301, 302 Woodworth, President F. G., 161 World's Work, quoted, 54, 55, 56, 147 [407] 12487 212 ^°-v. 9 "^ *■ ^o A 0°"°. ^^ ,0^ .-". ^o 'oK "^ "s.i* ^v °^ * = '"' a9 ^ *'^ vV^ %,^'