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PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO
PROGRESS

BOOKS BY \V. D. WEATHERFORD

" Negro Life in the South"  50 cts.

" Introducing Men to Christ "  50 cts.

" Fundamental Religious Principles in Browning's Poetry" fl.OO

" Race Relationships in the South." A reference library of teven
volumes compiled and edited by the Author, $5. 00, carriage extra.

Present Forces In
Negro Progress

W. D. WEATHERFORD, Ph.D.

Aaaortatinn Pr^aa
NEW YORK: 124 East 28th Street
LONDON : 47 Paternoster Row, E. C.
1912

Copyright, 191a,
By the international committee of
young mens christian associations

Dedicated to that growing company of interested Southern white men and
to that group of sympathetic men in the North, whose united interest
in the Negro Race is a prophecy of a better day.

ON BEING BROUGHT FROM AFRICA TO AMERICA
'Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land.
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God — that there's a Saviour too;
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye —
"Their color is a diabolic dye."
Remember, Christians, Negroes black as Cain
May be refined, and join the angelic train.
—Phillis Wheatley.

CONTENTS
Preface  g
CHAPTER I.
Traits of Negro Character  ii
CHAPTER II.
Race Leadership and the Growth of Race Pride  ^^
CHAPTER III.
Negro Population and Race Movements  59
CHAPTER IV.
The New Type of Negro Farmer  91
CHAPTER V.
Improvement in Rural Schools  117
CHAPTER VI.
What the White Churches Are Now Doing for the
Negro   ......  14s
CHAPTER VII.
What the Associations Are Doing  167
Bibliography  187
Index  189

PREFACE
In venturing on this second volume concerning the much
vexed question of race relationships, I can only ask the same
cordial response which the former effort elicited. When
"Negro Life in the South" was sent out to the college men
of the country, it was with the greatest misgivings. I am
persuaded that not the merit of the book but the overmas
tering importance of the subject has called forth a response
far beyond expectation. Already, more than ten thousand
college men in the South have used this little volume in the
study groups of the college Young Men's Christian Asso
ciations. Many of these groups have asked for a further
study of this subject, and it ia in response to this call that
the present volume is sent forth.
I am greatly indebted to the large number of students
and professors, in white and colored schools alike, who have
helped in gathering the material for this undertaking. Also,
I must express my appreciation to the farm demonstrators
in the South, superintendents of education and hosts of
others who have so fully and cordially responded to my
requests for facts.
As in the former volume, I have attempted to be fair to
all concerned. The supreme need of the hour is that men
shall face facts rather than spin theories. No sane or fair-
minded man can excuse his own ignorance of so important
a subject. My effort, therefore, has been to state conditions
as they are, even though such statements at times have
seemed harsh. I confidently believe that all well-wishers of
the race will be glad to face these facts in the same spirit
(9)

10 PRESENT. FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS.
of fairness. Perhaps it may be important to say, as in the
preface to the former volume, that the author is a Southern
man, educated in the South, and now living and working
in that section, where he has a chance to know the Negro
as he is. W. D. Weatherford.
Nashville, Tennessee,
May I, 1912.

CHAPTER I
TRAITS OF NEGRO CHARACTER

CHAPTER I
TRAITS OF NEGRO CHARACTER
Paul, the seclusive Jew, but also the Roman citizen and
world traveler, long schooled in the thought and spirit of
Jesus Christ, said boldly to the proud Athenians who
thronged him on the Areopagus, "God has made of one
[blood] every nation of men for to dwell on the face of the
earth." The dictate of deep religious conviction has settled
down into the firm postulate of modern anthropology. Dar
win's "Origin of Species" holds that all forms of life are
descended from a comparatively few simple types, and that
nature by a process of selection of the fittest has brought
out of the variations of individuals a series of species fitted
to live in the environment in which they find themselves.
Whatever the original type of man was — this we are not
here interested to discuss — modern anthropologists are
agreed that the human family is sprung from a common
origin, and hence all men are by nature akin. The differ
ences in races are due to a long selective process extending
over thousands of years, by which those characteristics of
individuals, which best fitted them to the environment in
which they lived, become more and more accentuated,
through the dying out of all those individuals who did not
possess such characteristics.
It is a commonplace fact that no two individuals are
ahke, and this was no less true in the dawn of the human
race than it is now. Each individual had certain differ
entiae that set him off from all others. Anthropologists (13)

14 PRESENT. FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
believe that as centurieSi passed by and as men moved out
into different environments, those men possessing certain
of the more prominent differentiae were able to survive;
hence these differentiae combined, owing, doubtless, among
other things, to climate and food supply, to set apart one
group as a definite type or race. Other specific attributes
surviving and becoming more prominent in a different en
vironment combined to set apart another group ; and, so it
happened for as many distinct races as were able to establish
themselves strongly. Among these original types, most
scholars believe that the white man of Europe, the yellow
man of Asia and the black man of Africa held the prevailing
places. Later the mixing of these groups possessing the
stronger characteristics would give rise to secondary racial
types.
Kaces Fitted for Their Environment.
If the origin of race characteristics is such as these
scientists believe it to be, then one can readily understand
why the Chinese are better able to survive under Asiatic
conditions than are other races; or the black man better
able to survive in Africa than the white man; for through
a long selective process, nature has picked out a race of men
in each case whose differentiae have best fitted them to
survive under specific conditions. Viewed from this stand
point, the yellow man is the fittest for Asia, the black man
is the fittest for Africa, and the white man for certain other
parts of the earth. Either of these may prove less fit for
the environment of another section. But unfitness does not
necessarily mean inferiority. A white man may be far less
fitted for Africa than the black man, but the former is not
necessarily inferior, and vice versa. Fitness does not con
sist in intellectual ability alone, but in all those qualities
which combine to meet the environment at the point of
highest efficiency.

TRAITS OF NEGRO CHARACTER 15
Enviromnent of the Negro.
The Negro race is that part of the human family which
found its development and formed its differentiating char
acteristics in the tropical sections of the globe. Therefore
we should expect that physically and mentally he would be
so constituted as best to survive under tropical conditions.
It is simply impossible to understand the Negro without
taking this fact into account. Unfortunately, the white man
has usually measured the Negro by his own standards, and
wherein there is lack of conformity, it has been put down
to the discredit of the Negro. This may or may not be a
fair judgment in any particular instance. The one im
portant thing is that we, as white men, shall come to under
stand sympathetically what the Negro really is, and why
he is and what he is. When one goes down into the slums
and sees the conditions into which children are born, he at
once has a new understanding and a new sympathy for the
different standards of those children. We are perfectly
aware that this early environment is very apt to color the
whole life of the man. Likewise when one looks into the
tropical conditions where a great race was conceived by
nature and born and nurtured for thousands of years, one
will see how that environment has been inwrought into the
very fiber of the being of that race. This will make clear
the basis of those characteristics of the American Negro
wherein he differs from the white man.
Frankness Needed.
In a discussion of this kind everything is to be gained
by a frank statement and nothing is to be lost. It is far more
important to face the facts than to make a case either for or
against the Negro race. The worst must be boldly stated,
the best must be gladly seen. The first will be humiliating
to the best Negroes and their friends, the latter will be dis
comforting to the demagogue who berates the whole race.

l6 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
But I am persuaded that the best white men and the best
Negroes are more than eager to see conditions just as
they are. I, therefore, make bold to set forth simply, but I
hope clearly, the mental and moral traits of the Negro
which have a practical bearing on the relationship of the
two races in the South. It is to be noted, of course, that the
white man possesses many or all of these characteristics in
greater or less degree, for both whites and blacks started
with the same general nature ; but the environment of Africa
has accentuated certain characteristics for the negro, and
the environment of Europe has accentuated others for the
whites. Therefore, we are not attempting to point out
those characteristics which set him off completely from all
other races, but we are trying to make a brief inventory
of his weaknesses and his strength. First, let us face frank
ly some of his outstanding weaknesses. To the negro race
these should be a challenge to improvement, for, as John
Fiske, speaking from a scientific standpoint, has so well
said : "The most essential feature of man is his improvable-
ness," and with this quality no race or individual can be
hopeless. On the other hand, to the white man these darker
facts should be a challenge to sympathetic helpfulness.
Lack of Self-ControL
Perhaps the characteristic in which the Negro differs
most radically from the white man is in lack of self-control.
By this we do not mean to say that the white race, or any
individual in it, has perfect self-control. No man who has
half tried to live a decent life has failed to observe his
weakness in this regard. Nor does it mean that there are
no Negroes who have a high degree of poise and self-mas
tery. We mean simply that the Negro, as a race, has not
so far developed what the psychologists call the power of
inhibition. He cannot forego the pleasure of present
gratification in order that he may reap an increased, but

TRAITS OF NEGRO CHARACTER 17
a far-off, reward. To him the future has little meaning.
While he has an extravagant imagination, it has too little
power of synthesis to be able to relate properly the facts
of self-denial and future reward so that the latter becomes
a living reality. In other words, he is much like the child
who has not yet learned to center attention on any one thing
long enough to create an abiding inte^rest sufficiently strong
to overcome the pressing interest of the immediate hour.
Viewed from this standpoint, education is simply the train
ing of the child in the art of such continued attention as
will enable it to give a proper valuation to far, as well as to
near events. Likewise, the progress of civilization is just
the growth of the cruder types of men into the ability to
restrain their present desires or appetites for the sake of
a larger future good, either for themselves or for the
community.
Explanation of This Lack of Self-ControL
Some reasons for this lack of self-control are not far
to seek, when one looks into tropical environment. One of
its commonest manifestations is what we, in common par
lance, call laziness. The future reward is not vivid enough
to induce a man to lay aside his present ease that he may
attain a larger good in the future. This habit of self-indul
gence would be greatly accentuated in a tropical climate,
where the abundant hand of nature supplies most of the
actual necessities of food and clothing. Furthermore, in
such a climate hard labor frequently is punished by death.
Those who are over-industrious are eliminated, and there
is bred by natural selection a race of listless people. Work
in order that one may live, is a great teacher of self-control.
If a great preacher could speak with perfect propriety and
good effect on the commonplace subject, "Blessed Be Drudg
ery" in our time, and in the midst of the most energetic
and cultured type of American people, it is no wonder that

i8 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
a people where drudgery is unnecessary, and next to im
possible should fail to develop those powers of inhibition
which routine work is so well calculated to foster. Not to
have to work is a handicap to any individual. But for a
race to be freed from this necessity, through multiplied
centuries, is to place upon the powers of decision and self-
control a test which unfits them for a more strenuous en
vironment until their nature has had time to adjust itself to
the new conditions. This process must, of necessity, be slow.
Indulgence. Furthermore, the abundance of food at one season and
its paucity at another — which must inevitably be the case
where there is little harvesting, but complete dependence
on nature — will of itself foster a disposition to gorge dur
ing the time of plenty in order not to suffer in the leaner
days. But here again is a form of indulgence which breaks
down the power of self-control. This fact is believed by
some to explain, in part at least, the exaggerated appetite
of a great many Negroes, not only for food, but for liquors
and tobacco.
Sexual Indulgence.
Then again, it is not inconceivable — and many students
of social questions believe it to be a fact — that the high death
rate of the tropics has put a premium on, if it has not made
a necessity of a high birth rate, thus leading the native again
into a form of indulgence which seems nothing less than
terrible. This statement ought to lead us to admire the
splendid victory of that growing company of colored people
who have overcome in this fight; it ought also to make us
redouble our sympathetic help for those still in the struggle.
Professor Dowd's Summary.
Speaking of this lack of inhibition among the Negroes

TRAITS OF NEGRO CHARACTER 19
of tHe Banana Zone, from which many of the slaves came
to America, Professor Dowd says : *
"Their wills are inundated and paralyzed by the surging
of every passion and impulse towards immediate gratifica
tion. The riotous clamor of their passions explains their
ungovernable temper, propensity to murder, steal, lie, de
ceive, or to overindulge their sexual appetite, their love for
liquor, tobacco or anything that may momentarily strike
their fancy. It is this same lack of restraint among civilized
people that fills their world with tragedy, strews the path
of history with blood, makes necessary wars, armies, navies,
police, jails, reformatories and hospitals and orphanages.
As a consequence of the thraldom of the Negroes to their
passions, they have become afflicted with a kind of abulia,
J. e., a certain antipathy to whatever exacts resolution, con
straint or mental effort."
Change, A Slow Process.
These characteristics have worked themselves into the
fiber of the Negro race through long centuries of time, and
their elimination will not be the work of a day. The situa
tion is by no means hopeless, however, for study of the
American and African negro types leads one to the delib
erate conclusion that the American Negro is far more re
moved from the degradation of the mass of population in
tropical Africa than the average American white man is
removed from the ignorant American Negro. All of this
progress has been made in two or three centuries. Much of
it in one century, which is as a watch in the night com
pared with the centuries during which these propensities
were built up.
Restraint Needed.
What the Negro needs is encouragement to self-control.
"The Negro Races," p. 383.

20 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
Just as the child in the home is unable to control himself
and needs the fostering care of the parent, so the mass of
Negroes needs the encouragement of a stronger race. As a
simple illustration : if I were not in favor of prohibition for
any other reason, I would be its strong advocate in the
South, in order that this temptation might be removed from
the path of a race of little self-mastery. It is a well-known
fact that intoxicants of any kind deaden the powers of self-
control, and when taken by those whose inhibitory powers
are already weak, they can have no other effect than the
most disastrous. I wish to mention this matter in a later
chapter, but here I cannot refrain from saying that no white
man who knows the far-African heredity of the Negro can
honestly damn him for his self-indulgence, and still leave
before him the temptation to get that which robs him of
what little self-control he has been able to acquire during
these brief centuries. Hon. Seaborn Wright, of Atlanta,
expresses the conviction of Southern men who have hon
estly studied this question, and who really care, when he
says, "The development, the safety, aye! the very life of
the Negro race in the South hangs upon his absolute separa
tion from intoxicating liquors."*
Superstition. The next weakness of negro character which stands out
prominently is superstition. Every primitive race has much
of this characteristic, and indeed few if any of the most
advanced races are entirely free from its power. Thus we
are not discussing a characteristic which inheres in the
Negro alone ; we are simply trying to get a real view of the
negro nature as we now find it in the South. It is un
necessary here more than to refer to the dark superstition
of practically all of the African tribes. They live in con
stant fear of angry spirits, of the power of the fetich, of the
"'Social Welfare and the Liquor Problem," p. 233.

TRAITS OF NEGRO CHARACTER 21
witch doctor and what not. Much of this has become so
deeply ingrained in the nature of the Negro that the slaves
and their descendants have never been able to shake them
selves free from its terrible hold.
This superstitious fear makes almost every Negro an in
tense conservative, hard to move out of the old beaten way
of doing things. To change means the past was wrong,
and that cannot be, because providence has prospered it.
A brief look, however, at some of the fields and homes
would make one very loath to charge providence with any
such crimes. Perhaps there is no more unprogressive or
immovable mass of humanity to be found than a group of
superstitious Negroes. There is no greater bar to the
Negro's advancement than this fear, and the hope of the race
lies in his getting a new message of life that is not based on
superstitious fears of ghosts, spirits and future punishment.
Cruelty. In view of the Negro's kindliness and good nature, it
seems a strange charge to say that he is cruel to animals and
dependents. Yet candor forces one to admit that this is
frequently the case. Some of the horrible practices of pun
ishment in Africa would be unbelievable did not one have
the thought of the Inquisition, St. Bartholomew, the French
Revolution, ever staring him in the face. Not infrequently
have I seen an ignorant Negro beat his mule or horse, seem
ingly for the pure joy of seeing the animal wince.
In an investigation made by Mr. Stephenson, of NortH
Carolina, concerning jury service of Negroes, it came out
rather clearly that most negro defendants preferred not to
have other Negroes on the Jury, because they feared cruel
treatment and severity from such jurors. Whether this is so
or not, almost every lawyer and judge questioned gave this
as his conclusion. Dr. Odum, in his discussion of "The
Social and Mental Traits of the Negro," gives more em-

22 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
phasis to the cruelty of the Negro than we are disposed to
accept. But perhaps he is partly right when he says : * "And
Negroes often impose severe punishments when the feehng
of authority and power is given full sway. His judgments
are both careless and without compassion when they are
once directed against a subordinate."
Undoubtedly this cruelty is a survival of the old savage
ry, where the hand of every man was set against his neigh
bor, and so, perhaps we ought not to judge too harshly
those who are separated from this ancestry by so brief a
period of time. We have before remarked concerning the
lack of synthetic imagination on the part of the African
native. This may account to some extent for his cruelty
because he is not able to put himself in the other man's
place. John Fiske has put this clearly as follows:'
"If now we contrast the civilized man intellectually and
morally with the savage, we find that, along with his vast
increase of cerebral surface, he has an immensely greater
power of representing in imagination objects and relations
not present to the senses. This is the fundamental intellect
ual difference between civilized men and savages. The
power of imagination, or ideal representation, underlies the
whole of science and art, and it is closely connected with
the ability to work hard and submit to present discomfort
for the sake of a distant reward. It is also closely con
nected with the development of the sympathetic feelings.
The better we can imagine objects and relations not present
to sense, the more readily we can sympathize with other
people. Half the basis of cruelty in the world is the direct
result of stupid incapacity to put one's self in the other
man's place."
Let us hope that better trained imaginations and a more
genuine religion will help to eradicate this ugly element.
"The Social and Mental Traits of the Negro," p. 209.
"The Destiny of Man," p. 99.

TRAITS OF NEGRO CHARACTER 23
Vanity and Conceit.
It is an undoubted fact that the mass of Negroes in the
South are near enough to the child stage to be eager for
attention and easily filled with conceit. Referring to this
characteristic among African tribes of the Banana Zone,
Professor Dowd says:' "The Negro seeks to win the ap
plause of his fellows, usually by a gaudy exhibition of
dress, trinkets or boastful language. The least word of
praise or flattery gives him a lively sense of pleasure, and
this soft spot in his character is one of which the shrewd
white man soon learns to take advantage."
Indeed, one of the strongest objections brought against
educating the Negro is the fact that it makes of him a
"smart-Alec." One is forced to confess that gaudy ties,
pointed shoes of extreme style, "loud" hosiery, and hats
tilted to one side frequently mark the negro student who
has just started. It is a pity that such should be so. But
candor forces us to remember that the Negro has no monop
oly on "smart-Alecdom." It is just a little more prominent
and vulgar in its negro manifestation.
"When I see a lad with his pants rolled up
And his beautiful sox on view.
With his red neck-tie, and his little round hat,
With a band of marble blue,
With his sixteen rings and his fourteen pins
That he got at his dear prep-school.
Why it strikes a chord and I say, "Oh, Lord !
Was I ever that big a fool?"
And that was written of the white freshman.
Tendency to Wordiness.
Of the Negro's tendency to wordiness I know no better
example than the book, "The American Negro," written by
a Negro as an arraignment of the race. After charging the
Negro with vanity, pomposity and conceit, he passes on to a
"The Negro Races," p. 395.

24 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
criticism of the religious and social life of the Negro aS
follows : ' "The social side of the negro life has been to me
an open page of execrable weakness, of unblushing shame,
of inconceivable mendacity, of indurated folly and epheme
ral contrition." By this sentence alone he would prove how
near he is to his African ancestor who loves nothing so well
as a high-sounding palaver.
The Negro is naturally vain, conceited, verbose, pom
pous — every one of which traits appears in the characters
created by Dunbar, himself a Negro who presumably knew
them well. But real training is a splendid cure, and I am
glad to say that I do not know a single well-trained Negro
who allows himself to fall into these childish habits.
Lacking in Power of Initiative.
Perhaps the most fundamental weakness is the seeming
lack of initiative. The Negro is a good follower. He imi
tates easily and accurately, but he does not seem, so far at
least, to have developed much power of originality save in
a few instances. The weakness of the Liberian "govern
ment ; the fact that there have never been any great i. res
built up in Africa ; the failure of the churches in America to
unite on any strong, aggressive policy ; the absence of com
munity life and spirit — all are indications of lack of origina
tive and initiative ability. Of course, there are a few real
leaders, like Dr. Booker T. Washington, Major R. R. Moton,
of Hampton, Dr. C. T. Walker, of Augusta, Ga., and T. C.
Walker, of Gloster County, Virginia, not to mention many
others who have proved themselves genuine leaders of men.
Perhaps as years go by and as more and more responsi
bility for the welfare of his race is thrown on the Negro,
increasing numbers of men will be found able to respond
to the call for leaders with power of initiative.
"The American Negro," p. xxi.

TRAITS OF NEGRO CHARACTER ag
Picture Not AU Dark.
This is an ugly, but not altogether dark picture. In
every phase of weakness here presented the American Negro
is — if we may believe the records of African travelers —
many stages advanced over his African ancestry. Progress
has been slow, to be sure, but the start is always slow. Now
that the start is well made, I confidently look to see more
advancement in the next twenty-five years than we have
seen in all the years since the landing of the first slaves in
i6i^. If the things I have said have seemed harsh, they
have been said with no desire to wound, but with the one
sincere purpose that white and colored alike may see the
weaknesses of the Negro and unite in an effort to save him
from himself. Emerson once said the purpose of a friend
is to make us do what we can, and no man is a real friend
to an individual or to a race who is not honest enough to
see, and courageous enough to set forth the plain weaknesses
found therein.
Stroni' -Points in Negro Character.
one is glad to have said the worst in order that he may
feel free to say the best without being accused of prejudice
or of a one-sided view. That there are many noble traits
of character in the Negro cannot for a moment be doubted
by those who have taken time to think systematically
through their experiences with him. Of course many of
these virtues are almost lacking in many of the vagrant
servant class who work only enough to keep soul and body
together, but this same thing is true of the shiftless class of
whites. In fact, if I must deal with a shiftless man, I
believe I would take my chances on a trifling Negro rather
than a trifling white man. Not a few of the managers and
owners of large plantations have expressed to me this same
preference.

26 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
Fidelity. Of all the stories of faithful devotion, few read more like
a romance than the simple facts of the love of the slave for
his master. For years I have had an attentive ear to such
stories, whether told by some white-haired old Negro who
still lives in the past or by some of the old slave owners,
who love to recount the gratitude and faithfulness of their
slaves. Just the other day a prominent negro leader told
me the simple story of his father, going to war as the body-
servant of his young master, watching him in his tent, bury
ing him when killed, and walking two hundred miles after
the battle to carry back to his young mistress the gold watch
and the money of her dead husband. Joel Chandler Harris
and Thomas Nelson Page have made this characteristic of
the Negro stand out clearly by the beauty of their plantation
stories. Paul Laurence Dunbar, himself a pure blood
Negro, has given the same characteristic beautiful expres
sion in his stories, "The Staunton Coachman," "Cahoots,"
etc., and in such poems as "The Deserted Plantation" and
"Christmas on the Plantation."
During all the dark days of the Civil War there were
very few instances where Negroes deliberately betrayed a
specific trust. "That was the old-time darky," many are
fond of saying, but it was the Negro, for old time or new
time, the essential nature of a race cannot be changed in a
generation. If the "old-time negro'' had in him the essen
tial quality of fidelity to a trust, then the new Negro has that
same fundamental quality, if we will only find some way to
develop it. Those who talk about the angelic qualities of
the "old-time darky" (I do not like the term), and damn
with every breath the new Negro, simply prove their shallow
thinking. They ought to know that a race characteristic can
not be developed in two or three generations unless its
essential elements are there at the beginning. If fidelity
was a mark of the former slave, fidelity is still a trait, though

TRAITS OF NEGRO CHARACTER 27
undeveloped, in the Negro of today. We alone are respon
sible if we do not find means of bringing it to the surface.
Besides, it may fairly be said that few Negroes today de
liberately disregard a definite charge. They may lie or steal
in petty ways, but even the poorest type of Negro rarely
betrays a specific trust.
Gratitude. It often has been said of late years that the Negro has
no sense of gratitude. This is not in accordance with my
experience. I du not mean to say that I have not done
things for Negroes where the latter failed to show appre
ciation, but I do mean to say that they are fully as appre
ciative and much more expressive of their appreciation than
the average white person, particularly where the thing done
is something the motive for which they are able to under
stand. I have spoken in a great number of their churches,
and in many of their schools, with always one result — a
genuine appreciatior from them of what I was trying to
do. Many of our strongest and best ministers who have
thus attempted to serve, testify to the same responses. In
fact, it is almost pathetic to see the deep appreciation for a
Southern white man who attempts to help them; I recently
spoke in one of the negro churches on St. Helena Island,
South Carolina, and an old woman came up to me and said :
"T'ank de Lord, Southern white man, for sich a one as
you. I nebber thought he would be bawn !" When I assured
her that there were hundreds of other Southern men deeply
interested in the welfare of the race, her gratitude was
unbounded. *Whut dat you whisperin' keepin' fom me?
Don't shut me out 'cause I'se ol' an' can't see.
Somep'n' 's gone wrong dat's a-causin' you dreads
Don't be afeared to tell — whut ! mastah dead ?

'Paul Laurence Dunbar: "Lyrics of the Hearthside," pp. 147-8..

28 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
Somebody brung de news early today —
One of de sojers he led, do you say?
Didn't he f oiler whah ol' mastah led?
How kin he live w'en his leadah is dead?
Let me lay down awhile, dah by his bed;
I wants to t'ink — hit ain't cleah in my head —
Killed while a-leadin' his men into fight —
Dat's whut you said, ain't it, did I hyeah right?
Mastah, my mastah, dead dah in de fiel'?
Lif me up some— dah, jes' so I kin kneel.
I was too weak to go wid him, dey said,
Well, now I'll — fin' him — so — mastah is dead.
Yes, suh, I's comin' ez fas' ez I kin —
'Twas kin' o' da'k, but hit's lightah agin:
P'omised yo' pappy I'd alius tek keer
Of you— yes, mastah — I's foUerin' — hyeah t
Generosity. The Negro is generous to a fault. Their contributions to
their churches are regular and disproportionately large. In
any ordinary morning collection they will secure ten times
as much in accordance with their wealth as the average
white church To their schools they give liberally out of
their poverty. I was recently in a town of 3,000 inhabitants
where there was being built by taxation a $65,000 public
school for the whites. The town owned no school building
for the Negroes, though one-third of the population belonged
to that race. Enterprising negro men had built a school out
of their own means. The white school ran nine months,
but there was only sufficient money appropriated to employ
negro teachers three months, and again the people sub
scribed annually enough to extend the term to seven months.
Again and again as I have been on investigation tours
I have found homes where they have reared and cared for
more orphans than they have had children of their own.
In the home of a Baptist minister recently I drew out the
information that he had two children of his own, but had
reared six orphan children who were not related to him by

TRAITS OF NEGRO CHARACTER 29
blood in any way. No Negro will let another suffer so long
as he has a crust to share. Whatever others, who are cyni
cal, may call it, I call this generosity.
Without Malice.
Some time ago I had a letter from a prominent planta
tion owner and manager in the state of Texas. He was
expressing the hope that I would put into written form a
statement about the real qualities of the Negro. He re
minded me that he had never in his long experience with
Negroes known one to harbor a revengeful spirit. They
may be passionately angry, but their anger soon cools. They
forgive and then forget — a thing hard for the white man
to do. This is characteristic of the African native just as it
is of the American Negro. Dowd says of them: "A few
hours or a few days are sufficient to obliterate any resentful
impulse they may have had." ' The long-suffering of the
Negro under abuse, and without resentment, marks him out
as the most patient race in the world. Abstractly we all
admire patience, but as a practical trait of character the
Anglo-Saxon is simply incapable of appreciating this fine
trait of the Negro.
Kindliness. In this connection one must not fail to mention the spirit
of kindliness which is well nigh a universal characteristic.
It is the rarest thing in the world to find a Negro without
the milk of human kindness in him. He may have even a
vein of cruelty, but side by side with it will be found the
most genuine kindliness of spirit. Dr. Booker T. Wash
ington says that patience, kindliness and lack of resentment
are the three distinguishing marks of a real Negro,
"The Negro Races," p. 396.

30 PRESENT, FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
Sense of Humor.
One of the saving virtues in difficult and trying situa
tions is a real sense of humor. Because the Indian had not
this trait of character he has practically passed away in the
hard conflict with the white man. Had the Negro been
lacking here he doubtless would never have prospered as
he has. "The quaint humor of the Negro helped to turn
many a sharp corner. It helped to excuse his mistakes and,
by turning a reproof into a jest, to soften the resentment
of his master for his faults.'"
The quick repartee of the Negro is proverbial. I remem
ber once, when I was a student at the university, to have
passed two negro waiters with a pair of riding leggins in
my hand. One of the Negroes remarked, "Misser Wea'er-
ford gwine gimme them when he leaves college." Quick
as a flash the other responded, "Huh, talk lack I done quit
wu'kin heah!" There is no better amusement than to sit
down near a railroad station where a dozen negroes are
congregated and, unobserved, listen to their sallies. It is
all so quaint, so naive, and withal so full of genuine humor
that it furnishes real recreation.
Keligious and Musical.
It is almost unnecessary to call attention to the fact that
the Negro is essentially religious. In my former book^ I
have given an entire chapter to this point. On a recent visit
to St. Helena Island, South Carolina, I found there were
not only seven churches with large memberships, but scat
tered over the island nearly one hundred praise houses, in
which services are held every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
and Sunday night. Religion is a real part of life with the
race and gives promise of a better day to come.

"The Story of the Negro," p. 158.
'"Negro Life in the South, Chapter V," Association Press New
York.

TRAITS OF NEGRO CHARACTER 31
Likewise, music is the Negro's very breath of Hfe. The
most distinctive music that America has produced is negro
music. By this he has quieted the negro child, by it he has
lightened the burdens of the long day's tasks, and through
it he has poured out the deep longings of his soul for free
dom. Those who have heard the students at Hampton, Fisk
or Tuskegee sing the old plantation melodies have some
vague idea of the wild charm of their music and the power
ful part it must have played in their lives. Perhaps the
Negro does not sing so much now as formerly, but one of
the elements of his nature, softening and mellowing all the
harsher traits, is that passionate love for music which char
acterizes every member of the race.
Summary. What a catalogue of splendid qualities is this: Fidelity
amid trying circumstances; gratitude where blessings have
been bestowed; forgiving in spirit even when grossly
wronged ; patient in the face of sore trial ; generous in spite
of bitter poverty; always seeing the humor of a situation,
thus saving many a tragic scene; deeply and intensely re
ligious, even though their religion is often perverted; with
souls responsive to the truest of musical rhythm; and, one
might truly add, cheerful in the midst of privations ; sympa
thetic to the point of suffering ; intensely curious and eager
to know. What if the race is not the most brilliantly intel
lectual? What if they are lacking in self-mastery? What
if there is often a lack of industry and thrift? — here is a
catalogue of race traits enough to make any race happy, vir
tuous, useful, and even great.
Not a characteristic has been given which is not com
monly found in the masses of the Negroes. Whatever of
failures there are, and they are many, whatever of short
comings and tragedies of life — here is enough to give heart
to every genuine friend of the race.

32 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
1 call upon the negro students who may see this page
to unite their efforts to eradicate the weaknesses and foster
the virtues of their race. I call upon the white college men
who study this to lend a helping hand to a weaker brother.
I call on all who believe in the essential value of humanity,
who believe in God as a Father of us all, that we shall give
ourselves in unselfish service for making the best prevail
in the life of this struggling people.

II
NEGRO LEADERSHIP AND THE GROWTH OE
RACE PRIDE

ODE TO ETHIOPIA
O Mother Race ! to thee I bring
This pledge of faith unwavering,
This tribute to thy glory.
I know the pangs which thou didst feel.
When Slavery crushed thee with its heel.
With thy dear blood all gory.
Be proud, my Race, in mind and soul.
Thy name is writ on Glory's scroll
In characters of fire.
High 'mid the clouds of Fame's bright sky
Thy banner's blazoned folds now fly,
And truth shall lift them higher.
Thou hast the right to noble pride.
Whose spotless robes were purified
By blood's severe baptism.
Upon thy brow the cross was laid.
And labor's painful sweat-beads made
A consecrating chrism.
No other race, or white or black,
When bound as thou wert, to the rack.
So seldom stooped to grieving;
No other race, when free again,
Forgot the past and proved them men
So noble in forgiving.
Go on and up ! Our souls and eyes
Shall follow thy continued rise;
Our ears shall list thy story
From bards who from thy root shall spring,
And proudly tune their lyres to sing
Of Ethiopia's glory. — P. L. Dunbar.

CHAPTER II
NEGRO LEADERSHIP AND THE GROWTH OF
RACE PRIDE
Individualism in the sense of isolated endeavor is be
coming less and less prevalent in America. The early plan
tation system, where each was an independent unit in itself
and able to supply all its simple needs, has completely lost
its place in the industrial economy of our country. This
was a type of individualism which finds its opposite at the
present time in cooperative creameries, cooperative disposal
of crops, cooperative stock breeding, etc. Likewise, indi
vidualism in manufacture and commerce is giving way to
cooperation. We now have the larger organizations mini
mizing expense, reaching out over larger territories, bring
ing together large groups of people in the manufacture,
distribution and consumption of the article. If a man
desires to do large things today he secures the cooperation
of the largest possible number of men in his project. We
no longer spend our energy in isolated endeavor, but the
best type of individualist is now the man who leads many
other individuals in concerted action.
Basis of Cooperation.
The basis of cooperation is like-mindedness, or kindred-
ness of ideas and ideals. Two men do not and cannot work
harmoniously together unless they are sufficiently like-mind
ed to be moving in the same direction and toward the same
goal. The thief and the honest man soon dissolve partner
ship. Not only so, but two honest men may find partner
ship incompatible. Deep down in their natures there may
be that fundamental difference of feeling and conception

36 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
which makes it impossible for the right kind of mutual con
fidence to spring up. Under such circumstances a business
partnership is exceedingly trying.
Likewise in the broader relationships of life there must
be that compatibility which arises from' mutual confidence.
Like-mindedness, kindredness of conception, and genuine
confidence are therefore the essentials of cooperation. No
group of men who do not believe in themselves and in one
another can be expected to cooperate in bringing about large
results. It ought to be said that some large outstanding
motive often will help to weld into like-mindedness those
who otherwise might be incompatible. I recall that during
the Spanish-American War a great many public orators re
ferred to the fact that the North and the South had been
drawn much closer together in the face of a common peril
and a common opportunity.
Race Pride and Racial Cooperation.
This at once leads one to consider what it is that will
give to a whole race that cooperative action which will
enable it to achieve worthily. The first essential is that
the members of the race shall be like-minded, shall come to
realize their consciousness of like desires and needs — in other
words, shall come into a realization of Kind. This means
the growth of race consciousness. It means that men shall
come to see that they belong to a common race, have a
common heritage and a common future. Nothing can take
the place of this. This race consciousness growing into
race pride becomes the most powerful factor in welding
together, into cooperative and constructive action, all those
who belong to the race. It at once raises efficiency and in
creases determination, and these in turn tend to create
a greater self-respect and self-confidence.

LEADERSHIP AND RACE PRIDE 37
Not Segregation.
Race pride, race consciousness, and race cooperation do
not mean race segregation. The fact that one is an Anglo-
Saxon does not cut him off from interest in and sympathy
with the whole world. It simply gives a vantage ground
from which the characteristics of other races may be serene
ly reviewed. A man is more of a world citizen because he is
a good American, and likewise a man is more thoroughly
sympathetic with humanity because he belongs to, works
for, and is a genuine part of, one group of the human family.
Therefore, when we talk about the growth of race pride
and race consciousness on the part of the American Negro,
we do not mean that he will be less an American, but more
a Negro. He is more a Negro that he may be more an
American. He is not less interested in humanity because
he finds himself interested in his own race, but the very fact
of his race appreciation gives him a new consciousness of
the dignity of all human kind. Thus it seems clear that if
the Negro is ever to become efficient, it must be because he
shall come to realize the value and worth of his own race.
We cannot hope to make a people worthy so long as they
expect to be nothing and do not believe in themselves.
Incentive of Race Success.
Dr. Booker T. Washington in one of his books speaks
of how he began reading biography while a student at
Hampton, and how he kept wondering why there might not
be some negro men who would do great things. His fellow
students laughed at him and told him that those of whom
he read were white men and that Negroes never could ac
complish such results. They were without any rate con
sciousness in the best sense. Certainly, they were without
race pride. Perhaps one of the best things Dr. Washington
has done for his race is to inspire a real pride and a real
belief among his people.

38 PRESENT. FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
So long as all the virtue is supposed to reside in another
race there can be no hope for the Negro. But when he begins
to get sufficient culture and sufficient resources to find a
larger life within his own race there can be no doubt that
he has a motive for progress.
"But build him up, make him sufficient in himself, give
him within his own race Hfe that which will satisfy, and the
social question will be solved. The trained Negro is less
and less inclined to lose himself and his race in the sea of
another race. As he develops, he is finding a new race-con
sciousness, he is building a new race pride. He no longer
objects to being called a Negro — it is becoming the badge
of his race and the mark of his self-sufficiency. We have
nothing, therefore, to fear from giving him a chance.'"
Indications of Growth in Race Consciousness.
It is therefore with the keenest interest that one looks
everywhere for indications that this pride of race is grow
ing, and one hails with delight anything that points to its
fuller development. Perhaps one of the clearest indications
of this new appreciation of the race is the open avowal and
championship of the race in its needs by the better type of
Negroes. To me it is significant that a man of the capacity
and influence of Dr. Booker T. Washington should go out
of his way to assert over and over again his glory in his
own race.
"What I have said here of my own feelings in regard to
my race is representative of the feelings of thousands of
others of the black people of this country. Adverse criti
cism has driven them to think deeper than they otherwise
would about the problems which confront them as a race,
to cHng closer than they otherwise would have done to their
own people, to value more highly than they once did, the
songs and records of their past life in slavery. The effect
The Author's "Negro Life in the South," pp. 173-174.

LEADERSHIP AND RACE PRIDE 39
has been to give them, in short, that sort of race pride and
race consciousness which, it seems to me, they need to bring
out and develop the best that is in them. . . . Perhaps
it will not be out of place for me to say here, at the beginning
of this book, that the more I have studied the masses of the
race to which I belong, the more I have learned not only to
sympathize with but to respect them. I am proud and
happy to be identified with their struggle for a higher and
better Hfe." *
Paul Laurence Dunbar has done the race a real service
through his poems and stories, which are so genuine, so true
to life, and yet so filled with a deep appreciation of the value
of his own people, that one cannot read his works without
coming to have a new conception of the Negro. Here and
there you can find a Negro, who is more white than black,
and who chafes under conditions, but it is remarkable how
large a proportion of the negro writers and public men of
our day glory in their own race.
New Appreciation of Their Past.
Another indication of the growth of race pride and race
consciousness is the manner in which the best Negroes glory
in their past. There was a time when the Negro was
ashamed of his slavery; there was a time when he was
unwilling to talk of his relationship to Africa, and thought
the farther he could get away from his past the better off
he would be. In fact, I have had a letter within a year
from a leading Northern gentleman telling me of a negro
quartette. In this letter the chief recommendation of the
quartette was that it did not sing the old melodies because
the singers wanted to forget the past. To me that is the
worst condemnation that could have Leen written. The
boy who goes away from his simple, ignorant, but honest
home, enters the university, and with his new culture learns
"The Story of the Negro," pp. 12 and 15.

40 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
to despise the old home and the parents, proves himself
thereby a man of small caliber. The race that is ashamed
to own its past, that wants to forget the conditions from
which it sprang, is a weak race. There are some negroes
of this type — those whom Dr. Washington calls the "intel
lectuals" — but the mass of the race is coming to appreciate
the strength, the fidelity, the glory of its fathers., and they
are clinging more tenaciously to their traditions. One of
the splendid things about Hampton and Tuskegee is the
fact that every student is taught to glory in the history of
his people. Not to be proud of its failures, of course, but to
be proud of the fact that in those earlier generations there
was that latent capacity which, bequeathed to the present
generation, makes progress possible.
Negro Music.
The most distinctive music of America is the old planta
tion melodies. Wherever Negroes sing these in the real
spirit, without being ashamed of them — as I have found
to be the case in one or two schools — there is a richness
of harmony and a depth of soul that is possessed by no
other music that I have heard. Even the children at the
Penn School on St. Helena Island, led by the clear, rich
voice of one of their own number, put such splendid feel
ing into one of these old spirituals as to transport one out
of himself into a world where manhood and womanhood
win the final victory in the long struggle with suffering.
It seems to me almost criminal that the negro children in
the public schools are not taught more of these old melodies.
They voice the feeling of a past age, to be sure, but an age
which should not be allowed to pass from memory. Here
it should be mentioned that some of the best negro musi
cians are building on the basis of these old spirituals to
make a music suited to the Negro of this day. One of the
best illustrations of this that I have heard is a splendid

LEADERSHIP AND RACE PRIDE 41
piece of music based on the old song, "Swing Low, Sweet
Chariot," written by Professor Smith, the bandmaster at
Tuskegee, and rendered by the student band. This, in my
judgment, is one of the finest ways of cultivating this race
pride and race consciousness which is just bursting into
bloom.Collection of Books and Pictuiea.
Another indication of the growth of race pride is the
fact that Negroes in an increasing number are now dili
gently collecting all the old manuscripts, books, pictures
etc., that bear on the history of the race. They are getting
anxious to know more of their past, to understand the mo
tives that actuated their forefathers, to live over in sym
pathetic feeling the old days, the events of which have
stamped themselves indelibly on the race. Mr. Moorland,
of Washington, one of the secretaries of the Colored Men's
Department of the Young Men's Christian Association,
has been one of the most industrious and successful col
lectors of such material, concerning the Negro's past his
tory. It is altogether likely that he has the best private
library of this kind now in existence. A number of the
negro colleges have secured very valuable collections
through similar sources. Not only are these people inter
ested in the history of the past, but many of them are dili
gent collectors of materials showing the present successes
and progress of their group. Thus you will find Dr. Booker
T. Washington's books in many of the humble homes, be
cause not only of his career, but because of what he says
of negro progress, in which he holds out a real hope to all
who are struggling upward.
Growth of Business Interest.
Another indication of the growth of race pride is the
large variety of business enterprises which are springing

42 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
up all over the South, the largest asset of which is this
desire of the common people to favor their own race. There
are literally scores of insurance companies, fifty-six banks,
drug stores unnumbered, barber shops, livery stables, mer
cantile establishments, printing houses, newspapers and
periodicals circulated among Negroes alone, a negro doll
factory and a negro calendar factory.
Many of these business enterprises, such as barber shops,
drug stores and mercantile establishments are patronized by
the whites as well as the blacks. But the fact that the
Negroes have their own business houses and that they have
confidence in them is a clear indication of a new race con
sciousness. In similar manner, the increasing number of
negro physicians, dentists and lawyers, who get a good
practice among their own people, proves that the race is
beginning to believe in itself. It has not been many years
since a Negro would have laughed at the idea that another
Negro could do the medical work in his home. They had no
confidence in the ability of one of their own race to meet
their professional needs. But this is changing rapidly, and
the time is not far distant when the mass of the Negroes
will look to their own race for the most of their medical,
dental and legal advice.
Negro DoUs and Negro Calendars.
One of the most interesting signs of race pride is to be
found in the large number of rpal negro dolls to be seen
in the best homes. These dolls are more expensive than the
white dolls, because they are not made in such large quan
tities, and it is only within the last few years that there
has been a demand for the same. Dr. R. H. Boyd, of the
National Baptist Publishing House,' has recently estab
lished a large trade in these doHs. In order to get manu
factured negro dolls true to Hfe, and not simply caricatures,
'See the Author's "Negro Life in the South," pp. 52-54.

LEADERSHIP AND RACE PRIDE 43
he made a personal visit to the German factories, furnished
them with hundreds of pictures of real Negroes and insisted
on having real likenesses. The result has been a very pros
perous business in these dolls. When I was in Dr. Boyd's
office soon after Christmas a year ago I saw a great num
ber of checks being returned to merchants all over the
South who had ordered these dolls in much larger num
bers than could be supplied. Recently I have talked with
the manager of this department, and he told me the house
had sold two carloads of these dolls during the Christmas
hoHdays of 191 1. Twenty-five years ago negro parents
were unwilling for their children to have negro dolls, but
now they are willing to pay an extra price for them. This
is a clear indication of a growing race consciousness. In
like manner, a negro calendar factory in Louisville, Ky., is
doing a thriving business.
Pride in Race Leadership.
Perhaps the most encouraging feature of the whole
situation is the pride which Negroes have in the leadership
of their own blood. A Southern white woman teaching a
Sunday School class of negro boys started to tell a story
recently of a boy who had succeeded. One of the negro
boys stopped her by saying : "Please, miss, is it a white boy
you're talking about? If it is, we don't want to hear it."
Are There Leaders Without Caucasian Ancestry?
In the beginning of this paragraph I wish to make it
clear, that I do not for one moment discount those splendid
leaders of the race who have a mixed ancestry. They are
a noble band and are doing a noble work, making a con
tribution not only to their own race, but perhaps to all races.
One of the common sayings is, however, that the men who
are leaders of the negro race are all of mixed blood and
get their powers of initiative and leadership from the white

44 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
race. Perhaps this feeling has been somewhat accentuated
by the fact that Douglas and Washington and a number of
the more prominent leaders have been men of mixed an
cestry. But many of these men came into places of leader
ship, partly because of their more favored training, and not
alone because of their ability. It ought further to be said
that some of the best of these leaders, such as Dr. Wash
ington, while they have white blood in their veins, are real
Negroes in inheritance, in temper and feeling. No one who
knows Dr. Washington could for one moment doubt that
his mother — a slave woman — stamped her life indelibly
upon him. But there are many leaders of the race, perhaps
not so prominent as Washington, but of the same fiber of
efficiency and ability, who can trace their ancestry and show
no strain of white blood.
Major R. R. Moton.
The first man in this class to whom any man's mind
would readily turn in naming such a list is Major R. R.
Moton, the commandant and disciplinarian at Hampton In
stitute. It has been my good fortune to come to know
Major Moton quite well in the visits I have made to Hamp
ton. He is one of the few men in America who can trace
their ancestry on both sides in unbroken line across the seas.
His great-grandfather was an African chief, and the
Major's splendid bearing indicates that he has lost none of
his ancestor's regal qualities. I have heard more than one
Southern white man say that Major Moton was the sanest
and strongest representative of the negro race they had ever
met. Others have said to me that he is the best speaker —
white or black — they have ever heard, and yet he does not
claim to be a speaker at all. He has a clear head, a noble
heart, and a manly bearing which at once convince you
that he has a message worth while and is not afraid to
give it.

LEADERSHIP AND RACE PRIDE 45
Major Moton holds a most delicate position at Hamp
ton. In the college community there are pure Negroes,
mulattoes, Indians, Northern white people. Southern white
people — all working for the same great cause — the eleva
tion of the race. It is no easy matter to harmonize all of
these types, and yet so rare is his tact and so true is his judg
ment that each group gives him enthusiastic support.
Washington has said of him: "It has been through con
tact with men like Major Moton that I have received a kind
of education no books could impart." ' It would be worth
a trip to Hampton just to know Major Moton. If more of
our Southern white people could see him, so calm, so un
ostentatious, so unpresuming, and yet so efficient and thor
ough, they would never say again that the negro race could
not produce a pure-blood leader.
George W. Carver.
Another negro educator, whom I have known for eigh
teen years, is Professor Carver, of Tuskegee. He is simple,
modest, retiring, and yet clearly confident when talking in
terms of his specialty. He knows his business and soon
convinces you that he knows it. Of him Sir Henry John
ston, in his very full volume, "The Negro in the New
World," says: "Professor Carver, who teaches scientific
agriculture, botany, agricultural chemistry, etc., is, as re
gards complexion and features, an absolute Negro; but in
cut of clothes, the accent of his speech, the soundness of his
science, he might be professor of science, not at Tuskegee,
but at Oxford or Cambridge."^
Dr. Joseph C. Price.
Or to take one more example of a leader in negro edu
cation, one would readily turn to Dr. Joseph Price, the first
President of Livingston College, in North Carolina. He
"'My Larger Education," p. 219.
'"The Negro in the New World," p. 416.

45 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
was born a slave in North Carolina five years before the
opening of the Civil War ; was educated at Lincoln Univer
sity; was ordained as an elder in the A. M. E. Church;
served in the General Conference of that body for 1880;
was appointed by the President of the United States to a
post of foreign honor, which he refused; was a representa
tive for his church in England at the Ecumenical Confer
ence of 1881, where he laid the foundation for the establish
ment of Livingston College, to which he gave the remain
der of his Hfe. His successor has said of him:* "He was
no self-seeker. He did not labor for the notice of society or
the prizes of the world, but the one controlling idea of his
Hfe was to Hft his race out of ignorance and moral degrada
tion into which the misfortune of a cruel past had sunk
them, ,and to lead them to higher planes of intelligence and
social refinement. He was forcible in his appeals for jus
tice and fair dealing, honest in his statements and true to
his convictions, yet he carried no gall in his nature. No
bitterness escaped his lips. There was no rancor in his
bosom. He had faith in the power of Christ to eradicate
the evils of society. He believed in the ultimate triumph
of truth and righteousness and was satisfied that the evils
of society will be rooted out." Dr. Booker T. Washington
called him "by aU odds the leading and most prominent man
of his race in North Carolina and one of the most eloquent
men in the country."^
Leaders in Business Life.
There are two very interesting men in business Hfe in
the South about whom I ought to say a word. One is
Isaiah Montgomery and the other is Charles Banks. Isaiah
Montgomery was the slave of Joseph Davis, the brother of
President Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy. Both of
'Grogman's "Progress of a Race,'' pp. 523-524.
""The Story of the Negro," p. 24.

LEADERSHIP AND RACE PRIDE 47
the Davis brothers were the best type of slave owners.
They were kindly in the fullest degree to their slaves, gave
them a practical form of self-government, allowed them
much of free time to work for themselves, gave the brighter
ones a chance to acquire some education, and in every way
looked after their permanent welfare. The father of Isaiah
Montgomery learned to read and write on the plantation
of Joseph Davis, and after the war the father and two sons
bought the old plantation at a price of three hundred thou
sand doHars. In 1890 Isaiah Montgomery was the man
who led a party of negro men up the Mississippi Delta to
the place now known as Mound Bayou, and there they
cleared the forest and started the present negro town.
Mound Bayou has a bank, a number of cotton gins, a tele
phone exchange, a newspaper, and, I believe, waterworks
and electric lights. There are between four and five thou
sand inhabitants, all Negroes, and they own about 30,000
acres of land. To have founded such a town; to have
brought it to its present state of efficiency; to be able to
have the type of law and order the citizens have — these
things mark out this man as one of genuine leadership.
Associated with Montgomery in this work has been a much
younger though no less forceful man, Charles Banks,
banker, cotton broker, real estate dealer, head of a large
corporation for erecting a big cotton oil mill, and planter.
Dr. Booker T. Washington has described him so much bet
ter than anyone else could, I quote two paragraphs from
his statement : '
"I have been watching him do things, watching him
grow, and as I have studied him more closely my admira
tion for this big, quiet, graceful giant has steadily increased.
One thing that has always impressed itself upon me in re
gard to Mr. Banks is the fact that he never claims credit
for doing anything that he can give credit to other people
"'My Larger Education," pp. 207-208,

48 PRESENT. FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
for doing. He has never made an effort to make himself
prominent. He simply prefers to get a job done, and if he
can use other people and give them credit for doing the
work, he is happy to do so.
"At the present time Charles Banks is not, by any means,
the wealthiest, but I think I am safe in saying that he is
the most influential negro business man in the United States.
He is the leading negro banker in Mississippi, where there
are eleven negro banks, and he is Secretary and Treasurer
of the large benefit association in that State — namely, that
attached to the Masonic order — which paid death claims in
1910 to the amount of one hundred and ninety-five thousand
dollars and had a cash balance of eighty thousand dollars.
He organized and has been the moving spirit in the State
organization of the Business League in Mississippi, and has
been for a number of years the Vice-President of the
National Negro Business League."
"Charles Banks is, however, more than a successful busi
ness man. He is a leader of his race and a broad-minded
and public-spirited citizen. Although he holds no public
office, and, so far as I know, has no desire to do so, there
are, in my opinion, few men, either white or black, in Mis
sissippi today who are performing, directly or indirectly, a
more important service to their State than Charles Banks."
Literary Leadership.
If one had space it would be well to say a word about
Phillis Wheatley, that native African girl brought to Bos
ton as a slave child, with scarcely more than a loin cloth for
clothes, and bought by a kindly Boston woman at the slave
market. Her verses are such as to prove the latent literary
possibiHties of the race. Well can we pass to consider Paul
Laurence Dunbar as the best type of nego poet. The parents
of Dunbar were pure-blood Negroes, slaves in Kentucky.
Before the war, the father ran away to Canada and the
mother followed on to Dayton, Ohio, where the son was

LEADERSHIP AND RACE PRIDE

49

born. He grew up in the midst of the most dire poverty,
the father dying while the son was the merest child. When
old enough to work, he became an elevator boy, at which
work he did some of his earliest composing. William Dean
Howells says of his work :
"What struck me in reading Mr. Dunbar's poetry was
what had already struck his friends in Ohio and Indiana, in
Kentucky and Illinois. They had felt, as I felt, that, how
ever gifted his race had proven itself in music, in oratory, in
several of the other arts, here was the first instance of an
American Negro who had evinced innate distinction in lit
erature. In my criticism of his book I had alleged Dumas
in France, and I had forgetfully failed to allege the far
greater Pushkin in Russia; but these were both mulattoes,
who might have been supposed to derive their qualities from
white blood vastly more artistic than ours, and who were
the creatures of an environment more favorable to their
literary development. So far as I could remember, Paul
Dunbar was the only man of pure African blood and of
American civilization to feel the negro Hfe aesthetically
and express it lyrically. It seemed to me that this had
come to its most modem consciousness in him, and that his
brilliant and unique achievement was to have studied the
American Negro objectively, and to have represented him
as he found him to be, with humor, with sympathy, and yet
with what the reader must instinctively feel to be the entire
truthfulness. I said that a race which had come to this
effect in any member of it, had attained civilization in him,
and I permitted myself the imaginative prophecy that the
hostilities and the prejudices which had so long constrained
his race were destined to vanish in the arts ; that these were
to be the final proof that God had made of one blood all
nations of men. I thought his merits positive, and not com
parative; and I held that if his black poems had been writ
ten by a white man, I should not have found them less ad-

50 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
mirable. I accepted them as an evidence of the essential
unity of the human race, which does not think or feel black
in one and white in another, but humanly in all. . . .
He has at least produced something that, however we may
critically disagree about it, we cannot well refuse to enjoy;
in more than one piece he has produced a work of art." '
I have read with great care all of Dunbar's four volumes
of poems and his several volumes of stories. Many of them
are very charming. What is most interesting to me about
them is the keen appreciation they show of the traits of
negro character. They are intensely human, so full of the
€very-day experiences, that they possess a charm all their
own. What could be more human and real than this:'
"Den you men's de mule's ol' ha'ness,
An' you men's de broken chair.
Hummin' all de time you's wo'kin'
Some ol' common kind o' air.
Evah now an' then you looks out,
Tryin' mighty ha'd to frown,
But you cain't, you's glad hit's rainin'.
An' dey's time to tinker 'roun'."
Or what is there that betrays the changing moods of the
Negro more clearly or more beautifully than this:'
"An' my wife an' all de othahs —
Male an' female, small an' big —
Even up to gray-haired granny.
Seems jes' boun' to do a jig;
'Twell I change the style o' music.
Change de movement an' de time.
An' de ringin' little banjo
Plays an ol' hea't-feelin' hime."
Although Dunbar never lived in the South, he received
from his mother not only a knowledge of Southern condi
tions, but such a sympathetic feeling for its life that he has
done more than any other Negro to give a right setting to
'Introduction to "Lyrics of Lowly Life," XVI, XVII, XX.
^"Lyrics of the Hearthside," p. 141.
""Lyrics of Lowly Life," p. 43.

LEADERSHIP AND RACE PRIDE $1
its joys and tragedies. Here is a sample of this genuine un
derstanding of the old conditions and the did Negro:'
"Dey have lef de ole plantation to de swallers,
But it hoi's in me a lover till de las';
Fu' I fin' hyeah in de memory dat foUers
All dat loved me an' dat I loved in de pas'.
So I'll stay an' watch de deah ole place an' tend it
Ez I used to in de happy days gone by.
'Twell de otah Mastah thinks it's tirae to end it,
An' calls me to my qua'ters in de sky."
He has also a deep sympathy which enters into the mood
of the Negro as perhaps no white man ever could. What
could be more tender' and beautiful than this:'
"Two little boots all rough an' wo'.
Two little boots.
Laws, I's kissed 'em times befo',
Dese little boots.
Seems de toes a-peepin' thoo'
Dis hyeah hole an' sayin' 'Boo,'
Evah time d«y looks at you —
Dese little boots.
"Membah de time he put 'em on,
Dese little boots;
Riz an' called fu' 'em by dawn,
Dese little boots;
Den he tromped the livelong day,
Laffin' in his happy way,
Evaht'ing he had to say,
'My little boots.'
"Kickin' the san' de whole day long,
Dem little boots;
Good de cobblah made 'em strong,
Dem little boots!
Rocks was fu' dat baby's use,
I'on had to stan' abuse
W'en you tu'ned dese champeens loose,
Dese little boots!
"Use to make de ol' cat cry,
Dese little boots;
Den you walked it mighty high.
Proud little boots!

"'Lyrics of Lowly Life," p. i6o.
^"Lyrics of Love and Laughter," pp. 1-3.

52 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
Ahms akimboo, stan'in' wide,
Eyes a-sayin' 'Dis is pride!'
Den de manny-baby stride!
You little boots.
"Somehow you don' seem so gay,
Po' little boots,
Sence yo' ownah went awav.
Po' little boots!
Yo' bright tops don' look so red,
Dese brass tips is dull an' dead;
"Goo-by," what de baby said;
Deah little boots!
"Ain't you kin' o' sad yo'se'f.
You little boots ?
Dis is all his mam's lef.
Two little boots.
Sence huh baby gone an' died.
Heaven itse'f hit seem to hide
Des a little bit inside
Two little boots."
Or what goes right to the heart of the old Southern love
on the part of the child for the Negro, and that of the Negro
for the child, like this : '
"Little mas' a-axin'
'Who is Santy Claus?'
Meks it kin' o' taxin'
Not to brek de laws.
¦Chillun's pow'foil tryin'
To a pusson's grace
W'en dey go a pryin'
Right on th'oo you' face
Down among yo' feelin's;
Jes' 'pears lak dat you
Got to change you' dealin's
So's to tell 'em true."*
One of the charming elements in aU of Dunbar's work
is its freedom from any cynicism or bitterness. Born of
slave parents, rocked in the cradle of dire poverty, strug
gling into manhood through the grind of a daily task which
made it next to impossible for him to get that knowledge
for which his soul thirsted — such a person one would not
"'Lyrics of the Hearthside," p. 201.

LEADERSHIP AND RACE PRIDE S3
have been surprised to hear carping about the hardships
and disappointments of life. Instead of that, there is the
most heroic note running all through his writings, and one
never puts them down but that he feels himself a little bet
ter for having read them. Any race might well be proud
of having produced a Dunbar.
Ministerial Leadership.
Dr. Charles T. Walker was born a slave in Richmond
County, Georgia, in 1859. His father was his master's
coachman, a very religious man, deacon in the little slave
Baptist Church organized at Hepsibah, 1848. Several of
his uncles were preachers. Left an orphan at eight, be
coming a Christian at fourteen, working his way painfully
through the public schools, he finally entered the Theologi
cal Institute at Augusta, Georgia. Licensed to preach at
eighteen, he became the pastor of his home church at Hep
sibah. He was for a number of years the pastor of Mount
Olivet Baptist Church in New York City, and is now pastor
of the Tabernacle Baptist Church, Augusta, Georgia. Not
only is he a preacher of great power, but he has fostered
education and journalism among his people. He was one
of the founders of the Baptist Institute of Augusta, is a
trustee of Atlanta Baptist College, helped in the founding of
the Augusta Sentinel, has written books on travel, etc. It
was due to the effort of Dr. Walker and a few other Negroes
that the Georgia State Colored Fair was established. While
a pastor in New York he helped in the establishment of a
Colored Young Men's Christian Association with five hun
dred members. He was the man chosen by the Interna
tional Convention of the Young Men's Christian Association
to represent his race in an address at that gathering in
Toronto, Canada, 19 10. His address was simple, sane,
masterful. It had a power of conviction and a deep pas
sion of earnestness which gripped the heart and conscience

54 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
of those hundreds of white men assembled from every cor
ner of America. He has a sparkling wit, a fine sense of
humor, a remarkable ability in story-telling, but with it all
that genuine sense of the bigness of life which makes him
a power when speaking either to white or colored men.
President Taft has said of him that he is the most eloquent
man to whom he has ever listened. I could not better prove
his sanity and his right to leadership than to quote what
Washington says in his motto: "I have determined never
to be guilty of ingratitude, never to desert a friend, and
never to strike back at an enemy." I have heard Dr.
Walker speak both to Northern and Southern men, and,
so far as I have ever been able to learn, he lives up to
his motto.
George W. Clinton,
I can give space to only one more leader. Bishop Clin
ton, of the A. M. E. Zion Church, was born a slave in
South Carolina, was graduated from the L^niversity of
South Carolina with the class of 1874, at the time when
Negro students were admitted to that institution. Washing
ton says of him : '
"Bishop Clinton has done a great service to the denomi
nation to which he belongs, and his years of service have
brought him many honors and distinctions. He founded the
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Quarterly Review, and
edited for a time another publication of the African Meth
odist Episcopal Conferences at home and abroad. He is a
trustee of Livingstone CoHege, Chairman of the Publishing
Board, has served as a member of the International Con
vention of Arbitration, and is Vice-President of the Inter
national Sunday School Union.
"Bishop Clinton is a man of a very different type from
the other men of pure African blood I have mentioned.
"'My Larger Education," pp. 220, 222, 223.

LEADERSHIP AND RACE PRIDE 55
Although he says he is fifty years of age, he is, in appear
ance and manner, the youngest man in the group. An erect,
commanding figure, with a high, broad forehead, rather
refined features, and fresh, frank, almost boyish manner,
he is the kind of man who everywhere wins confidence and
respect. "Although Bishop Clinton is by profession a minister
and has been all his Hfe in the service of the church, he
is, of all the men I have named, the most aggressive in his
manner and the most soldierly in his bearing. . . .
"I first made the acquaintance of Bishop Clinton when
he came to Tuskegee in 1893 as representative of the
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church at the dedica
tion of the Phelps Hall Bible Training School. The next
year he came to Tuskegee as one of the lecturers in that
school, and he has spent some time at Tuskegee every year
since then, assisting in the work of that institution.
"Bishop Clinton has been of great assistance to us, not
only in our work at Tuskegee, but in the larger work we
have been trying to do in arousing interest throughout the
country in the Negro. . He organized in Carolina in 1910
what I think was the most successful educational campaign
I have yet been able to make in any of the Southern States."
Summary. In this brief sketch of negro leadership of pure blood, I
have passed over many who are equally prominent and
scores of others equally efficient, though less prominent. I
have not spoken of R. R. Wright, of Georgia, perhaps the
most influential Negro in the State, student, prolific writer
on economic questions. President of the State Industrial
Normal, a real power in the negro State Fair. He is the
one who, as a boy, when asked what message should be
given to the white people about the Negroes, said: "TeU
them we are rising." Nor have I found space to mention

S6 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
as conspicuous a leader as Alexander Crummell, the great
missionary to Liberia; or Lott Gary; or Lucy Laney, the
industrial educator of women in Georgia; or M. C. B.
Mason, the Secretary of the Freedman's Aid Society; or
Bishop Tyree, of Nashville; or Virginia Randolph, who,
though obscure as to reputation, has proved herself so much
a leader as to have practically transformed all the rural
schools of Henrico County, Virginia.
It has not been possible to say anything about T. C.
Walker, who graduated from Hampton twenty-five years
ago, went back to Gloucester County, Virginia, and began
a crusade among his people for sobriety and decency, for
buying land, building homes, erecting schools, etc. The
outcome is that seven thousand negroes now own one thou
sand eight hundred and fifty-seven farm plots in that
county — an average of a farm plot for every family in
the county. Very few live in one-roomed houses; I did
not see one in a three days' drive through the country.
They have good schools and good churches. They have
run whiskey practically out of the country, and during' the
year 1910 there were only six convictions for serious crimes
among the Negroes of the county. These were for shoot
ing, cutting and stealing. All this has come largely through
the efforts of Tom Walker, farmer, lawyer, Sunday school
worker, reformer and citizen. How many hundreds of
white counties in the South need a white man who can and
will do for the white farmers what Walker has done for
the negro farmers of Gloucester County?
If space would permit, one might wisely speak of D. W.
Davis, the author of the poems entitled "Weh Down Souf ;"
of WiUiam Washington Brown ; of Edward Wilbur Blyden,
the scholar ; of Wood, the inventor ; of J. H. Smith, United
States Minister to Liberia; of Miss Georgia Washington,
Mt. Meigs, Ala., and others.
Enough has been said and sufficient examples given to

LEADERSHIP AND RACE PRIDE Sf
prove that the negro race can and does produce leaders
of unmixed blood. As fast as the race has a chance it wiU
produce more. These examples have been taken from suffi
ciently varied fields to show that they are not freaks of
nature any more than are the leaders of another race. It
proves to me that the negro race has capacity for leader
ship, perhaps not of the same degree or of the same quality
as the Anglo-Saxon, but capacity suited to its own needs.
What he needs now is encouragement. We need to
hold up to him the splendid examples of those who have suc
ceeded. We need to help him to a new confidence in him
self. The books he reads should place his own leaders to
the front in order that others of the race may aspire to that
fellowship. Even if it were true that the negro race has no
leaders save its mixed-bloods, it would do no good con
stantly to throw this into their faces. What good does it
do to tell a boy he has always been a failure, is now a fail
ure, and will always be a failure ? Will that help him over
come? Not at aU. It simply hardens him in his indiffer
ence. And yet that is what many a thoughtless white per
son has been doing with the Negro for all these years. Even
if it were true that they have no pure-blood leaders, we
ought to have a better knowledge of human nature than to
continue reiterating this to them.
But it is distinctly and positively not true. Outside of
two men — Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglas—
the Negroes of unmixed blood can show a right to claim
equal rank among the sanest and best leaders of the race.
And this is true in spite of the fact that the mixed-blood
Negro has had — ^because of accident of birth — three chances
to the black man's one chance for developing leadership.
Recognition of Growing Race Consciousness.
What we need today is a full, glad recognitiort on the
part of the white people of this growing race consciousness

58 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS m
and race leadership among Negroes. We need to encourage
them to take pride in themselves. We need to give them
leadership among their own people just as fast as they are
able to take it. We need to make them self-sufficient in
themselves just as rapidly as possible. To refuse to recog
nize their merits and to close our eyes to the facts of real
leadership — this simply prolongs the day of the Negro's
worthlessness and lack of ambition, proves the white man
lacking in statesmanship, and publishes to the world our
narrowness and littleness of soul.

CHAPTER III
NEGRO POPULATION AND RACE MOVEMENTS

(60)

THE SLAVE'S COMPLAINT
Am I sadly cast aside.
On misfortune's rugged tide?
Will the world my pains deride
Forever?
Must I dwell in Slavery's night.
And all pleasure take its flight.
Far beyond my feeble sight.
Forever?
Worst of all, must hope grow dim.
And withhold her cheering beam?
Rather let me sleep and dream
Forever !
Something still my heart surveys.
Groping through the dreary maze;
Is it Hope? — then burn and blaze
Forever :
Leave me not a wretch confined.
Altogether lame and blind —
Unto gross despair consigned,
Forever :
Heaven ! in whom I confide ;
Canst thou not for all provide?
Condescend to be my guide
Forever !
And when this transient life shall end.
Oh, may some kind, eternal friend
Bid me from servitude ascend.
Forever ! — By a Slave.

CHAPTER III
NEGRO POPULATION AND RACE MOVEMENTS
Dr. Booker T. Washington, writing in 1899, said: "I
think I am pretty safe in predicting that the census to be
taken in 1900 will show that there are not far from ten
millions of people of African descent in the United States." '
Mr. Thomas Nelson Page, writing in 1904, says : "The
negro race has already doubled three times in the United
States since the beginning of the last century, and, unless
conditions change, it is possible that there may be between
sixty and eighty millions of Negroes in this country during
the century." '
During the same year (1904) there appeared a book
by Dr. W. B. Smith, of Tulane University, which at
tempted with seeming satisfaction to prove that the Negro
will soon be a negligible quantity. "It is demonstrated,"
says Dr. Smith, "that in these two focal regions of the
African strength not only is that strength relatively de
creasing, but it is decreasing faster and faster. The hour
Cometh When neither by the ocean nor by the gulf will it
signify more than it now does in Philadelphia or New
York." •
Thus we are immediately faced with absolutely diverse
opinions about the future growth of the race problem. Mr.
Wilcox, of the United States Bureau of Statistics, thinks
that twenty-five millions of Negroes is a liberal estimate
for the year 2000.
"'Future of American Negro," p. 5.
""The Negro the Southerner's Problem," p. 289.
'"The Color Line," p. 204 (61)

fe PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
The impression made on one by the reading of the argu
ments of the statisticians concerning the far future (Dr.
Smith and Mr. Wilcox) is that a good part of their labor
is necessarily guesswork and cannot be otherwise. The
censuses of 1870 and of 1890 are allowed by all authori
ties to be very inaccurate, and earlier figures are none too
certain. Besides, there are no figures of marriages and
births in past census records, and all the death-rate figures
are exceedingly questionable. To make predictions on such
uncertain foundations is, therefore, hazardous in the
extreme. One thing, however, can be asserted with some degree
of certainty, and that is that the relative increase of Negroes
has gradually declined during the past century, and these
facts are still borne out by the census of 1910. The follow
ing table shows the per cent of increase for Negroes accord
ing to double census periods since 1800:
1800-1820  76.8 per cent
1720-1840  62.2 per cent
1840-1860  54.6 per cent
1860-1880  48.2 per cent
1880-1900  34.2 per cent
1900-1910  11.3 per cent
The increase from 1890-1900 was 18 per cent, so that
the last census shows a decrease in accordance with all the
figures of the past century. The remarkable thing about
these figures is the fact that there seems to be a hastening
process in the relative decrease of the Negro. There are
three States in the South where the Negroes actually de
creased in numbers between 1900 and 1910. These are Ten
nessee, Kentucky and Maryland. It wiU be noted that these
are border States, and one would readily suppose that this
decrease is due to migration. The census returns are not
sufficiently advanced to make it possible for one to locate
the places to which these Negroes have migrated. There
are small relative decreases in the proportion of Negroes to

NEGRO POPULATION AND RACE MOVEMENTS 63
whites in all the other Southern States save three — Okla
homa, Arkansas and West Virginia. These three States
show a larger per cent of increase among Negroes than
among whites. In 1900 the Negro constituted 32.3 per cent
of the population of the South Atlantic and South Central
States. In 1910 he constituted only 29.8 per cent, showing
a decided falling off. One factor entering into this relative
decrease of the Negro is that of emigration of Negroes to
the North and the immigration of Northern whites to the
South. The figures for 1910 on these points are not yet
available, but it is quite certain that the tendency will be
similar to that of the past two or three decades. In 1890
there were 1,038,000 Southern whites living in other States
outside of the South, and in 1900 the number had increased
to 1,116,000, a gain of 88,000. In 1890 there were 582,000
non- Southern white Americans living in the South, and in
1900 the number was 725,000, a gain of 143,000. There
fore it will be seen that the loss of whites over the number
coming in is a decreasing quality. The net loss of whites
by this migration in 1890 being 456,000, and in 1900 being
390,000. On the other hand, the number of Negroes leaving the
South is an increasing quantity. In 1890 there were 241,000
Southern-born Negroes (counting all men as whites and
Negroes which is sufficiently accurate) living in other than
Southern States, and in 1900 there were 349,000. The total
Negro population in other than Southern States was in 1900
911,025, and in 1910 it was 1,078,804. The number of
Northern Negroes coming South during the decade was
only 2,100. It will readily be seen, therefore, that this
migration affects the relative increase of Negroes and
whites in the South in favor of the latter race.
The increase of negro population in the Southern States
during the last decade has been only 10.4 per cent, while for
the whole country it has been 11.3 per cent. The increase

64 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
for Southern whites has been 24.4 per cent, while the in
crease for the whole country has been only 22.3 per cent.
It is actually true, therefore, that the South is becoming
whiter. Movement Cityward.
Another partial explanation of the relative (not actual)
decrease of the Negro in the South is the movement city
ward. In the nine cotton States of the South — Alabama,
Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North
Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee (unfortunately,
the figures for Texas are not yet available) — the white
population in cities has been increasing as follows : In 1890
there were 11. 6 per cent living in city areas; in 1900, 14
per cent; in 1910, 18.9 per cent. The corresponding figures
for negro population in these States are: 1890, 11. 8 per
cent; 1900, 14.7 per cent; 1910, 17.7 per cent. Thus the
city population of the whites has increased in proportion
by 7.2 per cent and that of the Negroes by 5.8 per cent. It
will thus be seen that both the white and the colored races
are moving toward the city, though the cityward movement
for whites ^3 greater than that for Negroes.
Now, the significant fact about this migration as it
relates to the Negro lies in his poorer health conditions in
the city as compared with the white man. So long as he
lives in the country he at least has good ventilation and
usually better sanitation than he has in the city. The Negro
has practically the monoply of the unsanitary and disease-
breeding sections of the city, while most of the whites in
the South live under more favorable conditions. This
shows in the very high death rate of the city Negro. Among
them the infant mortality is almost 50 per cent in
some cities, and tuberculosis and venereal troubles take off
literally thousands. It can readily be seen that the city is

NEGRO POPULATION AND RACE MOVEMENTS 65
the Negro's enemy, and has much to do with his declining
rate of increase in population.
Death Rate of Both Races.
As stated before, there are no whole or complete sta
tistics on the death rate of either whites or blacks. There
are, however, certain regions — ^mainly cities — where the
local authorities attempt to keep records of deaths. This
so-caUed registration area included 13.4 per cent of the
Negroes in the United States in 1900, and, being almost
entirely urban, cannot be considered as entirely true as to
the facts of the whole race. There are almost no records
for the rural population where the great mass of Negroes
live. The following table shows the relative death rate
of the two races in these registration areas, 1900:

RACE

1900

Population

Number Deaths

Death Rate

Negro 

1,180,646
27,555,800

35,710
474,640

30.2

White. 

17.3

The corresponding figures for 1890 are 29.9 for Negroes
and 19.1 for whites. This figure for Negroes includes a
few Mongolians and Indians, and perhaps the death rate
should not be for Negroes alone more than 29. This means
that for every thousand Negroes twenty-nine die annually.
Unfortunately, the death rates for 1910 are not yet avail
able, though workers in the Census Bureau estimate the
death rate will be less than 28 for Negroes. So far as any
conclusion can be drawn from these figures, it is seen that
the negro death rate is almost twice as high as that for the
white. It must always be remembered that these figures
apply only to the city population for certain sections, and

66

PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS

hence are apt to be much higher for the Negro than sucH
figures would be for the country districts. We can only sur
mise that the death rate in the country wouM likely be larger
for Negroes than whites, but how much larger we can
not tell.
Birth Rate.
Inasmuch as there are no reliable figures for births, the
best substitute is to find the number of children under five
years of age to all females between fifteen and forty-four
years of age. This relative number of children to women of
the age of motherhood will help to indicate the relative
fecundity of the two races. The following table, based on
the last three census periods and divided as to sections of
the country, is quite illuminative:

Number of children under five years of age to
1,000 females fifteen to forty-four years of age.

CENSUS YEAR

Continental U.S.

South Atlantic
States

South Central
States

Negro Indian
andMon- golianpopula tion

White Popu
lation

Negro Indian
andMon- golian
popula tion

WhitePopu lation

NegroIndian
andMon- golian
popula tion

White Popu lation

1880  

759616 586

586 517508

787 638
630

666 687595

799 659612

749

1890

665

1900 

659

The above figures include all non-Caucasians among
the colored population, but since this is less than one per
cent of the colored population in the South Atlantic and
South Central divisions, the error would be insignificant.
It will be noted that in the United States as a whole the
NEGRO POPULATION AND RACE MOVEMENTS 67
number of children for both races has declined rapidly, but
much more rapidly among the Negroes than among the
whites. Thus there were in the whole country one hundred
and seventy-four fewer children to each one thousand
women among Negroes in 1900 than there were in 1880, and
seventy-eight fewer among the whites. It will be seen
from this that the decrease is more than twice as great
among the former as among the latter. In the South
Atlantic division the relative decline in the twenty years
has been one hundred and fifty-seven for Negroes and
seventy-one for whites, while in the South Central division
the figures are one hundred and eighty-seven for Negroes
and ninety for whites. From these figures it will be seen
that the birth rate of the Negro is declining more rapidly
than that of the whites. This fact, together with the higher
death rate of Negroes, indicates that the relative increase of
the race would necessarily be smaller than that of the
whites. The census figures for population prove this to
be true.
Possible Explanations.
We have already noted two facts which help to account
for the larger increase of whites than Negroes in the South.
First is the fact of immigration of Northern whites to the
South and the emigration of Negroes out of the South.
The second fact was the relative health conditions of the
two races among the ever-increasing population in cities.
There are three other facts which ought to be taken into
consideration in connection with these statistics. The first
relates to the relative medical attention and physical care
taken of the Negro before and since 1860. During slavery
days the health of the Negro was watched very carefully,
not only from a humanitarian standpoint, but also from the
economic as well.
Whenever a Negro became ill it was the common custom

es PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
for the mistress .of the home to go personally to the quar
ters and see that proper care was taken of the patient. Most
of the plantation owners had a regular physician whom
they paid for practice among their slaves. In this way the
health of the Negro was much more carefully guarded than
at the present time. The one hopeful feature of the present
is in the larger number of negro physicians who will neces
sarily practice largely among^ their own race. The white
physicians prefer not to do the practice among colored
people, and race prejudice has often prevented the white
man being called in. The consequence has been the poor
est medical attention conceivable for the whole people, thou
sands dying without ever seeing a doctor at all. Neither
has there been any hospital facilities to take the place of
the old plantation care. The following statement from a
Southern city will indicate the condition :
"Here in this city of push, pluck and Christian progress,
there is not a decent hospital where colored people can be
cared for. At the Grady Hospital, which takes about
$20,000 of the city's money annually to run it, is a small
wooden annex down by the kitchen, in which may be
crowded fifty or sixty beds, and that is all the hospital
advantages 40,000 colored citizens have. But, on the other
hand, our whites, with a population of about 70,000, have
all the wards and private rooms in the entire brick building
at this hospital, together with a very fine hospital here
known as St. Joseph's Infirmary." '
With the increasing number of medical graduates among
Negroes and the larger interest of Southern whites in the
Negro, this condition ought to be somewhat changed.
Lack of Care for Children.
Another fact which helps to explain the high death rate
and consequent smaller increase of negro population lies
"'Mortality Among Negroes in Cities,'' p. 17.

NEGRO POPULATION AND RACE MOVEMENTS 69
in the poor care taken of the negro children. The census
figures for 1900 show that 62.2 per cent of all Negroes over
ten years of age are breadwinners, and 46.9 per cent of
Southern whites of the same age. Among women 40.7 per
cent among Negroes over ten years of age and 11.8 per cent
of Southern whites are breadwinners. Perhaps fully 50
per cent of all negro women of motherhood age have to
work for a living. This means that most of the children
have no adequate care. In a tour of investigation in
Columbia, S. C, recently, I found a home of six children
where the mother cooked for a white family. She had a
three-months-old baby and had been away from it continu
ally during the day hours since the child was one week old.
She simply gave it a sugar bag to suck, and, locking the
door, left it in the house alone all day, coming home once
during the day to nurse it. The other children were away
at school or at work. It would be nothing less than a
miracle if this child should grow into a healthy youth, and
yet this condition is found in nearly half of the negro
homes. We berate the negro women for not being more
willing to work out, and when they do we accuse them of
lack of love for their children, and put down the smaller
birth rate and the higher death rate as a matter of race
weakness. The real truth is that the infant mortality among
city Negroes is so overwhelmingly high as to materially
affect the entire rate of population increase. If we want
to have negro women to do the work in our homes, com
mon humanity and decency would dictate that we provide
day nurseries to guard the children of these women while
they cook our meals and nurse our own children. It is
also a well-known fact that there are many more stillborn
children among the Negroes than among the whites. This
is explained partly by the larger exposure of the negro
working women and partly by immorality and sexual dis-

7P PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
eases. In either case it helps to lessen the rate of increase
in negro population.
Increase in Special Diseases.
In a former volume I have gone somewhat into detail
concerning the increased prevalence of consumption, scrof
ula, syphilis, etc. I do not need to repeat these statistics
here. Without wearying the reader with figures, one can
simply summarize conclusions as to causes in so far as the
facts make these causes clear. First, much of the consump
tion is due to exposure, poor sanitation, type of labor done,
such as laundering clothes for sick people, and also due to
a large debilitation on the part of the Negro on account of
sexual immorality. This weakness on the part of the
parents gives the child much less resisting power to fight
the inroads of this disease. Second, this increased im
morality would naturally come along with the first half
century of freedom. To almost every ignorant people free
dom means license, and this is not always confined to the
ignorant people. Also the great preponderance of women
among the colored population of the cities (ii8 women to
loo men in fifteen of the cities of largest negro population)
exposes the women of a weak and untrained race to greater
temptations than they could be expected to overcome. Still
further, the economic pressure and the high cost of living
have delayed marriage by a number of months for the
whole race in the last twenty years, thus opening a new
avenue of immorality. All these facts will help to indicate
why these specific diseases have increased since i860 among
Negroes. With a larger moral training which they are now
getting in the schools, with better hygienic and sanitary
knowledge which the school children are acquiring,, and
with a more genuine interest and helpfulness on the part
of whites, these conditions ought to show a change for the
better in the next decade.

NEGRO POPULATION AND RACE MOVEMENTS 71
Negro Conditions an American Problem.
The foregoing brief summary of vital statistics, to
gether with the succeeding maps showing the present race
distribution, lead me to a number of very definite conclu
sions. The first is that the condition of the Negro, while
preponderantly a Southern question, is also fast becoming
a national question.
It will be seen from the above that there is a steady
flow from the South to the North, and if the South Atlantic
States did not include Maryland and Delaware the num
bers would be increased by some seven thousand, and a
similar decrease in the total in the South for 1910. A
careful study of the facts in the South indicates also that
the Negroes are becoming more widely spread and some
what more evenly divided. Only a few counties go con
trary to this rule. It is, therefore, evident that every Amer
ican citizen must become more and more interested in the
uplift of this race.
NUMBER OF NEGROES LIVING IN STATES OUTSIDE THE SOUTH

Negro Population

1900

1910

For Continental U. S. ....._-

8,833,994 7,922,969 911,025

9,828,294

For South Atlantic and South Central 

8,247,390

For States Outside the South  .- 

1,078,804

The Negro a Factor in the Future.
While all the facts go to show that the Negro is in
creasing less rapidly than the white man, nevertheless even
the most conservative estimates indicate that for more than
a century to come he will be a very large factor in South
ern life. We and our children and our children's children
will still have the problem of a proper race relationship
between two peoples comparatively equal in numbers. It
is pure weakness that prompts us to spend time theorizing

72 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
about the possibility of race extinction. This is not likely
to ever come, but if it should ever come it will be many
generations removed. Instead of speculating about that
probable hour, and wishing that hour to speedily arrive,
it would be far more statesmanlike and more human and
more Christian if we would begin to do something to upHft
those who are with us now. The man who theorizes about
race extinction is nine times out of ten doing nothing for
race elevation. What we need today is not more theorists,
but more workers — ^more men and women who are willing
to do their duty by the people of our own day, and leave
the future to God and the workings of the laws of nature.
Country Conditions Most Favorable to the Negro.
Our study further convinces us that the conditions of
rural life are much more conducive to the welfare, both
physical and moral, of the Negro than the city. For the
present, at least, he is not economically fitted in large num
bers to be a city dweUer. Not only so, but his impulsive
nature unfits him to meet the excitement and strain of
city life. The one wholesome and safe place for the mass
of Negroes is in the country and on the farms. It is to be
noted that the negro farmer is increasing somewhat faster
than the white farmer in the South. This is not only to
the advantage of the Negro, but to the economic advantage
of the whole section. The South is an agricultural section,
and we must induce the Negro to have his share in the agri
cultural Hfe of the section if we are to prosper. Some of
the things necessary to keep the Negro in the country will
be discussed in a later chapter. Here we want to call atten
tion alone to the fact that vital statistics point to the coun
try as the hope of the Negro population.
Self Interest and Negro Population.
The greatest economic need of the present South is an

NEGRO POPULATION AND RACE MOVEMENTS 73
intelligent and able-bodied laboring class. We have the
wealth of soil, the abundance of timber, and mineral re
sources beyond reasonable measure. These cannot be
developed without efficient labor, and lack of this more
than anything else is the cause of our backwardness at the
present time. No one can go to a cotton plantation today
and not hear the cry of scarcity of labor — because we
neither have sufficient supply nor is that supply properly
trained. The normal, healthy growth of the negro popula
tion is, therefore, a thing devoutly to be wished. We can
not prosper without his services, for, as I have pointed out
elsewhere, we cannot hope for a very large inflow of labor
from the foreign element in the near future. Conditions in
the South do not appeal to the foreigner and he prefers
to settle in the North and West. If, therefore, we allow
careless sanitation in our cities, thereby increasing the
death rate among the negro, we do it at our own economic
peril. Whether we care for the man or no, we must, as a
section, care for the fruit of his labor. A laboring man
today is more valuable than he was during slavery. A good
hand could then be hired for one hundred and fifty dollars
per year and his board. He certainly produces more than
that now, and every child which fails to grow into strong
manhood simply because of our neglect is robbing the
South of that much productive energy.
Our Responsibility.
Furthermore, if the negro race is dying rapidly, the
white man is responsible. I mean in the country we give
him so little training in the laws of hygiene that he does
not know- the art of self-preservation. I mean that we
allow city landlords to build abominable huts in which the
Negro has to live. We allow the streets in the section where
he lives — even though within the city limits — to go without
drainage, sewerage, paving, or even garbage service. We

74 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
allow practices which no self-respecting community ought
to allow, and all these things result in indifference, im
morality, physical inability and death for the Negro — and we
are his murderers. A city council which allows any land
owner to do what I saw done in one Southern city recently —
build a long row of shabby houses inside the corporate
limits, in a marsh, without drainage or sewerage, putting
the houses up on posts to keep them out of the water, and
rent those houses at 40 per cent interest on his invest
ment — any city council that will allow this is either a set
of civic imbeciles or a set of civic knaves. Nay, more, they
are a set of civic murderers. The fact that these men go
to church on Sunday and subscribe to the Y. M. C. A. on
Monday, and make a civic righteousness speech on Tuesday,
and lead the parade for the "City Ad" Club on Wednesday,
and so on through the week, does not make them any less
criminal. The truth is that in our day the criminal most to
be feared is not the red-handed murderer or the pad- footed
robber, but the men who, clothed in all their high respect
ability, sit in their fine offices and smile, while poor devils
all around them are dying for want of protection from the
greed of the money shark, the lust of the landlord, and the
chicanery of the cheap politician. The weeping of this
people ascendeth to high heaven, and we raise not our hand
to stay the cause of their lamentation. Men of the South,
we who glory in the passing of the Negro are glorying be
cause of the red-handed murder done by our own race, and
the blood of the sufferers wUl be on our heads. ,
Law of Retribution.
And already that blood is on our heads. Already the
law of retribution has begun to strike back, and whenever
a black boy dies of tuberculosis he leaves behind him a
train of suffering white boys who have contracted his dis
ease. Wherever a poor, degraded negro girl passes on

NEGRO POPULATION AND RACE MOVEMENTS 75
because of her crimes of life, she leaves some white mother
and some white child suffering the pangs of an ever-present
death because she has dragged with her some white man
to the very jaws of hell. If the figures I have given speU
anything, they spell responsibility. Instead of glorying,
as some, in what seems to be the decay of the negro race,
self-interest, self-instinct, self-preservation, humanity,
Christianity — all unite in demanding that we stay this tide
of death. The negro race, as we saw in our first chapter,
is essentially a prolific race. His nature has not and could
not completely change in a brief period of two or three
centuries. If he has become or is becoming a waning race,
it is not because of inherent racial disability, but because
his environment has been unfavorable. And it should be
noted that this environment may be changed. There is not
a cause working for the more rapid decrease of the negro
population which is not curable. If we shall give them
more decent homes to live in and more decent surround
ings, impurity will be less prevalent and infant mortality
reduced. If we shall see to it that they have better sanita
tion and better training in the laws of hygiene, there will
be less of tuberculosis, fevers and death. If we shall en
courage them to have better homes and help them to have
a larger share in the returns of labor, if we shall cease to
exploit them for our own selfish pleasure, they will begin
to have more hope, more courage, and hence a better chance
for a long and useful life. I cannot but believe that the
bare physical life of the Negro is largely in the hands of the
white man. We must be true to that trust.

76 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS

ADDENDA
I am greatly indebted to the Negro Bulletin No. 8
(1904), which anyone can secure from the Census Bureau,
for many of the facts contained in this chapter. All the
facts available at this date from the 1910 census have been
incorporated, and sufficient facts are at hand to indicate
clearly the trend of present conditions. I am indebted to
Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones, of the Census Bureau, for getting
into my hands at a very early date the preliminary census
returns (1910) which make possible the maps following
and the general statement of facts concerning the popula
tion. There may be some slight changes later in the census
returns, but they will be so slight as not to affect the value
of this work.
In order that one may know at a glance the distribution
of negro population, the maps following leave all counties
white where the whites have increased more rapidly than
the blacks during the decade from 1900 to 1910. When the
blacks have increased paraUel with or faster than the whites,
the counties have been barred. In every case the percent
age of increase for each is given. The top figure refers
to the whites; the bottom figures to the blacks. A minus
sign before a figure indicates a decrease. Thus a county
marked (cut in) would mean the whites had increased four
per cent and the Negroes had decreased two per cent be
tween 1900 and 1910. Where a single figure is given in
a county, it means both races have increased or decreased
at the same rate, or at least so nearly the same rate as to
make no appreciable difference. It is hoped that these
maps may show at a glance the general migrations of
Negroes in the former slave-holding States, and hence no
extended comments have been made. The appended figures
wiU give more detailed information for each State.

White and Negro Population by Decades from 1890 to 1910, together with Percentage of Negroes
to Total Population and Percentage ot Negro Increase by Decades.

Per cent of
Per cent of
1890
1900
1910
Negro to
Total Pop.
Increase in
Negro Pop.
1890-
1900-
White
Negro
Others
White
Negro
Others
White
Negro
Others
1900 46.7
1910 45.1
1900
1910
Georgia 
978,357
857,815
181
1,181,294
1,034,813
224
1,431.816
1,176,987
318
20.5
13.7
Virginia 
1,020,122
635,834
420
1,192,855
660,722
607
1,389,809
671,096
707
35.6
32.6
Mississippi
544,851
742,559
2,190
641,200
907,630
2,440
786,119
1,009,487
1,508
57.6
56.2
22.2
11.2
Arl?ansas 
818,752
309,117
342
944,580
366,856
128
1,131,030
442,891
52S
28.0
28.1
15.4
19.7
Alabama 
833,718
678,489
1,194
1.001,152
827.307
238
1,228.841
908,275
977
44.8
42.5
21.9
9.8
N. Carolina. ..
1,055,382
561.018
1,549
1,263,603
624,469
5,738
1,500,513
697,843
7,931
33.0
31.6
11.3
Louisiana 
558,395
559,193
1,000
729,612
650,804
1,209
941,125
713,874
1,389
42.1
43.1
16.4
W. Virginia ..
730.077
32.690
27
915,233
43,499
68
1,156,817
64,173
129
4.5
5.3
33.1
47.5
Kentuclty 
1,590,462
268,071
102
1,862,309
284,706
159
2,027.955
261,636
294
13.3
11.4
6.2
-8.1
S. Carolina 
4fi2,008
68S.934
207
537,807
782,321
188
679,162
836,843
395
59.1
55.2
13.7
Tennessee 
1,336.637
403,151
146
1.540.186
480,243
108
1,711,550
472,987
252
23.7
21.1
5.6
-1.5
Florida 
224,949
166,180
293
297,333
230,730
479
443,646
308,669
304
43. 7
41.0
38.8
33.8
Texas 
1,745,935
488,171
1,421
2,426.669
620.722
1,319
3,204,896
690,020
1,626
20.4
17.7
27.2
11.2
Maryland 
826,943
215.657
240
952,424
235,064
556
1,062,645
232,249
452
19.8
17.9
9.0
-1.2
Delaware 
140,066
28,386
41
153,977
30,697
61
171,103
30,181
38
16.8
15.4
8.1
1.6
Olclahoma 
172,554
21,609
64,494
670,204
65,684
64,503
1,444,535
137,612
75,008
7.0
8.3
157.7
147.1
78 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS

U?«UAMKRO CDUrmES IHO CENSUS RETVU^^

NEGRO POPULATION AND RACE MOVEMENTS 79

8o PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS

iCUUNTIF.1 WIIMHF. UHITES INCRtiSEO FAST
tik ARC LI-FT WHITF- THasP WHFHE NF-
tatOEi INCREX5FJ> FASTI-H AHF UAKRED
TOP FIGURE IN tACH a>UNTV MF^NS HFK
CENT INCREASE OH UKCBKVSF. OP WHITES.
¦OTTQM. FICUHE FOK NI-£KUh:^ .

UNUABKfD COUKTICS NO QlHSIA UmjANl

NEGRO POPULATION AND RACE MOVEMENTS 8i

GEORGIA.

COUNT.ES WHER6 WHiTO lNC«tASM> »A5».
EH ARB LEFT WIlTt WOSE WHEHB KB-
CHOES INCREASED FASTER AHB BARBEIk
TOP FIGURE IM EACM COUNTV MEANS FE»
cam INCREASE (iH UECHEASE OF WHITlfc
 FUU NKCHOCl

COUNTIES WrtERE WHITES INCREASBD FAST.
CB ARE LEFT WHITE- THOSE WHERE NE.
CROES INCREASED FASTER ARE BARRED.
TOP FIGURE IN EACH COUNTY MEANS PER
CENT INCREASE OR DECREASE OP WHITES,
BOTTOM FIGURE FOR NEGROES.

hiCo tnfe;o >iCi ta •—I fe: hi too •T3 too to tato

NEGRO POPULATION AND RACE MOVEMENTS 83

^

OKLAHOMA
INDIAN Territory.
coufmes uhekc whitf.s increased fast.
EK ARE LEFT WHITE THOSE WHERE NE-
CRUFJ INCREASED FASTER ARE 8ARHED.
TOJ- FIGURE IN EACH COUNXV MEANS PER
CENT INCREASE OH DECREASE OF WHITES,
BOTTOM FIGURE FUN NEGROES

UVMARKEO COUNTIES NO CENSUS RETURNS

ta
tafe;
tao tota
Co ta
Ci toota tooen to ta
CoCo

louisIana

COUVntS 4-llF.RR nHITES INCK£*SED PaSV.1
ER ARE LEFT WMITB. THOSE WHERE N&
CROES INCREASED FASTER ARB DAHRROt
TOI" FIGURE IN EACH COUNTY MEANS PER
CENT INCREASE OR DECREASE OF WHrrC^
BOTTOM PIGURE FOR NECROE&

toota o
ta
o fe: tufe:to
s o tata
fe:

PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS

»»»»¦ »'•"¦¦¦' •CO.,
SOUTH
CAROLINA.

OBUNneS WHERG WHITES INCRCASGD FaST.
m ABR LhFT WHITE THOSE WHERE Ne'
CMMiS INCKHASEU FASTER ARE BARKED
Ktr flCUHL IN bACH COUNTV
iJiNT INCHEASe OR DECREASE OF WHITk^
ViTTliM riCUHH FOU NMltUjZ&

WNM*tl6l> COUNTLEJ NO CENSUS RETUaNS

ta
CD to
otaota^:3ofe;§ to
8o ta
tafe;

COUfvfTIES WHF-HF WHITES INCREASED PAST-
FH ARE LEFT WHITE THOSE WHERE NE-
CROES INCREASED FASTER ARE BARRED
TOP FIGURE IN EACH COUNTY MEANS
CF74T INCIEASB Olt DECREASE OP WHITEV
IHJTTOM FICUR& FOR NECROE&

UNMARKfD COUNTI^ !?_*^^^^^!1^ "E'T'''^

NEGRO POPULATION AND RACE MOVEMENTS 89

^^

90

PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS'

CHAPTER IV
THE NEW TYPE OF NEGRO FARMER

A CORN SONG
O'er the fields with heavy tread,
Light of heart and high of head.
Though the halting steps be labored, slow, and weary;
Still the spirits brave and strong
Find a comforter in song,
And their corn-song rises ever loud and cheery.
Oh, we hoe de co'n
Since dc ehly mo'n;
Now de sinkin' sun
Says de day is done. — Paul Laurence Dunbar.
(92)

CHAPTER IV
THE NEW TYPE OF NEGRO FARMER
There is a glory about the old Southern life which holds
one like an enchantment. Here and there, as one travels
over this section, one still stumbles upon these old planta
tions, the ruins of which yet stand, publishing to the world
the glories of a past, but not a forgotten age. Here will
be seen a long line of cedars or elms or maples, flanking a
winding roadway that leads back to some secluded spot
where stood the manor of a Southern gentleman. These old
trees, standing as lonely but faithful sentinels guarding the
remains of a past glory, seem to have about them some of
the former dignity and pride of bearing which characterized
those who drove beneath their shades. But with all their
dignity there lingers about them an inviting atmosphere and
a comfortable leisure which reminds one of the genial hos
pitality of the typical Southern home of half a century ago.
If one has chanced upon one of the best preserved of
these old places, there can still be seen standing the neigh
borly little houses of the slave quarters, all huddled together
in that friendly familiarity which characterizes the people
sprung from their simple hearths. Here and there smoke
will be rising from the dilapidated chimney of one of the
rickety huts, and if one lingers long enough a frosty-haired
old Negro will put his head out at the door and give you
one of those cordial and kindly greetings which transports
you into another time.
Here are the stables, now decaying and empty, in which
the prancing steeds were fondled and petted by that proud
coachman whose face shone as brightly as his carriage, and
(93)

94 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGkO PROGRESS
whose head was held no less proudly than that of the dash
ing team. All about you there are signs of a former pros
perity, and a rich glory which no Southern man can ever
forget, and which no true Southerner would want to forget.
I frankly confess, call it sentiment if you will, that I never
visit one of these Southern plantations, where peace and
chivalry were wont to dwell, that the blood in my veins does
not leap faster, and there is not an almost irresistible im
pulse to go with uncovered head and to say to those about
me, "Take off thy shoes, for the ground where on thou
standest is sacred ground."
But with all the glory of its past, the regime of slave
farming was a failure. It was built upon the false prin
ciple of great landed estates on which the few had luxury
and the mass had only a living. The conditions of slave
labor drove the South deeper and deeper into that profligate
method of farming which plants only one crop and con
tinues to mine and dig until all the strength of the land has
been extracted, and then, like a tired man, the land, ex
hausted and lean, must lie and rest for a century before
nature can so far resuscitate it as to make it able to take
up the burden of crop-raising again.
The following excerpt taken from' the report of the
Wateree Agricultural Society, of South Carolina, 1843, while
declaiming for better farming methods, clearly indicates
the process of land destruction during slavery.
"For many years, while our chief marketable product,
cotton, bore a high price, many of us were in the habit of
raising that almost exclusively, and depending upon sup
plies of bread and meat from abroad, which the cotton crop
had to pay for — as well as for the animal power necessary
on the plantation; a most pernicious practice, which has
impoverished the State by millions, and been the ruin of
many planters. It is believed that stern necessity has forced
the planter to abandon this system measurably. It is un-

THE NEW TYPE OF NEGRO FARMER 95
usual for any one in this neighborhood to purchase either
bread or meat, and we are rapidly becoming raisers of our
own animal power on the plantations.
"It is believed that we are as successful as any body of
planters in the State, on the same character of lands, in the
mode of our culture. Certainly we have pressed too far the
old, and seemingly well-established doctrine, to wear out
the land by cropping without manure, and then open new
lands. But this system is also giving way to the sober
light of experience; which teaches, that one acre well ma
nured and taken care of, will produce more in the average
of years, than two acres even of fresh land, not manured." '
In letters from John B. Lamar to Mrs. Howell Cobb, his
sister, and Mr. Howell Cobb, whose plantations, in Georgia,
he managed, I take extracts showing the same conditions
of worn-out land.
". . . Lord, Lord Howell, you and I have been too
used to poor land to know what crops people are making
in the rich lands of the new counties. I am just getting my
eyes opened to the golden view. On those good lands, when
cotton is down to such a price as would starve us out, they
can make money. . . . You have a large and effective
force of hands, more effective than any of the same number
I know of in the States. But they cultivate a large propor
tion of poor land, and there is not enough of even poor land
in Baldwin for them to be properly employed. ... I
have been asleep to my interests for ten years. I have
just woke up from a Rip Van Winkle nap and found every
body around me advancing and I just holding my own on
poor lands that were (most of them) exhausted before I
ever saw them.""
It was inevitable that the old method of big farms, slave

^Quoted from Documentary History of American Industrial So
ciety, pp. 290, 291.
*Ibid, pp. 177, 178, 179.

96 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
hands and paid overseers should have just this result. Every
overseer wanted to make the largest possible show for the
year at the least possible expense, and the result was that
everything was taken off the land and nothing put back.
The wonder is that more lands were not destroyed than
were.
Amount Cultivated.
Mr. John Lee Coulter, of the Department of Commerce
and Labor, has prepared a statement concerning farm life
in the Southern States east of the Mississippi River, a copy
of which manuscript he has been kind enough to put into
my hands. According to his estimate there were farms in
these States aggregating 161,607,000 acres in i860, and these
farms contained on an average 321 acres. The number of
farms was 504,000, and the land, building improvement and
machinery were all valued at $2,048,000,000. The imme
diate effect of the war was to throw much of this land out
of cultivation because of lack of labor and lack of capital,
and reduce farm values to half the former amount. In
1870 the total farm values listed were $1,137,000,000, in
1880 it was $1,486,000,000, in 1890 it was $1,875,000,000,
and not till 1900 did it stand at $2,135,000,000, just 4 per
cent more than it was reported in i860. These figures tell
a long story of painful toil and slow, patient recovery. None
who failed to see the two types of life can ever know quite
what the war really cost the South. While the remainder of
the country was forging ahead, forty years were consumed
in the South getting back to where we were in i860. It is
with gladness and hope that we report a growth of 102
per cent in farm values frora 1900 to 1910, the figures now
standing at $4,318,000,000.
SmaUer Farms.
.The amount of land in farms in these Southeastern

THE NEW TYPE OF NEGRO FARMER 97
States in 1910 (163,000,000 acres) is only a comparatively
few acres more than in i860, and yet there are four times
as many farms now as then, making the average size of a
farm today only 84 acres, about half of which is in culti
vation, the other half being in woods lot, pasture, etc.
This marks a long step in the progress of the South, for it
means more independent farmers and better cultivated
farms. The number of white farmers in the United States
in 1910 was 5,422,892, an increase of 9.1 per cent over the
previous decade, while the number of colored farms was
917,465, or an increase of 19.5 per cent. Thus it seems
the Negro has a greater disposition to stay on the farm than
has the white man.
Enemies of Southern Farm Life.
The three arch enemies of Southern farm life today are
the tenant system, which appears under various guises; the
one crop system, which continues to do what it did during
slavery — eat up the land and leave it worthless ; and lastly,
that form of isolation which cheats the rural dweller out
of his birthright of culture, growth and enjoyment. All of
those evils bear more heavily on the average Negro than on
the white man in the country.
The Tenant System.
Before the war the large farms in the South were
worked by gangs of slaves usually under the eye of an
overseer, while the smaller farms in the North were worked
by hired labor. After the war the old plantation owner
began to divide his farm up into smaller plots and rent each
plot to a family for cultivation. He had no other recourse,
for he did not have enough surplus cash to hire labor to do
the work, and besides, hired labor was very unreliable and
scarcely to be had. Many of the old slaves stayed on the
plantation and the owner aidc^. them '.-) the best of his

98 PRESENT. FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
ability by standing for their credit at the store where they
got provisions and seed to carry them until the crop could
be made. In this way there gradually grew up in the South
a tenant system. The terms of tenantry are of three kinds :
First, a cash tenant or renter ; second, one who pays a fixed
amount of produce; and third, the sharer or cropper who
pays one-half or one-fourth of what he makes in accord
ance with whether or not the landlord furnishes stock and
seed, or whether these are furnished by the cropper. The
grades of a negro farmer, therefore, are considered to stand
in the following order: (i) Owner, (2) cash renter, (3)
fourth cropper, (4) half cropper. Many of the Negroes
begin at No. 4 and go toward No. i as rapidly as possible.
The number of farms worked by tenants throughout the
.United States in 1910 was 2,349,254, or 37.1 per cent of all
farms, an increase of 2 per cent over 1900. In Mississippi
66 per cent of the farms are worked by tenants, likewise
nearly 66 per cent in Georgia, 63 per cent in South Caro
lina, 60 per cent in Alabama, 40 per cent in North Carolina
and Tennessee, in Kentucky 24 per cent and in Virginia
27 per cent. It will be noted that those States — Mississippi,
Georgia and South Carolina — where the negro population
is very large are the States where the tenantry system is
most prevalent. Therefore, it is seen at once that the Negro
is the greatest sufferer from this type of farming. .This
problem demands careful thought.
More Produce Raised Under the Tenant System.
The old tenant system has been defended times without
number by farmers who claim that a Negro, and even the
renting whites, can raise more than they would if they
owned the land and were free to cultivate it as they pleased.
This argument is made on the assumption, true indeed at
present, that the mass of these farmers have not sufficient
knowledge or persistence to make a good crop without care-

THE NEW TYPE OF NEGRO FARMER 99
ful supervision. In the tenant system the landlord not only
stipulates what shall be planted, when and where it shall be
planted, but he usually keeps an eye on the growing crop
and sees to it that the tenant keeps it worked and gathers
it properly. There can be no doubt that this does help
to increase the yield with all the less experienced and less
ambitious farmers. But it is not alone what a man makes
that benefits him, it is what he lays away or wisely spends.
In the figures gathered by the 1910 census it has come out
quite clearly that while a share tenant actually produces
more on the average than a cash tenant or an owner, yet the
cash tenant saves more and has more to show for his labor
than the cropper, and the owner has more to show than the
cash tenant. From the standpoint, therefore, of the farmer
we must, of necessity, favor the small farm ownership
among Negroes as well as whites. We can only hope that
more careful training and continued responsibility will ena
ble them to raise as much as they would under white super
vision.One-Crop System and Tenantry.
It ought also to be mentioned that where the one crop
system prevails, that is, where only cotton, tobacco or sugar
cane is raised, the farms tend to increase in size and all the
land tends to be cultivated by the cropper. Thus in the
Mississippi and Brazos River bottoms, one can easily see
thousands of acres cultivated under one management, every
Negro having a little plot which he farms, paying one- fourth
of his produce for the use of the land. I drove one day in
the Brazos bottom through plantations measuring 1,900
acres, 2,400 acres, 2,900 acres, 5,000 acres and 10,000 acres,
respectively, and in all my drive saw only one plot of land
that belonged to a Negro. On all these plantations, cotton
alone was raised, with just enough corn to feed the mules
^nd horses, often not that much.

100 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
Here the tenant starts the year in debt, so he must go
to the landlord's store and get provisions and supplies on
credit. Usually he is allowed ten to twelve dollars per
month for supplies, and a little money to buy whisky on
Saturday. When the crop is gathered in the fall there is
comparatively little left after the bill at the store has been
paid. In many cases the Negro is charged two prices for his
supplies, and if it looks as though the crop would be extra
good, he is encouraged to spend more liberally. Not a few
planters keep the Negro perpetually in debt in order that it
may be impossible for him to move off the place at the
close of the year.
Tenantry and Whiskey.
One of the paradoxes I have met in traveling through
these tenant-farming districts is the attitude of the manager
toward whiskey and the Negro. If you sit down to discuss
with him the economic efficiency of the Negro, he will usual
ly swear at him, call him worthless, unambitious, shiftless
and almost anything vile. He never fails to tell you that
the Negro will not work Saturday, for that is his day for
drinking and gambling, which carousal lasts into Sunday,
and then most of Monday must be used in "sobering up." I
had one planter tell me in hard earnest he could not get
more than three and a half to four days' work out of his
tenants — Tuesday morning until Friday noon or Friday
night at most. The other three days he said were used in
drinking, gambling, carousing and getting sober. When I
asked him where they got the whiskey, he said at the plan
tation store. On my asking why he did not quit selling
whiskey, he replied he did not dare, for the Negroes would
go to the next plantation and not only buy their whiskey,
but spend all their surplus cash. Then I asked why all the
planters did not combine and agree tq put out whiskey, and
his reply was that the Negroes would leave the country. But,

THE NEW TYPE OF NEGRO FARMER loi
they had never tried it, and those counties that have tried
it have lost absolutely nothing but the worthless class, those
whom everybody could well spare.
No, this was not the secret. When I went over to the
store I found the real secret. The keeper told me whiskey
was his big trade, and the store looked it. There were forty
big empty whiskey barrels sitting out on the front platform
at that minute. I got a picture of those barrels, though
the keeper thought I was taking a picture of his store front.
He told me he sold from six to twelve carloads of whiskey
per year, and it was cheap whiskey, not cheap to the Negro,
but cheap to the store man. The real reason the whiskey
stays there is, that the average planter of this type prefers
to get, as rent, one-fourth of what a Negro can make work
ing four days in the week; and then get for whiskey nine-
tenths of the remaining three-fourths. At the end of the
year the poor Negro has drunk up all his surplus and cannot
possibly pay out, so he must stick to the land.
Exceptional Landlords.
Of course there are notable exceptions. I have seen
many good planters who honestly did their best to help the
tenants save and prosper. I visited such a place owned
and operated by Mr. R. K. Boney in the Mississippi bottom.
He has seventy-five families on his place. The houses are
all in good repair. Every family has space for a garden,
a yard, pigs, and horses, and cattle. They are encouraged to
raise all their meat at home. They are urged to have a
garden and to raise enough corn to give them their meal
as well as feed. While at Mr. Boney's place he called his
Negroes together for me to speak to them on better farm
ing, and at that meeting offered to give them liberal first,
second and third money prizes for the most improvement
during the year. There are others like Mr. Boney and in
them there is much hope for the negro race.

102 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
Better Tenants.
Likewise there are exceptions among tenants. Here and
there one finds a tenant who will not drink, who saves his
money and who means later to buy land. I found one such
on the Brazos River, Texas, who after paying all his bills
for the year put three thousand dollars in the bank as the
result of his year's labor. Another one on the same plan
tation started without a dollar in money and five hundred
dollars in debt. He bought two yoke of oxen with which
he made his crop, and when the year closed, after paying for
his oxen and settling his debts, he put eight hundred dollars
in the bank. But these are the rare exceptions. Most
Negroes have not the self-denial to do a thing of this kind,
under the existing circumstances.
I believe if the plantations in the South are ever to come
to their best producing efficiency, it must be not through the
exploitation of the tenant, but through giving him the
largest possible share in the fruits of his labor and encour
aging him to save the same, thus becoming a more respon
sible and respectable citizen. The one sure escape from the
evils of the tenant system is to help the Negro buy land
and to farm for himself.
The One-Crop System.
I have said the one crop system means larger farms and
tenantry. It also means a very rapid deterioration of the
soil. As one rides through Georgia, South Carolina or Vir
ginia, he sees literally thousands of acres of worn-out land
from which all the fertility has been taken, and it has been
turned out as worthless. This is due to the continual rota
tion of a single crop, like cotton, corn or tobacco.
But the wearing out of the soil is not the only evil of the
one crop system. It means poverty and lack of home com
fort. The man who plants all his field in cotton must spend
most of his ready cash for meat and cornmeal ; while if he

THE NEW TYPE OF NEGRO FARMER 103
had planted only a part of his field in corn he might have
a few good hogs, a garden, some chickens and his own meal
right at home, and whatever ready cash his cotton brought
might be spent in comforts or simple luxuries.
Thus on St. Helena Island one of the managers of the
stores told me that the 7,000 Negroes on the island bought at
least three-fourths of all the meat they ate, and bought large
quantities of grits (ground corn), both of which they might
easily have raised at home. Speaking of the evils of the
tenant system, in its relation to soil deterioration, Prof.
Carl Kelsey says:
". . . This system has hindered the development of
diversified farming, which today is one of the greatest needs
of the South. The advances {by the landlord) have been
conditioned upon the planting and cultivating a given
amount of cotton. . . . All else has faded into insig
nificance before the necessity of raising cotton. The result
on the fertility of the soil is also evident. Luckily cotton
makes light demands on the land, but the thin soil of many
districts has been unable to stand even the light demands.
Guano came just in time, and the later commercial ferti
lizers have postponed the evil day. The development of the
cotton mills has also served to give a local market, which has
stimulated the production of cotton. It seems rather evi
dent, however, that the increasing development of western
lands will put a heavier burden upon the Atlantic slope.
This, of course, will not effect the culture of sea island
cotton, which is grown in only limited areas. To meet this
handicap a more diversified agriculture must gradually sup
plant in some way the present over-attention to cotton. In
early days Virginia raised much cotton, now it stands toward
the bottom of the cotton States. Perhaps it is safe to say
that Virginia land has been as much injured by the more
exhaustive crop, tobacco, as the other States by cotton.'
Large areas have been allowed to go back to the woods and

104 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
local conditions have greatly changed. How this diversi
fication is to be brought about for the negro is one of the
most important questions."
Country Life and Isol'ation.
One of the most serious problems of country life, and
perhaps the one more difficult to meet than any other, is
that of isolation. One prime difference between city life
and country life lies in the fact that in the former one
continually touches elbows with many others engaged in
similar pursuits. Out of this social contact comes con
tagion of character and inspiration and stimulus for high
endeavor. Reading will not take the place of this personal
association. But it is just this lack of social contact which
makes the most serious handicap to progress in the country.
Families are scattered, particularly in the South, where
population is sparse, and there is little of community life.
The woman especially is at home all day alone, and the man
not infrequently works by himself in the field. Here is a
special handicap for the negro farmer. He is gregarious
and does his best work in a group where all move to the
monotonous sound of an oft-repeated refrain. Besides the
bleakness and barrenness of the country home, the school
and church of the Negro are enough to send cold chills
through one's whole system. I have been in close cor
respondence with the United States farm demonstrators
over the South. I have before me full reports from almost
all of them, in which they say, almost to a man, that the
rural Negro has no form of recreation or amusement. A
few say the men go to town for recreation. There are no
places of recreation where people gather to meet each other.
How to overcome these baneful influences and keep the
country people satisfied with the country is the herculean
task of our present day.
This perhaps can best be done by setting up better meth-

THE NEW TYPE OF NEGRO FARMER log
ods of communication by way of rural mail, rural telephone,
and better roads. Many a county would find it a paying
investment to vote heavy bonds for good country roads,
even though a large proportion of the taxes fell on the city,
because it would give a more prosperous and contented coun
try life, and in its final analysis few Southern counties are
wholly prosperous save in so far as the agricultural pursuits
are in a flourishing condition.
Make Schoote Attractive.
Furthermore, we must do more to make the country
school attractive, and make it more of a community center.
I do not know anything more dreary than a little frame
school-house, unpainted, set in a small stumpy piece of
ground, with the weeds growing rank about it, and sur
rounded by an atmosphere of disuse and decay. This is poor
economy. This little house should be neat and well painted,
the grounds should be well kept, flowers should be bloom
ing much of the year, it should have an air of prosperity and
cheer about it. Then it should be opened once a week at
least for some form of entertainment. There should be
spelling bees, moving pictures, social evenings, farmers'
meetings, mothers' clubs, boys' debates, sewing circles and
what not, held in this little building. In other words, it
should act as the social center and clearing house of the
community. It is set there not simply as a place for teach
ing children their a-b, ab's, but as a place to teach the
whole community how to live. As I have remarked in
another place, the school grounds ought to be the play
ground of the whole community. Now compare this ideal
with what actually exists in any colored community you
know! How that old house shrivels and dwarfs in the
presence of a picture of what it might be. When we get a
sufficient number of county superintendents who really care
for the rural school community, both white and colored, we

io6 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
will be on the road toward this larger ideal. In like manner,
more must be done with and for the country church. We
need a new type of minister who is trained for his place
in the country. The old ideal that the country church is a
place to forsake as soon as a city appointment can be secured
is certainly false. There is no greater chance in the world
than to be the pastor and leader of the religious life of a
whole country community. There the pastor has little com
petition for the attention of the people. If he is awake
and vital, he can do what he will.
Functions of the Church.
President Butterfield, speaking of the mission of the
church to the rural community, puts it thus :^
"Libraries have been written in support of the thesis
that human character finds its heights only under the in
spiration and guidance of the religious motive. There is
no need of extended argument here. I wish to say square
ly, however, that we cannot, in my judgment, hope ade
quately to idealize country life nor to secure the largest
development either of personal character or of neighborhood
welfare, except by appealing to the great Christian princi
ples of the Fatherhood of God, the Masterhood of Jesus and
the Brotherhood of Man.
"This statement is sufficient to justify the church in
standing specifically for the maintenance and enlargement
of rural ideals, because the Christian church has been for
centuries the institution through which these great principles
have found voice. The church has a right, therefore, to
assume leadership in the permanent work of developing and
applying the religious motive to the hopes and aspirations
of men. This leadership just now is peculiarly imperative
because of the marked tendency everywhere to reduce our
higher life to an unreligious basis."
'"The Country Church and the Rural Problem," p. 80.

THE NEW TYPE OF NEGRO FARMER 107
The whole of country life needs to be socialized, and
better means of communication, better schools, better
churches and a larger community spirit will help to do this.
Farm Ownership.
The first mark of real encouragement lies in the fact
of increased farm ownership among Negroes. Unfortunate
ly until 1900, the census figures do not discriminate between
white and colored ownership. At that time one-third of all
the farms in Southern States east of the Mississippi were
operated by colored farmers, but only one-fifth of these men
owned the farms they operated. The number of owners has
greatly increased during the last decade, there being 23,822
more negro farm owners in this section in 1910 than there
were in 1900. In some sections of the South ownership has
increased much more rapidly than in other sections. In
Georgia ownership has increased 28 per cent during the
decade, in Virginia 21, while in South Carolina it has in
creased only 7 per cent.
Thus in Virginia the Negroes now own i, 551,435 acres,
valued at $13,517,807. There are in Virginia about four
million acres in cultivation, and while the Negroes only own
about 6 per cent of the land of the State, it is perfectly safe
to say they own from one-eighth to one-tenth of all the
land in cultivation. A large proportion of the land which
they own is in very small tracts of from five to twenty-five
acres, and hence is largely in cultivation. In Gloucester
County, Virginia, alone, the Negroes own 1,857 farm plots,
assessed at $119,381. These farm plots contain 133,549
acres of land, being 14.79 per cent of the entire acreage
of the county.
In visiting St. Helena Island I found that almost every
Negro owned his land — usually from ten to twenty-five acres.
In one county in Georgia negro farm ownership increased
73 per cent betw-een 1900 and 1910. Reports from the United

io8 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
States Farm Demonstrators all over the South indicate
that Negroes almost everywhere are buying land. To my
surprise, of all these men answering my question, as to
whether there was any opposition to the Negroes buying
land, every man without exception said there was absolutely
no opposition. Farm ownership almost always means better farm
methods, greater soil preservation, better farm buildings
and equipment, and, what is more important than all, better
satisfied farmers, hence better citizens. It also offers oppor
tunity to give the children better training, for the child
stays in the same school for a number of years and hence
does not lose its grading from year to year. Of all the white
farm demonstrators who answered my letters, I think only
two questioned whether farm ownership made better farm
ers of negro men, and no one thought he was a poorer
farmer because of ownership.
Heroic Fight of Negroes for Ownership.
The heroic fight which many an obscure negro farmer
is making in order to buy his land is splendid beyond the
belief of the average white man. I was driving in Nottoway
County, Virginia, and came upon a place owned by a Negro
named Moses Fitzgerald. I went out into the field where
he was at work, and found him barefooted harrowing and
sowing clover. I learned something of his simple life story.
Born a slave, starting with nothing, he began as a boy to
trap rabbits and sell them for fifteen cents each and the
hides for three cents each. In this way he accumulated
enough to buy his first little plot, on which he began farm
ing; saving scrupulously every penny, until now he owns
one hundred and fifty-five acres, has built a good five-room
house, has a good team, and sends his children to school.
Another man in the same county interested me very
much. Both he and his wife were born slaves. He began

THE NEW TYPE OF NEGRO FARMER 109
buying his little plot shortly after the war, when land was
cheap. The piece he bought was badly run down; so he
went out on the public road each morning at daylight with
a wheelbarrow and shovel and picked up the fertilizer to be
placed on his little plot. He now owns one hundred acres
of land, has a new house of five rooms, neatly furnished and
spotlessly clean, flowers in the yard, and good chickens,
hogs, garden, and all the comforts one would expect in a
good country home. I could give literally dozens of cases
which have come under my personal observation, showing
the splendid heroism qf these people. They richly deserve
to succeed, and this is worth knowing among city people,
for we are all too apt to judge the whole negro race by the
lazy, shiftless loafer that hangs around the alleys.
Farm Demonstration Work.
If one wants to see an economic regeneration where the
economically dead are raised to life, the lepers are cleansed
and the blind have their sight restored, he could do no better
than to visit some of the work of the LTnited States farm
demonstrators in the South. Some of the things we see
with our own eyes are more wonderful than the fairy stories
with which our mothers charmed away our childish cares.
A farm demonstrator is usually a practical farmer who
has had some special training in scientific methods of farm
ing and has proven his ability to make crops. Such a man
is employed by the United States Department of Agricul
ture to study the conditions of his county or district with
a view to improvement of soil, adaptation of fertilizers, and
choosing of seeds, etc. This demonstrator works by get
ting a number of individual farmers to agree to cultivate a
small plot — usually from one to five acres — under his direc
tion. He prescribes the kind of fertilizer, the method of
cultivation and the variety of seed. These government
agents are working now in every State in the South, though

no PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
as yet many counties in each State are untouched. There
are both white and colored demonstrators, but in counties
where there are no colored demonstrators, the white men
often help the negro farmers just as they do the white
farmers. / am sorry to say this is not always the case.
Alabama Demonstration Work.
Just what this method of work is accomplishing will be
readily seen from the report of Mr. B. L. Moss, State Agent
for Alabama:'
"Reports received to date from our agents indicate that
they had an average of thirty demonstrations in cotton,
averaging three acres each, or a total of ninety acres of cot
ton per agent worked according to demonstration methods.
The same reports indicate that they had an average of
twenty corn demonstrations each, averaging two and one-
half acres, or a total of fifty acres of corn per agent work
ing according to demonstration methods. Multiplying these
figures by seventy, the number of agents employed in Ala
bama, we have a total of 3,600 acres of cotton and 3,500
acres of corn worked according to demonstration methods.
The average yield per acre on these cotton demonstrations
will certainly be not less than 1,200 pounds per acre, against
500 pounds average for the State under old methods. This
gives a gain of 700 pounds of seed cotton per acre, worth
$25.00, or a total gain on the demonstration cotton plots
alone of $157,500. Pursuing the same line, we may safely
estimate that our demonstrations will each average thirty-
five bushels of corn per acre against the ten-year average
for the State of Alabama of only twelve bushels per acre
old method. This gives a gain of twenty-three bushels per
acre, worth at present prices $20.00. Hence we find on our
3,500 acres that we have a total increase in the corn crop
'MS Copy of report sent to Mr. Bradford Knapp, Washington,
D. C, November 16, 191 1.

THE NEW TYPE OF NEGRO FARMER ill
valued at $70,000; $157,500 plus $70,000, gives a total of
$227,500 per annum from demonstration plots alone. Add
to this an equal increase secured by our cooperators and
we have a total increase in crop of $455,000. Our results
are a justification for the existence of the demonstration
work. We have spent in this State this year, from all
sources, about $60,000, and have received in return there
for not less than $455,000, or 750 per cent per annum on
the investment."
Negro Farmers Eager for Help.
It is my observation that negro farmers are more eager
for help and more amenable to instructions than the average
white farmer.
My que^ion of the farm demonstrators as to ability of
these farmers to follow instructions reveals the fact that
all agree the farmers are capable. The State of Florida
reports 600 negro farmers following demonstration methods.
One county in Alabama reports 500 listed as demonstrators,
Oklahoma reports yy demonstrators and 249 cooperators. J.
B. Pierce, State Agent for farm demonstration work among
Negroes in Virginia, writes that he has six local agents
working under him with 1,000 negro farmers doing demon
stration work. J. E. Blanton, of St. Helena Island, writes
he has seventy negro farmers demonstrating with him, and
so the story goes. Every agent who has tried it, and to
whom I have talked, says the negro farmer is eager and
willing to follow instructions, and usually fully competent
to do so. We need more agents for Negroes, and more white
men willing to help the Negro in the absence of negiro
agents.
Remarkable Results of the Work.
I went with Mr. Pierce, in Nottaway County, Virginia,
to visit the home of Wm. Keaton, a Negro, who owns

112 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
seventy acres for which he paid $900 several years ago. For
years he had been living in a two-room house because
he was making very little on his farm. He told me he was
forced to work out at least half the year to get enough
ready money to keep something for his family to eat. He
had been making eight to ten bushels of corn per acre prior
to his demonstration work. He began work on scientific
lines four years ago, and is now raising forty bushels of
corn to the acre on the same land that formerly produced
only eight. He has built him a good two-story house of
four rooms in front of the old one, and it is nicely furnished
and was clean and neat. The yard fences were all white
washed, the house painted, flowers in the yard and rockers
on the front porch. He has three good horses, three good
milk cows, seven head of Berkshire hogs, a wagon, a buggy,
and his whole farm has an air of prosperity. His face
fairly beamed as he told me fartn demonstration had been
his salvation.
Or take another illustration: Jasper P. Lee, of Ware
Neck, Gloucester County, Virginia. He owns only five acres
in all. He was born a slave, but has acquired enough train
ing to do the farm demonstration work. He raises forty
bushels of corn to the acre instead of twenty, as on the
old method. He has two horses, a good cow, a six-room
house, which was well kept, and in it I was pleased to find a
very good copy of Raphael's Madonna framed and hanging
on the wall. This reminds me that in another negro farm
home in Virginia I found not a bad reproduction of Sir
Joshua Reynolds-West Window in New College. The
woman in whose house I found this was a resident of
Gloucester County also, and while she prized the picture
highly, did not know just what it was.
Or to take one more simple illustration out of many
dozens one could give. Mr. J. E. Blanton, the demonstration
agent on St. Helena Island, kindly drove me all over the

THE NEW TYPE OF NEGRO FARMER 113
island to see the home and farm conditions. We stopped
one day at the home of two brothers who now own and
occupy jointly one of the old overseer houses of slavery days.
These brothers were reared together, have always farmed
side by side, and so each man had about an equal chance.
Brother No. i agreed to tend part of his land on demon
stration methods ; No. 2 refused, saying he could farm
as well as any agent and did not need help. They planted
their corn side by side, there being simply a fence between.
Each worked hard, for there was a degree of rivalry there.
No. I made forty-two bushels per acre and No. 2 made
nineteen. It goes without saying both will work on demon
stration methods this coming year. One of the negro
preachers told me rather shamefacedly that he had laughed
at the idea of scientific farming, but he had made last year
fifty-eight bushels to the acre. When asked what he had
been making on the old method he did not want to tell, but
when pressed said he had made twenty bushels on four
acres. To the Negroes this new method of farming is noth
ing less than a blessing from heaven. It opens the door of
hope to them. It makes it possible for them to see a time
when they can have a respectable living and a decent home.
The uplift of the negro race must be accomplished by
means of the fulcrum of a sound economic progress, and
here lies the hope of many a discouraged farmer. What is
needed is a demonstration agent in every county in the South
to help these men out of their ignorance and despair into
larger ideals and a larger hope. Seeing what this work can
do, the bankers and merchants in some places are paying
the salary of such a demonstrator, believing it will more
than repay them in added prosperity for the community.
Prosperity in Other Phases of Life.
But economic prosperity does not go alone. Wherever
the farmers are doing better work it at once shows in the

114 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
homes. As I remarked before I drove three days through
Gloucester County, Virginia, and in all that time I did not
see a single one-room cabin occupied. Most of the people
have built four, five and six-room houses. I went into many
of these homes and found them neat, clean and attractive.
Also the churches take on at once a new appearance. I
visited four in Gloucester County and found not a single
window glass broken, the aisles carpeted, good lights and
much more attractive houses than many a white church in
which I have spoken. The schools, likewise, take on a new
power where the people are prosperous. The people are
able to pay better salaries, they get better teachers, and the
children attend more regularly. Almost every demonstra
tion agent writing me explicitly says the schools have im
proved since the demonstration work began. One agent
writes : "We are just now trying to work out something
in the line of amusements." Others tell how they interest
the boys in corn clubs, of which I have not had time to
speak. Still others tell of its influence in the home in the way
of gardening clubs for girls. Speaking of its general influ
ence on the life of the community, S. H. Murphy, a negro
demonstration agent for Kenshaw County, South Carolina,
writes : "It is a remarkable fact that the increased yields
of corn and cotton have surprised some farmers to a certain
degree, but what interests them most is the fact that they see
the beginning of the possibilities of the soil, the "door of
hope." Many who simply could not make a crop of corn
are delighted. Incidentally, "King ( ?) Cotton's" throne is
tottering for more reasons than low prices of that product.
They see the possibilities in hogs and cattle with food for
them. In February we called a farmers' conference, and in
October re-enforced this with a county fair. Since the
showing of hogs here five farmers have secured high-priced,
pure-bred Berkshire sires. Of course these will help others,

THE NEW TYPE OF NEGRO FARMER 115
and will prove themselves among the best citizens of their
communities (I mean the hogs)."
It has been estimated by workers in the Census Bureau
that in 1910 Negroes were cultivating, either as owners,
tenants or hired laborers, one hundred million acres of land.
If farm demonstration work can double the yield of these
millions of acres, the white people of the South will be
stupid indeed if they do not insist that these negro farmers
be given a full chance. Here is the opportunity for the
white farm demonstrator to prove that he is a democrat
indeed, and believes in an equal chance for all by helping his
negro neighbor.
Spiritualization of Progress.
All this material prosperity must be spiritualized and
idealized. I mean we must not allow these people simply to
make money for the sake of making it. We must do for
them just what must be done for all advancing people, we
must set ideals before them which are worthy and Chris
tian. Of this need for idealism in the country. President
Butterfield well says:
"One grave danger to permanent progress is the low
level of ideals, determined by community standards. It is
not that the average ideals are lower than in the city. I
think they are higher. But they come perilously close to a
dead level in immense areas of the country. . . . As a
consequence the rural community is in constant danger of
stagnation — of settling down into the easy chairs of satis
faction. Rural life needs constant stimulus of imported
ideas — a stimulus of suggestion apart from its daily rou
tine. "Moreover, rural ideals sometimes lack breadth and
variety. Life in the country easily becomes monotonous,
humdrum. It needs broadening as well as elevating. It needs
variety, gaiety, but these changes can find their proper

Ii6 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
Stimulus only in motives that are high and w-orthy. Hence
an appeal must be made for the cultivation of ideals of
personal development and neighborhood advancement.
"Lack of ideals is in a sense responsible for the drift
away from the farm. Some people leave the country be
cause they cannot realize their ideals in the existing rural
atmosphere. Others go because they have no thought of the
possibilities of country life. . . . Attention has been
called to the fact that rural life is more full of poetry than
any other. But rural romance is often stifled in the atmos
phere of drudgery and isolation. This high sentiment is of
the soul and can come only as the soul expands. It is not
merely an enjoyment of trees, crops and animals. It is in
part a sense of exaltation born of contact with God at work.
It has in it an element of triumph because great powers
are being harnessed for man's bidding. It has in it some
what of the air of freedom because of dealing with forces
free and wild except as they are held in leash by an unseen
Master driver. It has in it much of worship, because of all
the deep mysteries of seed and soil, and because of the
everlasting, patient procession of the seasons and their vicis
situdes. / can conceive of preaching that would give to
farm men and women a new birth of aspiration and hope,
simply because it should set vibrating the chords of poetry
and romance that are strung upon the harps of men at work
in God's out-of-doors, strings too often untouched by any
hand save that of chance."
When the farm life of the Negro shall have been so far
developed as to lay a deep, broad, economic foundation for
his progress, when this economic welfare has found an ex
pression in better schools and better churches, and when
all the rural processes shall have been spiritualized, then
shall we be beginning to solve the race question. Every
white and colored man should be a well-wisher and willing
worker to this end.

CHAPTER V
IMPROVEMENT IN RURAL SCHOOLS

STICKIN' TO DE HOE
I ain't got no edikashun
But dis I kno' ara true,
Dat raisin' gals too good to wuck
Ain't nebber gwine to do;
Dese boys dat look good 'nuf to eat,
But too good to saw de logs,
Am kay'n us ez fas' ez smoke.
To Ian' us at de dogs.
¦I s'pose dat I'm ol' fashun'.
But God made man to plow,
An' git his libbin by de sweat
Dat trickles down his brow.
While larnin' an' all dem things
Am mighty good fur sho',
De bes' way we kin make our pints
Is stickin' to de hoe.
To fill de hed wid larnin'
Dat de fingers kan't express.
To dis poor ig'nunt brudder
Don't seem to be de bes';
To git de edikashun
An' lam to work ez well.
Seems to my 'umble judgment,
De thing dat's gwine to tell,
t^-Daniel Webster Davi.f

CHAPTER V
IMPROVEMENT IN RURAL SCHOOLS
The overwhelming per cent of the negro people live in
rural communities, so that whatever progress is to be made
must come through better rural conditions. The rural
school, therefore, has a unique opportunity to minister to
the needs of the negro race; hence, it is a matter of para
mount importance that these schools shall be thorough, pro
gressive, and closely related to the needs of the community.
The importance of this agency is all the more clearly
understood when we come to see the intense eagerness of
the rural Negro for training. In the country where the
excitement of the city has not distracted and spoiled the
negro child, the majority of them can be found in school,
and that quite regularly when school is in session. Thus
in Kentucky, while only 51 per cent of the negro children
of school age in the towns and cities during the years 1910-
191 1 enrolled in school, 66 per cent of the children of school
age in rural communities were enrolled. On a visit to St.
Helena Island, South Carolina, I found that there were
scores of children eager to come to the school and walk
from three to eight miles each way. One morning just
after chapel service I found three boys just arriving. They
were a httle late, for which they looked a bit shamefaced,
but I could never have the hardihood to call them tardy, for
the teacher told me they lived ten miles away, which distance
they walked twice each day regularly. Where a whole peo
ple are as eager as this, that institution which ministers to
their hunger has an opportunity unbounded. (119)

120 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
Weakness of the Present System.
It seems almost presumptions for one not actively en
gaged in public school work to attempt to criticise the
present system. Yet, I do not do this without careful fore
thought. I have visited a great many rural negro schools
in a number of States, have talked again and again with
the men who are giving their lives to this field of school
supervision, have read diligently the reports of all the State
supervisors in the South, and have taken special care that
the facts laid down here are carefully sifted. Rural schools
of all types are poor enough, but the rural negro schools
are bad beyond comprehension.
Buildings Inadequate.
The proverbial log cabin as a school-house is still not a
thing of the past in the South. Florida had in 1910, 313 still
in use. Of these, Negroes have just about their proportion
as compared with the number used by the whites. But it
does not help matters to say that some whites go to school
in the same type of buildings. South Carolina has i,777
school buildings for Negroes, costing on the average
$246.88 for buildings and grounds. When we remember
that this includes all the buildings and grounds in cities,
we will readily see that the average country school building
is a mere hut. This is certainly in keeping with my per
sonal observations in this State. Of these buildings Prof.
W. K. Tate, State Supervisor of Rural Schools, says : "The
negro school-houses are miserable beyond all description.
They are usually without comfort, equipment, proper light
ing or sanitation." ' Again he says in his report to the State
Superintendent: "The negro school buildings are in most
cases a serious reflection on our civilization. They are with
out adaptation to school work, are destitute of all proper
'"Forty-third Annual Report State Superintendent of Educa
tion of S. C," p. 115.

IMPROVEMENT IN RURAL SCHOOLS I2I
furniture and equipment, frequently without window sash,
usually unceiled, often without any kind of heating arrange
ments, and comfortless and unsanitary in the extreme. They
are usually erected by private effort and without any sort of
suggestion or direction from any competent authority." '
In Virginia the last biennial report gives for 1909, 544
log school-houses still in service, of which the Negroes use
their full share. I visited one such school-house in Vir
ginia, in which one of the trustees told me that in a room
twenty feet square, with o.ne small window, one teacher
had had the year before ninety pupils enrolled, with an
average daily attendance of sixty-six, and there w-ere not
any upper berths, either. How the teacher got them all in
I could not possibly understand.
Texas, with her seventy million-dollar school fund, owns
only 1,457 school-houses for Negroes, only 185 of which the
Superintendent is willing to report as in good condition,
471 are in bad condition, and all the others only fair. Six
hundred and eighty-two other negro schools are taught in
rented buildings. I visited a large plantation on the Brazos
River in Texas where between one and two hundred negro
families are employed, and where it was reported the land
lord cleared $40,000 in cash last year off his cotton crop, and
yet the negro school-house was a bare shell, all dilapidated,
and costing originally not more than two or three hundred
dollars. There is not a State in the South that has any
thing like adequate buildings for its negro students. Every
Southern white man who reads these lines ought to hang
his head with shame that we have boasted of what we are
doing for the Negro, and are still trying to give them
training in places, many of which would not be good enough
for a horse or a mule.

'"Forty-second Annual Report State Superintendent of Educa
tion of S. C," p. 92.

122 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
Poor Sanitation.
One of the weakest places of the rural school is in its
lack of sanitation. In most cases the sanitation cannot even
be called poor ; there is none. The superintendent of schools
for Virginia reports for 1909 3,952 schools having out
houses, not all of them really sanitary, and 3,051 schools
with no toilet facilities whatever. Inasmuch as this includes
both city and country schools, and for both races, it will
readily be seen that the rural negro schools would likely have
not more than one school in five supplied with toilets. I
have visited a great many country schools for Negroes in
this and other States which would be listed as having
toilets, but where there was only one toilet for both boys
and girls. So this is not only a health question but a moral
question. There can be no real morality fostered under
conditions like these. Now, if our public schools are forced
to become breeders of indecency and immorality, they surely
cannot serve the purpose for which they were established —
the making of efficient citizens.
Hookworm. One outcome of this lack of proper sanitation is soil
pollution, through which thousands of children, both white
and black, become infected with hookworm. This pest is
supremely a disease of the Negro, though it is fast becoming
the plague of white people in the South. It is supposed that
it was brought originally into this country by the slaves
coming over from Africa, where it is exceedingly prevalent.
This worm fastens itself to the interior of the intestines,
where it sucks the blood of the person, thus making him
aenemic, weak, listless, thick-headed, lazy. The worm does
not multiply in the intestine, but the female lays thousands
of eggs which pass out of the intestines, and if there are
no toilets, these eggs are deposited on the ground, where.

IMPROVEMENT IN RURAL SCHOOLS 123
under favorable conditions of moisture, they hatch and live
for as long as five or six months.
How the Hook Worm Enters the Body.
In the morning when there is dew the worm is very
active, and as the barefoot boy or girl walks along, it
fastens itself on the bare feet and begins burrowing in
This makes the feet a Httle sore and we call it "toe itch,"
"ground itch," "dew poison," "cow itch," etc. These are
just the terms of the common people to designate what the
scientist knows to be hookworm. Of course they may also be
swallowed with polluted water, or with raw vegetables that
have not been properly cleaned. When once the hookworm
enters the body it lives the life of a parasite, literally eating
the blood of the person in whom it dwells. This one disease
alone will explain thousands of cases of unambitious and
lifeless boys and girls of both colors in the rural districts.
For the sake of scientific accuracy, I quote in full a state
ment from the "Report of the Rockefeller Sanitary Com
mission, 191 i":
"During the past year I have gathered statistics as to
the privy conditions surrounding 4,825 American farm
homes, located in six different States, and I find that 2,664,
or about 55 per cent of them, have no privy of any kind.
Of 2,499 homes tabulated as occupied by whites, 35.2 per
cent have no privy, and of 2,326 houses tabulated as occu
pied by negroes, 76.8 per cent have no privy.
"These shocking sanitary conditions under which so
many American rural families are living necessarily increase
the causes of sickness and death, especially among the
women and children, and they decrease the efficiency and
laboring capacity among the men.
"The fact that the sanitary conditions surrounding the
Negroes are so much worse than those surrounding the
whites calls for very serious consideration, for it involves

124 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
not only the health, efficiency and progress of the Negroes
themselves, but of the whites also. So long as the Negro
continues to live as he is living at present in the rural dis
tricts, his home will remain a reservoir from which all dis
ease may spread to the whites, and the white man owes
it to his own race that he lend a helping hand to improve
sanitary surroundings of the Negro. One way this can be
done is by obtaining support for instruction in hygiene
in negro schools. Another way is by teaching the white
landlords the rudiments of hygiene." ^
Prevalence of the Disease.
I have talked with a number of State experts and have
before me the reports of the Surgeon-General of the United
States, and the various reports of the Rockefeller Sanitary
Commission. The concensus of opinion of all these is that
an alarmingly large per cent of the population in the South
is infected. Dr. Stiles, of the United States Marine Hos
pital Service, in his report on hookworm infection in 1910,
writes as follows:
"My present estimate is that not less than 30 per cent
of the rural inhabitants of our Southern States have hook
worm infection. In some restricted localities fully 90 per
cent have the infection.
"Colleges are known in which over 30 per cent of the
Students show infection on microscopic examination. County
schools are known in which 35 to 95 per cent of the pupils
harbor hookworms. In view of the effect which hook
worms have on the nervous system, including inhibiting
effect on mental processes, this disease must be viewed as
important in connection with the subject of education, more
especially in the rural districts." '
'"Rockefeller's Sanitary Comraission," p. 19.
'"Public Health Bulletin" No. 32, Washington, 1910.

IMPROVEMENT. IN RURAL SCHOOLS 125
Not A Matter of Indifference.
This horrible and widespread disease is not a matter of
indifference to any Southern white man who believes in his
country. It incapacitates the laboring classes for wealth-
producing, thus making our section drop further and fur
ther behind in the economic race of America. It makes
many thousands listless and indifferent, so that they drift
into pauperism and then into crime. We must pay the bills
not only of the law courts, jails, increased police force, etc.,
but we must pay the penalty of insecurity of property and
hfe because of this criminal class. Lastly, these diseased
persons become centers of contagion, scattering this deadly
enemy wherever they go. The white men of the South have
it within their power to see that this disease is eradicated.
We have control of all the public schools. We can see that
every school, both white and colored, has sanitary out
houses. We can see that every school has some simple
instruction given in sanitation and hygiene; we can create
sentiment by taking a personal interest in these problems,
whether we are teachers, preachers or business men. In
this work the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission, with its
State agents and its host of district agents, is making such
thorough investigation and doing such splendid work that
it cannot fail to elicit the cooperation and hearty support
of all who understand the need. The obligation is upon
us, and in this tremendous task the small but increasing
group of Negroes who are awake to this evil will be our
surest guides and our able helpers.
InsufiScient Playgrounds.
I wish to refer to this point again in the chapter on
Association Work, but in mentioning the weak places
of our public schools, one cannot pass over so glaring a
fault as the fact of insufficient playgrounds and often no
playgrounds whatever. Recently I visited a rural negro

126 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
school in Virginia where a group of boys were attempting
to play ball at recess. It was simply impossible to have a
game, because the school only owned half an acre of land,
and all around were trees, stumps and other obstructions.
A ball could not be batted or thrown fifty feet without
striking one of these obstructions. Of course the school
could not be attractive to these boys, and as a result most
of them will drop out at an early age. Of all the public
schools of Virginia, 1,667 of them own half an acre or less,
1,332 own more than half an acre but less than an acre, and
only the smallest proportion own sufficient land to give
decent playgrounds. No school should be built on
less than a five-acre plot in the country, or less than three
acres in the city. This alone would do more to keep
the children satisfied with the school than would any
other one thing outside the personality and ability of the
teacher. Length of Term and Salaries.
The average salary paid all public school teachers in
South Carolina during the term 1910-11, was for negro
men $132.73, negro women $98.38. The length of term
for towns was twenty-two weeks, that for the rural com
munity thirteen weeks, or sixty-five days. It will therefore
be readily seen that the rural teacher would not get any
thing like the above amount. This will further be seen when
it is remembered that the average expenditure per enroll
ment is for white children $12.62, but is only $1.71 per
negro child, or 13 cents per week, 52 cents per month. In a
school of fifty pupils, which would be a large enrollment,
there would be available for teachers' salary and all ex
penses of the school, $26.00 per month. The average school
would be much below this.
In Florida the average length of a term is ninety-six days
as compared with 1 10 days for the whites, and the average

IMPROVEMENT IN RURAL SCHOOLS 127
salary is $33.68 for men and $30.18 for women, per month.
Here again the figures for the whole State are very much
higher than for the rural districts. In Texas the average
length of term in rural schools, both white and black, was
li4j^ days. If there is as great a disparity between white
and colored in the country and those in the city, as else
where, it would reduce the rural colored schools to less than
one hundred days. The average annual salary in these
colored schools is for males $330.35, for females $264.24, or
$53.29 and $42.47 per month, respectively. For the rural
teachers this would, of course, be greatly reduced. Texas
seems to be the only State in the South which gives anything
like adequate remuneration to secure good negro teachers.
The following table shows the facts of length of school
terms for Negroes in a number of States, the percentage
of enrollment, percentage daily attendance of those enrolled,
and average salary of teachers.
According to this table in the States listed, 124 days
is the longest average term for Negroes.
Teachers Poorly Prepared.
According to the report of the Superintendent of Edu
cation for the State of Texis, where the public school sys
tem is perhaps as good as can be found in the South, out
of 13,116 rural teachers, 10,564 have had no college, nor
mal or even high school education. This large number is
trying to teach, when they themselves have not finished more
than the seventh or eighth grade. It is a well-known fact
that this is far above the preparation for the rural negro
teachers. Of the 4,413 negro teachers holding first, second,
third grade or permanent certificates, 3,427 held the two low
est rank certificates, that is third and second — equal to about
fifth and sixth grade work in a good public school.
In Alabama for the year 191 1, of the 2,384 negro teach
ers, 2,210, or 92 per cent, held either second or third grade

128

PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS

STATISTICS OF NEGRO PUBLIC SCHOOLS, ETC.
Latest Available Reports Used.

STATE

Length of
School Term

Average Annual
Salary of
Teachers— Col.

Percentage of
School Popu
lation En
rolled in
School

Percentage Daily At
tendance
of Those
Enrolled

White

Col.

Male

Female

White

Col.

White

Col.

Florida 

110

96

$161.66

$144.86

.65

.51

.61

.66

S. Carolina

65

132.73

98.38

.61
.66
Alabama..
127
95
169.00
150.00
.78
.49
.64
.65
Virginia...
130
122
Rural
162.78 27.27
186.78 167.89
.75
.50
.66
.61
Tennessee -
Not Sep.
as to CO or
Rural  109
All  120
Not separated
as to sex or race
Rural  202.30
All  237.42
.67
.54
.64
.65
Texa.s 
132
124
330.35
264.24
.63
.61
.62
.58
NorthCaroh'na ..
104.6
93.7
Not separated
as to sex
Rural  95.91
All  118.33
72.4
Rural 71.467.7
65.5
59.5
certificates. It is unnecessary to give further statistics. It
is clearly a case of wretched "unpreparedness," and we need
not wonder that the negro child does not make more rapid
advancement.
Poor Supervision.
The last weakness which I shall mention — ^but by no
means the last one that can be mentioned — is lack of proper
supervision. In setting forth the need of better supervision
I cannot do better than let Prof. W. K. Tate speak in the
words of his last annual report:
IMPROVEMENT IN RURAL SCHOOLS 129
"I wish once more to emphasize the value of proper
supervision in the training of teachers. The City Superin
tendent usually finds a new recruit in his school awkw-ard
and ineflScient. He must continually assist her in the man
agement of her class and in the improvement of her meth
ods. She progresses rapidly under the right kind of super
vision. The country teacher has almost none of this assist
ance. The sole supervising officer is the County Superin
tendent, employed at a salary which assumes that he is to
devote only a portion of his time to this work and respon
sible for a territory which makes it impossible for him to
visit the schools more than once a year. There are counties
in South Carolina in which the salary of the County Super
intendent, with 300 teachers in his charge, is less than one-
half the salary of the City Superintendent in the county seat
with one-tenth the number of teachers. . . . During
the year I have visited many schools in which three hours
of demonstration work and practical suggestions would
double the efficiency of an earnest but inexperienced teacher.
. . . The education of the Negro in South Carolina is in
the hands of the white race. The white trustees apportion
the funds, select the teachers, and receive reports. The
County Superintendent has the supervision of these schools
in his hands. We have expended this year $348,834.60 in
the support of negro schools. I never visit one of these
schools without feeling that we are wasting a large part of
this money and are neglecting a great opportunity." '
. . There are literally scores of white County Superintend
ents who never visit a negro school, and often do not know
where these schools are located. This work cannot be made
efficient by correspondence. If the white teachers need help,
direction, encouragement, how much more do the negro
teachers need this, and yet the colored teacher gets less than
"'South Carolina Report, 1911," pp. 105, 106, 115.

130 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
one-fourth the attention that the rural white teacher gets.
This is poor economy, to put it mildly. If we spend from a
quarter to a half million dollars in each Southern State
annually on negro education, we ought at least to have
business sagacity enough to see that it is well spent. The
one way to bring this about is for the County Superintend
ents to give more careful supervision to these schools, and
for the white boards of trustees to take more care in select
ing teachers.
Summary of Weaknesses.
This statement of weaknesses seems almost too sweep
ing. And yet we have said nothing about the lamentable
weakness of the curriculum, which is almost always a misfit.
It has nothing that stirs the pride of the race in itself. All
the books are written with white illustrations. Neither is
there anything that connects the student with his environ
ment. I visited a negro school some time since where the
boys and girls in a third reader class were reading some
fairy story so absolutely foreign to their conceptions that
every child was calling the words mechanically without the
barest conception of what the sentences meant. Why should
not these text-books do what is most fundamental at present,
help the race to understand its surroundings, the plants, the
birds, the flowers, the crops, the people ? Why should they
not give us some simple stories of the lives of the best of
the race, thus helping to build a race pride? Why not
acquaint the children with the simple, beautiful poems of
Dunbar, one of the best writers of the race? There is a great
need for the careful planning of a new course of study for
these schools.
Neither have I spoken of the barrenness and lack of
attractiveness of the school grounds and buildings. In my
judgment one of the chief ways of keeping more of these
boys and girls in the country is to give them more attractive

IMPROVEMENT IN RURAL SCHOOLS 131
schools, churches and homes. No wonder the Negro is
leaving the country. There is nothing there to attract him.
If we would spend less time berating him for moving to
town, and more time giving him an efficient and attractive
rural school, we would show a larger statesmanship.
If we could secure more comfortable buildings, establish
more sanitary practices, give longer terms, better teachers,
more thorough supervision and have courses more adapted
to the needs of the race, we would be beginning at least to
meet the needs of the situation.
More Hopeful Features.
However, there are many signs of real progress. Per
haps the first is the movement toward the consolidation of
some of the smaller, more inefficient schools into larger ones,
where better buildings, better playgrounds, two or more
teachers and better grading can be had. In Gloucester
County, Virginia, I recently visited a school where four
small struggling schools had been consolidated. The col
ored people of the four communities got together, raised
$400 in cash to help buy the site and a good dwelling, and
then asked the board to give the remaining $600 necessary.
No sooner was this done than the people themselves began
work to raise half of $1,500 to build a new three-room
building. At the time of my visit the necessary cash was
collected and in the bank. Instead, therefore, of four shabby
school buildings, each located on a little cramped half-acre
lot, and taught by a poorly prepared and inexperienced
woman, they are to have a first-class, comfortable and attrac
tive three-room building, with six acres of land for play
grounds, three better trained and more experienced teachers,
150 pupils instead of thirty or forty each, which will at once
add new zest to the whole school life. This is real progress
and this movement is rapidly spreading. It is estimated by
the Southern Education Association that 1,166 schools era-

132 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
ploying an equal number of teachers, have been abandoned
in the last half decade in the South. In these schools 28,204
children were taught. All of these schools have been con
solidated with other schools and all children are now getting
much better instruction. Not the least benefit of consolida
tion comes from the larger associations into which the child
enters in the larger school. One of the banes of country life
is isolation, and consolidated schools help to remove this
evil. Isolation is particularly the difficult problem with
negro rural schools. The older boys and girls drop out
early to go to work, so the small handful of children in a
little rural school, without leadership, become about the most
abandoned, forlorn-looking groups one can possibly find.
This of necessity deters children from staying in school.
The consolidated school brings together the few older stu
dents from the various communities and welds them into a
group of leaders, thus making school much more attractive.
More attractive schools is one of the largest factors in
making the Negro population satisfied.
Negro Self-Help.
One of the elements in this movement for consolidation
is the fact of the negro's willingness to bear a goodly part
of the financial burden. The Superintedent of Education of
North Carolina says:
"In justice to the negro and for the information of
some of our people who have been misled into thinking
that too large a part of the taxes that the white people
pay is spent for the education of the negro, it may be well
in the outset to give a brief statement of the facts in regard
to the apportionment of the school fund. As it is well
known, under Section 41 16 of the School Law, the appor
tionment of the school fund in each county is practically
placed absolutely under the control of the County Board
of Education, the only restriction laid upon the board therein

IMPROVEMENT IN RURAL SCHOOLS 133
being that the funds shall be apportioned among the schools
of each township in such a way as to give equal length of
term as nearly as possible, having due regard to the grade
of work to be done, the qualifications of teachers, etc. The
Constitution directs that in the distribution of the fund no
discrimination shall be made in favor of either race. This
report shows that in 19 10 the negroes of city and rural dis
tricts received for teachers' salaries and building school-
houses $373,390.55 for 238,091 children of school age. The
whites received for the same purpose $1,924,704 for 497,077
children of school age. The negroes, therefore, constitute
about 32 per cent of the school population and receive in
the apportionment for the same purposes less than 17 per
cent of the school money. This report shows that the negroes
paid for schools in taxes on their own property and polls
about $163,417.89, or nearly one-half of all that they re
ceived for school purposes." *
Some have supposed that the Negro is paying as much
direct school taxes as he is getting returned in school funds.
This can hardly be maintained. Mr. Coon, of Wilson, N. C,
attempted to prove that the Negroes in the South pay more
school taxes than are spent on their schools. Thus in Vir
ginia he claimed the Negroes paid $507,305 in school taxes,
but had only $489,228 spent on their schools. But the
figures were based on proportions of Negroes to whites and
had glaring errors. State Superintendent Eggleston is a
real friend of the negro race, and an advocate of good negro
schools, yet in a letter to the United States Commissioner
of Education, dated October, 1909, and printed in the Vir
ginia Journal of Education, he makes clear that Mr. Coon's
figures for school taxation are about five times too large,
and the Negroes paid directly less than one hundred thou
sand toward the school fund, while nearly five hundred
thousand was spent. While the Negro does not pay a large
"'North Carolina Report, 1909-10," pp. 54, 55.

134 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
direct tax, every student of political economy knows full
well that the laboring man ultimately pays most of the
taxes. He it is who creates the wealth, and in the last
analysis therefore the negro laborer pays his full share of
the taxes.
The important item in Virginia, however, is that they do
pay nearly one hundred thousand direct school tax. It seems
perfectly marvelous that a race starting with nothing could
accumulate sufficient property in one State to pay one hun
dred thousand in school taxes, and nearly three times that
much more for taxes for other purposes. But it is sheer non
sense to claim that any part of the community shall have only
that which it pays. The purpose of public education is to help
those who cannot pay. The State has absolutely no business
in educational work save to make better citizens of all, and
surely it cannot afford to neglect those who most sorely need
help. Fortunately, however, the Negro is paying an in
creasing proportion of his school bill through taxes.
Besides paying an increasing amount of school taxes,
they are also doing valiantly by way of personal and volun
tary contributions. There are many of the rural schools
in the South where the Negroes have raised the money and
replaced old buildings with new and comfortable ones. In
many other cases they have raised fully half the amount
needed to erect a building before asking the school board
for an appropriation. This is a most hopeful sign.
The New Type of Curriculum.
In many of the rural schools there is a new type of work
done. The study is much more directly related to the com
munity needs. The boys, along with their reading, writing
and arithmetic, are taught how to make shuck mats, how to
do simple school gardening, and the girls are taught sewing,
cooking and the simple principles of good housekeeping.
This kind of study immediately reacts on the practical

IMPROVEMENT IN RURAL SCHOOLS 135
ideals of the students. A number of schools I visited had
raised the money to build fences around the school yards,
the yards were clean and well kept, shrubbery had been
set out, the house itself had been whitewashed or painted
and everything had an air of prosperity.
One school in Henrico County, Virginia, had raised
money and put in sanitary toilets, laid cement walks, set
privet bushes and fenced the yard. Another had fenced
the yard, bought a private drinking cup for each child, thus
teaching a good lesson in hygiene, and had bought a range
and all necessary utensils for cooking.
Another consoHdated school with three teachers, taught
in a building with four rooms, had raised enough money to
fit up the fourth room as a kitchen with ample cupboards,
bins, tables and range. They had also bought and made
neat white curtains for all the windows, as had also been
done by a number of the other schools.
Still another school had raised enough money to build
an addition to the old building, put in better furniture and
fenced the yard.
Effect on the Community.
All of this has a most marked effect on the whole com
munity. Every child learns to be more neat, clean and self-
respecting. He learns some of the simple laws of hygiene
and sanitation. He begins to take a pride in doing some
commonplace things. He learns that work is dignified and
that education is not to help one to escape work, but to fit
one to do work better. All of this is uplifting to the homes
from which the children come.
But besides this, the boys take home some of the mats
and baskets they have made, and the girls take home some
of their aprons, simple table covers, etc. These little things
add much to the attractiveness of the very barren rural home.
They immediately give a new pride in the home, make home

136 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
seem more worth while, make love for home grow and con
sequently affect moral standards. One cannot measure the
real moral effect of any single piece of work well and
faithfully done, and that is what this new type of school
is attempting to teach. The three R's are not taught less,
but much better and more effectively because of this prac
tical side.
In the Homes.
In visiting the rural homes w-here children have had this
kind of training, I have almost always found the house
cleaner, the people happier and better satisfied. One notes
again and again the pride of the parents when a visitor
remarks on a neat scarf, or a good door mat, or a useful
basket seen in the home, and they are all too glad to tell you
that Mary or John did that at the school.
Supervision. There are three distinct gains being made in this direc
tion. First, is that of a larger amount of time and attention
given by county and division superintendents to the rural
negro schools. This brings the best type of white men in
touch with the teachers and those children who really have
ambition to better their conditions. One of the largest con
tributions which the Southern white man can make to the
Negro's education is through visitation to the rural schools
by the County Superintendent. Prof. W. K. Tate says :
"In South Carolina we simply turn over a certain por
tion of the school fund to the negro schools and expect the
most ignorant teachers of the State, without any sugges
tions or directions, to adapt to the special needs of the negro
schools a course of study and text-books designed primarily
for white children."'
It has been my privilege to visit a great many of the
rural schools in company with the division superintendents.
"'South Carolina Report, 1911," p. 116.

IMPROVEMENT IN RURAL SCHOOLS 137
I spent a whole day last fall in the buggy of Mr. Arthur
D. Wright, Division Superintendent of Henrico County,
Virginia, visiting a number of his schools. The very fact
that he w-as interested enough to do this work put new en
thusiasm in the teachers in addition to the advice and
counsel he was able to give. We must have an increasing
number of our choicest Southern men who will consider
this work a part of their duty and an opportunity for
splendid service.
State Supervision.
In most of the Southern States in the past, the only
attention the State Superintendent paid to negro schools
was to get the enrollment in order to swell his report figures.
It is to be hoped this is becoming a thing of the past. Vir
ginia has led the way in securing the services of one of the
choicest young educators, Mr. Jackson Davis, a Virginia
gentleman of the best type, and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate
of William and Mary College, who gives his entire time to
supervising the rural negro schools of the State. He works
through the Division Superintendents and the Industrial
Supervisors, and visits enough schools himself to become
a statesman in this phase of educational work. South Caro
lina has the funds in hand for the employment of a man
for similar services. Kentucky has just secured the services
of Mr. Button for this work. This is the most business-like
and statesman-like move yet made for the upbuilding of
the rural negro school.
Supervisors of Industrie Work.
Through the million-dollar gift of Miss Anna T. Jeans,
under the supervision of Dr. James H. Dillard, of New Or
leans, funds are available for the employment of 11 1 negro
teachers annually. These teachers are known as Industrial
Supervisors. One usually has supervision of all the Indus-

138 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
trial work carried on in the rural negro schools of a county
or parish. This teacher visits each school in the county
just as often as possible, spending half a day or a day in
each. His or her work is to encourage and train the reg
ular teacher in this industrial side of the school work and
help in its inauguration, and at times of difficulty.
Henrico County, Virginia.
One of the best illustrations of this work is to be found
in Henrico County, Virginia, the county in which Richmond
is located. Conditions here are most favorable because Mr.
Jackson Davis, now the State Supervisor of rural negro
schools, was formerly Division Superintendent of Henrico
County, and gave it its policy; second, because the present
Division Superintendent, Mr. Arthur D. Wright, is a fine
type of aggressive worker, much interested in this side of his
duties ; and third, because they have been extremely fortun
ate in getting a splendid Industrial Supervisor for the county
in the person of Virginia Randolph, the best type of negro
woman with training, of whom Prof. Wright says in his
report, June, 191 1: "No public servant has worked more
faithfully or more conscientiously than Virginia Randolph,
the pioneer in the work, and, I believe, without peer as to
her devotion to duty and consecration of service or as to
the practical results of her work." There are twenty- four
rural negro schools in this county with an enrollment of
1,456 pupils and an average daily attendance of 77 per
cent. It will be noted at once what a high average attend
ance this is. Far above that of any of the schools given in
an earlier table. The first result of this industrial work,
therefore, is to raise the daily attendance by one-fourth, i. e.,
from 61 per cent, which is the average for the State of
Virginia, to yy per cent for Henrico County. The next
important result of this type of training is that a far larger
per cent of the school population is enrolled than formerly.

IMPROVEMENT IN RURAL SCHOOLS 139
TABLE NO. I.
1908 AND 1911— A COMPARISON

BROOKLAND.
., 1908. 191 1. Gain. Loss.
Negro school population  638 674 36
Whole number enrolled  404 447 43
Per cent, school population enrolled. . 63% 66% 3%
Average monthly enrollment  326 325 i
Average daily attendance  262 258 4
Per cent, in A. M. E. in A. D. A  " "" ~ "'

FAIRFIELD.
Negro school population  680 505 175
Whole number enrolled  267 308 41
Per cent, school population enrolled. . 39% 61% 22%
Average monthly enrollment  216 242 26
Average daily attendance  189 209 20
Per cent. A. M. E. in A. D. A  87% 87%
TUCKAHOE.
Negro school population  583 481 102
Whole nuraber enrolled  264 260 4
Per cent, school population enrolled. . 45% S4% 9%
Average monthly enrollment  210 195 15
Average daily attendance  155 160 5
Per cent. A. M. E. in A. D. A  74% 82% 8%
VARINA.
Negro school population  496 431 65
Whole number enrolled  226 243 17
Per cent, school population enrolled. . 46% 56% 10%
Average monthly enrollment  185 172 i?
Average daily attendance  130 128 2
Per cent. A. M. E. in A. D. A  70% 74% 4%
Explanatory Note. — The decrease in Negro school population in
three districts is due to the fact that during this period a consider
able portion of Henrico was annexed to the city of Richmond. A
very large percentage of the school po.pulation of Brookland and
Fairfield is suburban, and attends more regudarly than the other
two districts. It is significant to note that the two rural districts
show material increases in the percentage of the average monthly en
rollment in average daily attendance. It is also significant that each
district shows a material increase in the percentage of the negro
school population enrolled, Fairfield showing an increase from 39
per cent, to 61 per cent.

140 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
TABLE NO. 2.
THREE YEARS' WORK.

Note. — The following figures show the amounts raised each year
since the beginning of this work by each school. All of this money,
except a balance of about $400, now in the several treasuries, has
been spent in providing materials for the industrial work and
iraproving the grounds and buildings of the schools.
— AMOUNT RAISED —
1908-9. 1909-10. I9IO-II.
Brookland  Barton Heights  *$ 50.05 $73-25 $ 100,81
Broad St. Road  10,00 10.02 82.66
Carlton Street  3.10 17.01
Coal Pit  5,00 5.51 40.00
Jeter  6.63 23.20 65.93
Mountain Road.... 23.00 38,42 110.00
Pole Road  25.00 50.35 116,66
Fairfield  Benedict  3.02 8.00 29.20
Boar Swarap  3.00 14.35 57-50
New Bridge  8.38 6.10 21. 11
White Oak Swamp. 10.35 42.16 33.15
Woodville  7.85 45.75 72.20
Tuckahoe  Carbon Hill  14.18 32.00 71.00
Greens  9.00 12.50 85.00
Quioccasin  iS-34 20.00 107,54
Springfield  15.10 *75,oo 36,49
Westwood  12.00 15-00 *i3o,oo
Zion Town  29.47 25.00 33.45
Varina  Bethel  9.42 16.00 29.24
Chatsworth  3,00 8.46 35.63
Gravel Hill  40.80 50.00 58.20
St. James  10.00 15.00 25.20
Sydney  5.30 6.62 26.00
Totals for county  $31589 $595-79 $1,383-98

?Denotes the school each year raising the largest amount.

IMPROVEMENT IN RURAL SCHOOLS 141
In a number of schools this increased per cent is as high as
20, as will be seen from the accompanying table No. i, and
in one case there was an increase of 41 per cent.
A third result of this industrial training is clearly seen
in the amount of money the children themselves raise for
school improvements, as is indicated in the table No. 2,
taken from the 191 1 report of the District Superintendent.
What the Industrial Work Is.
This industrial work requires six hours per week of
every child and does not in any sense make it impossible to
do thorough teaching along other lines. The following
extracts from reports of individual teachers will indicate
just what was undertaken and its results:
"Barton Heights School reports: Planted flowers, laid
a walk around side of school, whitewashed fence, purchased
two lamps, clock, tables, dishes, kitchen articles ; taught cook
ing, sewing, carpentry, preserving, canning.
"Carlton Street School reports: Taught cabinet making
from boxes, sewing, paper folding. Pictures donated by
Dr. King of the Virginia Union University. A rented build
ing. Pole Road School reports: Taught cooking, sewing,
woodwork and basketry. Bought flag, water coolers and in
dividual drinking cups, shades, curtains, tools. Set out
hedge and whitewashed trees and fences. Built wood-
house. Repaired outhouse.
"Benedict School reports : Taught sewing, raffia work,
drawing, carpentry, whitewashed school, painted interior,
patched doors and windows and bought set of carpenter's
tools. "White Oak Swamp School reports: Taught shoemak-
ing, sewing, basketry, shuck mat making and carpentry. Put
up fence, put new roof on school, built and whitewashed
woodhouse and planted flowers.

142 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
"Quioccasin School reports : Taught sewing, shuck mat-
making, basketry, cooking and woodwork. Painted build
ing inside. Whitewashed outhouses, painted yard benches,
sowed grass seed." '
Real Training.
This is real education. It not only dignifies labor by
fitting the child to do something well and have a pride in
it, but it directly affects the ideals of the community. It also
makes the school the center of a larger life and thus con
tributes to the keeping of the boys in the county where they
can find the largest life for themselves, and at the same time
can be of the greatest force in the economic progress of the
section. I could only wish that there might be ten times the
money available that the Anna T. Jeans fund furnishes,
so that an industrial supervisor might be placed in every
county in the South. In this connection it should be said
that a supervising teacher is never placed in a county with
out it is heartily requested by the County Superintendent.
The teacher is selected by the County Superintendent, and
to him reports are rendered. There are scores of counties
now begging for such supervising teachers, but the money is
not available to supply the demand. Here is the chance
of a lifetime for some philanthropist to furnish such a fund.
It would mark an epoch in Southern life.
Better Trained Teachers.
Lastly, attention must be called to the real progress be
ing made in the training of teachers. Most of the output
of the better negro schools is readily absorbed into the teach
ing profession. When China threw over her old educa
tional system she suddenly realized she had no teachers, so
she put her sons to school to all the world. This is the
situation with the Negro. He has few teachers, but he can-
"'Third Annual Report, Henrico County, Va., Schools," p. 14.

IMPROVEMENT IN RURAL SCHOOLS 143
not put his children to school where he pleases. He must
wait until a sufficient number of teachers are trained to
give his children instruction.
It is not at all strange, therefore, that the great ma
jority of negro private schools are putting most emphasis
on training teachers, neither is it strange that a very large
per cent of the graduates of institutions like Hampton and
Tuskegee, go into the school-room. These schools could
render the South no greater service than that of sending
out teachers who are not trained in head alone, but in hand
and heart.
Every teacher who attempts to instruct negro children in
the country needs to have careful training in agriculture
and in the simple crafts. This immediately gives him or her
a common interest with the community, and a hold upon the
life of the pupils. At the Normal School for Negroes,
Petersburg, Va., every girl has to take at least three years
of instruction in agriculture, and two years in domestic
science. The advantage of this is seen when one finds grad
uates from that school invariably holding places of real
leadership in the community where they work. They have
a sympathy for and a point of contact with the people among
whom they labor. No man who visits the rural schools can
for one moment begrudge the money spent in the various
negro schools of the South for the training of capable, high-
minded, true teachers.
The light slowly dawns over the far horizon. It has been
long coming, but it is slowly driving back the clouds and
darkness. More money spent on buildings and grounds,
better sanitation, better supervision by white superintend
ents and colored industrial teachers, better trained teachers,
and more sympathetic cooperation on the part of the South
ern white man will hasten the day when our brothers in
black shall know the truth, and the truth shall make them
free.

CHAPTER VI
WHAT THE WHITE CHURCHES ARE NOW
DOING FOR THE NEGRO

OL' MISTIS
Oh, de times is fas' a-changin',
Ez de years ar" roUin' on,
An' de days seem mighty lonesum'.
Sense de good ol' times is gon'.
While I'm 'joycin' in my freedum,
Nor wish fur slab'ry days,
Yit it warms ray heart to 'member
Sum good ol'-fashun ways.
Ub all de plezzun mem'riz,
Dar's one dat fills my heart,
'Tis de thought ub dear ol' Mistis,
An' 'twill nebber from me part.
No matter what de trubble
De Lord wuz pleased to sen'.
We had jes' to tell ol' Mistis,
She would alwa's be a fren'.
Ef de oberseer 'buze us.
An' frum de lash we'd run,
An' weary, col', an' starvin',
Afread to kum back hom',
Jes' git word to ol' Mistis,
She'd sraoov de trubble o'er
An' back we'd kum a sneakin',
An' hear ub it no mo'.
When sickness, kheer an' sorrow
Gib nights ub akin' pain.
An' tears frum werry eyelids
Kum pou'in down like rain;
Racked wid pains an' scotched wid febers,
Wid lira's a-growin' col',
She had lin'ments fur de body.
An' de Bible fur de soul. — Daniel Webster Davis.

CHAPTER VI
WHAT THE WHITE CHURCHES ARE NOW DOING
FOR THE NEGRO
Many people have supposed that the early slaves came
into possession of the Christian message by the mere acci
dent of proximity to the white men who professed this re
ligion. To such persons the one source of religious in
struction for Negroes lay in the public service of the white
churches, to which services the servants, particularly the
house servants, were always admitted. It has not been gen
erally known, even among the younger generation of South
ern men, that there were any systematic plans for the propa
gation of the gospel among slaves outside this accidental
method of sharing in the Sabbath services. Indeed, a well-
trained colored man has said that he did not know there
were ever many white missionaries to the Negroes before
the war. But this plan of attendance at the white church
would not have reached the great mass of Negroes on the
plantation, where the white people were so few as fre
quently not to have any church at all. So if there was to
be any gospel preached to the great mass of farm slaves
it must be done through direct rather than accidental work.
Plantation Owners Not Indifferent.
As early as 1706, in the report of one of the mission
aries sent out by the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel, we read, "Parents and masters were endued with
much good will and a ready disposition to have their chil
dren and servants taught the Christian religion."' There
'Jonee' "The Religious Instruction of Negroes in U. S." (147)

148 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
was some indifference, but little opposition to missionary
work among the slaves during the first century and half of
slavery in America. Real opposition arose after a few in
surrections of Negroes and also after some of the churches
had taken a strong stand against slavery. In 1800 the Meth
odist Conference passed a very drastic resolution condemn
ing slavery, and for many years following that time slave
owners looked upon most j)reachers and missionaries as
agitators who might easily do much to make the slaves dis
satisfied with their condition.
In spite, however, of this fear of the missionaries, and
perhaps partly that they might control the type of work
done, two associations of planters were organized in Geor
gia in 1830 with the distinct purpose "of affording religious
instruction to the Negroes by their own efforts, and by mis
sionaries employed for the purpose. The first was formed
by Rev. Joseph Clay Stiles in Mcintosh County, embracing
the neighborhood of Harris' Neck, which continued in opera
tion for some time, until by the withdrawment of Mr. Stiles'
labors from the neighborhood, and the loss of some of the
inhabitants by death and removals, it ceased. The second
was formed in Liberty County by the Midway Congrega
tional Church and the Baptist Church under the respective
pastors, and with one suspension from the absence of a mis
sionary, has continued its operation to the present time"
(1842).'
Instructions to Overseers About Religious Service.
The old manuscripts of instructions to overseers concern
ing the management of plantations, throw much light on
the attitude of slave owners toward the religious instruction
of Negroes. In a manuscript in the possession of Mr. Sto-
vall, Stovall, Miss., J. W. Fowler writes to his overseer
of a Mississippi bottom cotton plantation as follows:
"'Gospel Among the Slaves," Harrison & Barnes, p 75.

WHAT THE WHITE CHURCHES ARE DOING 149
"I greatly desire that the gospel be preached to the
Negroes when the services of a suitable person can be pro
cured. This should be done on the Sabbath; day time is
preferable, if convenient to the minister." '
Again he writes :
"I would that every human being have the gospel
preached to them in its original purity and simplicity; it
therefore devolves upon me to have these dependents prop
erly instructed in all that pertains to the salvation of their
souls ; to this end whenever the services of a suitable person
can be secured, have them instructed in these things — in
view of the fanaticism of the age it behooves the master or
overseer to be present on all such occasions. They should
be instructed on Sundays in the day time if practicable; if
not then, on Sunday night." '
As early as 1673 we find evidence that the leaders of the
English church were solicitous about the religious life of the
slaves in the colonies. During this year Mr. Baxter pub
lished his "Christian Directory," in which he has a chapter
of "Directions to those Masters in Foreign Plantations who
have Negroes and Other Slaves." In 1702 Rev. Samuel
Thomas was sent by the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel, to become the first missionary to the Indians and
Negroes in South Carolina. He died in 1706 and was suc
ceeded by Dr. Lejean, who worked very successfully among
the Negroes until 1717, when he died, and was succeeded
by Mr. Ludlow. About this time a number of missions
were established by this missionary society as widely sep
arated as New York and the Carolinas.
In 1738 the Moravians established missions exclusively
for the Negroes. A year previous to this Count Zienzendorf
visited London, where he met General Ogelthorpe and the
trustees of Georgia and plans were laid for the sending of
'"Documentary History of American Industrial Society," p. 114.
''Idem, p. 115.

ISO PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
missionaries to Georgia. The two missionaries did not, how
ever, reach Georgia, but made a tour through Virginia,
Maryland, and North Carolina preaching the gospel to
Negroes. They reported opposition on the part of masters,
but in such terms as to indicate that the masters were them
selves doing something for the training of Negroes : "Va
rious proprietors," they reported, "however avowing their
determination not to suffer strangers to instruct their
Negroes, as they had their own ministers, whom they paid
for that purpose, our brethren ceased frora their efforts." '
Methodists' Missions.
Methodism was introduced into America in 1766, and the
first missionaries sent out by Mr. Wesley in 1769. From
this time on to the revolution, there were a number of re
vivals, particularly in Virginia and North CaroHna, in which
the Methodists and Episcopalians participated, and many
Negroes heard the gospel. One letter states, "the chapel
was full of white and black;" another, "hundreds of negroes
were among them with tears streaming down their faces;"
still another, "In general, the white people were within the
chapel and the black people without." The first statistics
as to colored members of the Methodist Church are given
in 1786, when they number 1,890.
Episcopalians and Baptists.
Before the Revolution the Episcopalian Church was al
most the only religious influence in the State of Virginia,
and consequently almost all of the religious instructions of
Negroes in that State fell to their care. The Baptist Church
was established in this country in 1639, but grew slowly in
the South and West until the time of the Revolution, at
which time there were Baptist congregations in most of the
Southern States and an aggressive work for Negroes was
'Harrison & Barnes' "Gospel Among the Slaves," p. 48.

WHAT THE WHITE CHURCHES ARE DOING 151
being carried on. They had ordained negro preachers aS
early as 1723, working, of course, under the supervision of
the whites.
Presbyterians. This group of Christians entered America about 1669
and held their first Presbytery in 1705. Themselves fugi
tives from tyranny, they opposed slavery from the first. As
early as 1818 the Assembly fully set forth its conviction on
this topic, beginning with the words, "We consider volun
tary enslaving of one part of the human race by another as
a gross violation of the most precious and sacred rights of
human nature." They early began active work for the
slaves.
Missionary Effort After the Revolution.
At the close of the Revolution all of the missionaries'
sent out from England by the Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel, were withdrawn and all work was henceforth
carried on by the native churches. There was no lack of
enthusiasm. In 1806 the Baptist Church in South Carolina
could report thirty-five hundred negro members, while by
1813 they reported forty thousand for the whole country.
In 1816 the Presbyterians appointed Dr. Rice, of Virginia,
as special missionary to the Negroes, and in 1833 drew up
very strong resolutions urging a progressive work among
the slaves. Scarcely a Bishop of the Episcopal Church
failed to emphasize this work, and special helpers were
appointed to give attention to the same. The following
paragraph from a statement of Rev. Samuel S. Bishop will
show the activity of this branch of the church :
"In 1859 there were recorded 468,000 members [colored]
of the various churches in the South, of which it is perhaps
fair to assume that more than 50,000 were baptized mem
bers of our church. There are now about 18,000 com-

3S2 PRESENT FORCE'S IN NEGRO PROGRESS
municants in the whole church, lo independent parishes
and about 200 chapels and missions." '
The Methodists were very active, reporting twelve thou
sand two hundred and fifteen (12,215) members in 1797,
and in i860 they reported two hundred and seven thousand
'(207,000) members. Between 1829 and 1864 the South
ern Conferences of Methodism gave $1,873,466.27, which
supported missionaries set aside for negro evangelism, there
being at one time (i860) three hundred and twenty-seven
white Southern missionaries of this church giving their
entire time to the work.
Method of Work.
A minister who labored in these fields describes the
method of work as follows:
"The gospel was preached to the Negroes in common
with the whites everywhere throughout the South, and in
many places, smaller stations especially, a negro mission
was attached to the work of the pastor, and once a month
or oftener the pastor gave a part of the Sabbath to the
'colored charge.' In regular stations of the larger classes
the afternoon was usually a special time allotted to the
Negroes, and the only exception to this rule was in the large
cities, where the Negroes were sufficiently numerous to form
pastoral charges of their own. To those experienced and
often able ministers were regularly appointed." '
Miissionary Efforts Since i860.
One of the very serious, if not the most serious result
of the Civil War arose during the reconstruction period,
when the Negro and Southern white man became estranged.
This was disastrous in the extreme for all concerned. It
was a dire calamity to the whole country because it left the
'"The Church Among the Negroes," Samuel H. Bishop.
_ "'Gospel Among the Slaves," Harrison-Barnes, p. 325.

WHAT THE WHITE CHURCHES ARE DOING 153
laborers of our entire section without direction, control or
encouragement. It was disastrous to the Southern white
man because it made it impossible for him to save the Negro
from blunders, and, through that, save himself untold suffer
ing. It was doubly disastrous to the Negro, for it set him
adrift without a friend who understood him, and at the
same time robbed him of that splendid training he had been
receiving from the white man for generations.
And yet this calamity could scarcely have been averted.
The more I have studied this question the more I have come
to realize how it all must have looked to the Northern man.
To him it must have seemed a hopeless situation. He
heard more of the one cruel master, and sworn enemy of
freedom than he heard of nine other men who were as
kindly as the system would allow them to be, and who
would gladly have freed their slaves, as so many others had
done, had the thing seemed at all practical. It was in
evitable, therefore, that the Northern man should distrust
the intentions of the South, and this distrust incapacitated
him to see the fearful blunders of the reconstruction.
On the other hand, the Southern men returned from
the war to find their property destroyed, their homes often
burned, here and there a Negro who had grown arrogant
and unbearably insolent, a foreign army administering their
government, and their very own slaves set against them. It
was inevitable that they should feel that the North was
attempting to humiliate them in the extreme. What man
would not have recoiled from the instrument used to crush
his pride and destroy his leadership ? That instrument was
the Negro.
Meanwhile the poor Negro was hopelessly bewildered.
He first expected forty acres and a mule, but had httle idea
of working either. Then he began to feel — for he was told
it was true — that he was fully able to govern the land. He
was not to blame for believing he could do what no human

IS4 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
ever did — step out of illiterate slavery into full-fledged lib
erty, out of the corn fields into legislative halls.
When one looks at the whole picture with its colossal
failures and mistakes, one wonders how it could ever have
happened. There were honest men, many of them, in the
North ; there were heroic, true, genuine souls in vast num
bers in the South ; the Negro had proven himself capable of
deep fidelity and true devotion during those dark days —
and yet somehow there seemed to be just enough bad ele
ment from all sides to blind and befuddle all. In the awful
tragedy of those years the white man lost his most devoted
and trusted follower, and the black man lost his truest pro
tector and friend.
If the old friendly relationship could have continued
after the war — as it would have done largely, but for the
horrors of reconstruction — the churches of the South, at
the rate of progress they had made from 1844 to i860,
would have evangelized every Negro in the South long since.
But this fatal split so embittered both sides that the white
man did not care to work for the Negro, and the Negro did
not care to have work done for him by his former master.
In the chaos of the hour destruction reigned supreme.
Northern and Southern Churches.
It was natural, therefore, that the Northern churches
should be the first ones in the field to preach the gospel to
the liberated slaves. Many of the slaves continued for some
time to attend the white churches of their former masters,
but these churches dropped for a while all aggressive evan
gelizing of the freedmen. Gradually, as the air has cleared,
and as men have gotten away from the passion of war, the
Southern churches have taken up the work again. The time
is now ripe for every church in America to join hands in
doing a great aggressive work for this belated people. The
Northern churches have the money and we of the South

WHAT THE WHITE CHURCHES ARE DOING 155
have the men. If we would only unite on a comprehensive
and statesmanlike policy we might easily lift the Negro out
of his present poverty, ignorance and sin into a growing
knowledge of God, within the next two generations.
lines of Work.
There are a number of distinct lines of effort carried on
by the white churches for the Negro. These include assist
ance in the building of negro churches, evangelistic work
through missionaries, both white and colored; Sunday
school efforts, largely in the cities, where white teachers
are available, and educational work of all grades. The
Northern churches have put larger emphasis on church
building and education; the Southern churches have put
most emphasis on evangelism, Sunday school work, etc.
Church Buildings.
It is estimated that the negro churches in the South
own $40,000,000 worth of property. This enormous sum
of property has been accumulated from a variety of sources.
First, the Negroes themselves have given a very large share,
probably more than half of this. Second, the Southern
white people as individuals have contributed a very large
amount of money. This is particularly true of the smaller
churches which serve the laboring classes. Every member
in a congregation of this kind, when the house is being
erected, takes with him a church card, with spaces for
dimes, quarters and half dollars, and every time he meets
a white friend or acquaintance he asks a contribution. It
is a rare Southern man who will not respond to this call
from his hired man or woman. Of course, no one can esti
mate just how much has been given in this way, but the
amount would likely reach several millions.
The third source of funds for these churches, is from the
organized missionary agencies of the Southern w-hite

IS6 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
churches. This does not represent a very considerable sum.
The last source is that of the missionary agencies of North
ern white churches. Thus the Board of Missions for Freed
men of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of
America reports for the year ending May ii, 191 1, a total
expenditure in negro work of $145,489.48, of which $65,-
109.01 was spent on church erection, church repairs, con
tingent expenses and ministerial support. The Episcopal
Church, which is both a Northern and Southern church
combined, is likewise aiding in the erection of simple chapels
for the use of their negro communicants. This work is not
very extensive, inasmuch as they only have eighteen thou
sand members among the Negroes of the country. The
Congregational Church gives assistance to one hundred and
fifty negro churches with an aggregate membership of about
ten thousand. Unfortunately, the figures are not so tabu
lated as to indicate the exact amount spent on church
buildings.Missionary and Evangelistic Effort.
The Episcopal Church carries on its regular work among
the Negroes through the direct channels of the church, the
white bishops having direct control and supervision of their
churches, just as they do in the white churches. Most of
the direct work is carried on through colored clergymen,
lay readers and women workers. Of the three classes of
w-orkers there are one hundred and nine, fifty-four and one
hundred and twenty-nine, respectively, giving their entire
time to the spiritual life of the Negro. For some time there
has been a demand from the negro contingency of the
church for a larger amount of self-control. A plan of
"Suffragan Bishops," without right of succession, working
under the control of the diocese, and also a plan of "Special
Missionary Bishops," elected by the House of Bishops and
subject to the diocesan Bishops, have both been suggested

WHAT THE WHITE CHURCHES ARE DOING 157
and seriously discussed. It seems quite evident that some
definite plan will be adopted soon giving more self-direction
to the Negro and still maintaining the integrity of the
United Church.
The Presbyterian Church in the United States of Amer
ica has two hundred and forty ministers — eight of whom
are white — serving three hundred and eighty-one negro
churches, in most cases partly or entirely self-supporting.
They were able to report one thousand four hundred and
twenty-two members added on examination during the year
191 1, making a total membership of twenty- four thousand
and forty-five (24,045).
The Congregational Church reports for 1910, one hun
dred and seventy-two churches in the South, probably one
hundred and fifty of which are for Negroes. There are
three hundred and five negro missionaries, ministers and
teachers. In these churches there were ten thousand nine
hundred and one (10,901) members, with seven hundred
and ninety-nine additions. A glance at the report of the
A. M. A., through which the church does its work, indicates
that in most of these churches at least a part of the salary
of the negro pastor is carried by the association.
The Presbyterian Church in the United States (South
ern Church) has been carrying on through its Committee
of Colored Evangelism an aggressive campaign, so that it
can now report sixty-five churches, two thousand one hun
dred and ten members, and two hundred and four profes
sions of faith. (Last report available, 1908.)
The Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Con
vention works in conjunction with the National Baptist
Convention (colored), the two together supporting twenty-
five missionaries in 1910, reporting two thousand four hun
dred and fifty-four (2,454) baptisms, three hundred and
sixty-five Bible conferences, with an aggregate attendance
of twenty-nine thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight

158 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
preachers, and a total addition to the National Baptist Con
vention of five thousand seven hundred and eighty-two
(5,782) members. If space permitted, one could go through
the list of most, if not all, of the churches, showing that in
practically every case something is being done. But enough
has been said to show the method of work.
Sunday Schools.
Almost every local church, if not every one, has a Sun
day school connected with it, and the number of scholars
connected with the department frequently equals the num
ber of church members. But not every Sunday school has
connection with a church. In fact, some of the denomina
tions are doing a splendid work through mission Sunday
schools organized and taught by white people. In most
cases these schools are pure missions and are connected
with no negro church. Other churches have done much of
this work, but perhaps the Southern Presbyterians have
pushed it most vigorously. From the report of the Secre
tary of Colored Evangelism in this church we quote the
following :
"Another feature of colored missions, which should be
noticed here, is the effort to establish Sunday schools taught
by white people. The number of these varies averaging
about thirty. The most conspicuous success with such
Sunday schools has been attained by those in Louisville,
Memphis and Atlanta, though there are many smaller ones
that have done much good. The largest mission of this
kind in the entire South maintained by any white church, is
that conducted by Rev. John Little at Louisville, Kentucky.
He gives his untiring attention to two mission schools, in
cluding industrial classes for the poor and ignorant. Sixty
(60) white teachers volunteer their aid, and the weekly
attendance averages seven hundred and fifty. Recently
Other branches of the Presbyterian family have been invited

WHAT THE WHITE CHURCHES ARE DOING 159
to join in a co-operative effort to properly support this mis
sion and erect suitable buildings. A commodious brick
building has replaced the shack which has housed the Pres
ton Street Mission so long."
Educational Work.
By far the most aggressive and widespread work among
the Negroes is in the field of training. Here the need is so
obvious that every church has taken a large share. The
Congregational Church has two theological seminaries,
three colleges, twenty-five secondary institutions, and thirty-
eight ungraded and elementary schools. In these there are
five hundred and seven teachers and officers, and thirteen
thousand four hundred and forty-nine (13,449) students.
The American Baptist Home Mission Society has an in
terest in, operates and aids twenty-six institutions in thir
teen States, with permanent endowment of $320,000, prop
erty valued at $1,866,716, three hundred and fifty-three
teachers, and eight thousand two hundred and sixty-five
(8,265) students. Forty per cent of all these students are
receiving instruction in industrial work. The Board of
Missions for Freedmen of the Presbyterian Church in the
United States of America has one university, five boarding
schools for girls' schools, ninety-five academies, parochial and
graded schools. On these schools they spent for the year
ending May, 191 1, $80,380.47. The Episcopal Church has
a relationship to some eighty schools of all grades, but the
American Church Institute, the educational board of the
church, is now centering attention and effort on six — St.
Paul's Normal and Industrial, Lawrenceville, Va. ; St.
Athanasius School, Brunswick, Ga. ; St. Mark's School, Bir
mingham, Ala.; the Vicksburg School, Vicksburg, Miss.;
the St. Augustine School, Raleigh, N. C, and the Bishop
Payne Divinity School, Petersburg, Va. The Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, spent on negro schools during

i6o PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
191 1 $15,000. The Home Mission Board of the church is
fostering Paine College, Augusta, Ga. ; Lane College, Jack
son, Tenn.; Miles Memorial College, Birmingham, Ala.;
Texas College, Tyler, Tex.; Mississippi Industrial School,
Holly Springs, Miss., etc. At one of these colleges —
Paine — there are five Southern white college men and
women as teachers. The Southern Presbyterians have Still-
man Institute at Tuscaloosa, Ala., a school which is doing
a noble work. The Christian Church, through its Woman's
Board of Missions, has six industrial schools, mostly taught
by colored teachers, save at their Southern Christian Insti
tute near Edwards, Miss., in which all save two of the sev
enteen officers and teachers are white.
Industrial Training.
One most encouraging feature about all the missionary
education is that it relates the students to every-day life.
There has been a wonderful change in this regard in the
last few years. Most of the schools started just after the
war were anything but industrial in spirit, but in looking
through the reports of all the leading mission boards, I find
practically all of them are now stressing the training of the
hand as well as the head. A very good illustration of this
decided change can be found in the Penn School, St. Helena
Island, S. C, which was established forty-nine years ago. In
its early years it was purely classical, in so far as that was
a possibility, for the term seems ridiculous when one knows
the illiteracy of the people. On my recent visit to the
school I found an industrial and trades building in process
of construction. I visited carpenter shops and shoe shops,
saw basketry work, sewing, cooking, farming, poultry rais
ing, laundering, heard a lecture on nursing, saw the county
teachers gathered there for counsel and instruction, and,
about all, found an atmosphere of thrift and cleanliness
which was wholesome and encouraging.

WHAT THE WHITE CHURCHES ARE DOING i6i
Of course, I do not mean that these schools are given
over entirely to industrial work. Much attention is given,
and rightfully, to other phases of training, but there is a
much better balanced course of study than formerly.
Special Forms of Service.
There are some special forms of service undertaken by
various churches which deserve mention here.
"The Woman's Home Missionary Society of the M. E.
(Hiurch is undertaking a splendid work for the colored
women of the South. Recognizing the fact that an intelli
gent. Christian home is one of the strongest bulwarks of a
genuine civilization, that a nation rises no higher than the
status of its women, and that, as the mothers are, so will the
children be, they have undertaken to reach as many as pos
sible of the future wives and mothers of the race with the
means at their command so as to form nuclei of intelligent
and Christian homes.
"We have fifteen of these industrial homes. They are
not institutions, but veritable homes, where the golden
chains of order, respect, interest, and love bind all into a
common family.
"In all these industrial homes all branches of domestic
economy are taught, such as domestic science, general
housekeeping, laundry work, plain sewing, dressmaking,
millinery, drafting, embroidery, drawn-work, crocheting,
knitting, basketry, and all kinds of fancy work (of which
they are very fond), as well as the proper conduct of a
home, etiquette, ethics, morality and religion.' In this
splen' d work they spent during the last quadrennium
$145 76.85."
' lie Methodist Episcopal Church, South, has two men
(Southern and white) who are giving themselves to a thor-

'"Report of Woman's Home Missionary Society of M. E. Church,
1908."

i62 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
oughly scientific investigation of the conditions and needs
of the negro church, with a view to meeting these needs in
so far as opportunity offers. Also there is a splendidly
trained Southern young woman. Miss De Bardeleben, giv
ing herself to the establishment of a deaconess' training
department at Paine College. A letter just arrived from
Miss De Bardeleben, after outlining the work done through
the colored Sunday school teachers of the city, goes on to
say : "Our Colored Civic Improvement League is a reaHty.
We have about forty members, and are trying to get right
away a trained nurse, to inspect, to advise and help with
the sick in the poorer homes. I have the authority of the
council leaders to build a cottage or workers' home here,
and to begin in the house in a small way the training of
young women for mission work." There is no greater need
than just this type of trained social and religious worker,
and one will watch with great interest the growth of this
department. The Presbyterians of the U. S. A. are starting a most
interesting experiment in what might be called "farm
housing" in Georgia. A large tract of land has been bought
near Keysville, Ga., and is being rented in small plots to
negro men with families. After the first year of rental, if
the family proves industrious and willing to work, they can
buy the plot on comparatively easy terms. The main idea
of the scheme is to build up a group of model homes that
are sanitary, attractive and comfortable. The Methodist
Episcopal Church is putting special emphasis on Epworth
League work among negro Methodists, having a special
secretary set aside for supervising this work, who is able
to report two thousand one hundred and fifty-four (2,154)
colored chapters in 191 1. Many other small undertakings
are under way for the uplift of the Negro.

WHAT THE WHITE CHURCHES ARE DOING 163
A Comprehensive Study Needed.
The first impression one has, after a comprehensive re
view of the efforts of all churches, is that much unselfishness
and genuine sacrifice have been poured out on the altar of
this great cause. Surely men and women have shown their
interest in plain, simple humanity, unadorned, not dressed
up — just bare humanity.
Another of the most vivid impressions which one has
after making a study of the reports of all the boards is
that much of the work is done with inadequate information ;
there is much duplication, much overlapping of various de
nominations, much experimentation.
There is genuine need that a real study be made of this
whole problem of missionary work and some comprehen
sive scheme worked out by which every church will have a
full share, and yet there will be no duplication. The prob
lem is entirely too large to be solved piecemeal, and it is en
tirely too pressing to allow any money or energy to be
wasted. There are whole realms of endeavor now un
touched by any church, and in other realms there is not a
little overcrowding. If a commission of two or three
scholarly men could be set aside for a careful study of the
whole field of endeavor, thousands of dollars might be
saved, hundreds more might be reached, and much future
friction might be avoided. To make such a study would be
a service to the entire country. Some college-trained men
must do this work, and I am wondering what men w-ill take
this royal chance.
More Southern White Men Needed.
Another great need is that the finest flower of our young
life in the South shall take hold of this big task. We are in
the midst of it; we know this problem as no others can.
These people are dying all about us ; we have the message
of life. How can we withhold it? Some of the choicest

i64 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
spirits of the South have already thrown themselves into
this great battle. I challenge any Presbyterian to show
me two more splendid men than Rev. John Little and his
cousin, D. D. Little, both coming from homes of the old
aristocracy in Alabama, now giving their lives to this great
enterprise. Or who does not admire such a well-trained
woman as Miss De Bardeleben, of the Southern Methodist
Church ? Or where can you find a more splendid type of a
young educator than Jackson Davis, of Virginia ? The hour
has arrived for a great gift of Southern life to this colossal
task. Within a week of this writing a letter has come from
a choice college man, a senior in one of our best Southern
colleges, saying he had been studying this problem and had
deliberately decided to give his life to God in the uplift of
the Negro. That is a moraentous decision for a cultured
Southern white man, but it is no bigger than God is asking.
The Southern Churches Must Awake.
No Southern man of any pride can read the scant re
ports of our Southern churches in their efforts to uplift the
Negro without hanging his head in shame. Of course, we
have been poor. Of course, we do not forget the heart-
sickening scenes of reconstruction days. Of course, we
have been misunderstood ; but if we are men we will forget
the past in a mighty effort to redeem the present.
What a call is this ! Here at our very door is one of
the greatest and most fertile mission fields the world
knows. Here are .nine million people, the vast majority
of whom are living in poverty, ignorance, sin, and we, the
Christian, cultured men of the South, stand idly by and
watch these poor wretches wallow in their despair. What
princely givers we have been ! The Presbyterians last year
gave an average of three postage stamps per member to
this work. The Methodists averaged less than the price
of a cheap soda water — just a five-cent one. The Southern

WHAT THE WHITE CHURCHES ARE DOING 165
Baptist Convention has only been asking frora its large
membership $15,000 annually, or less than one cent per
meraber, for this tremendous work. Men of the Southern
churches, what do we mean? Do we mean to say by our
niggardly gifts that these people are hopeless and worthless
in the sight of God? Do we mean to say that one cent per
member is doing our share in evangelizing the whole nation?
Do we mean to say that a dozen, or at most a few dozen
choice men are all the Southern churches can muster to send
out in this mighty warfare? Is it because we are poor or
because we are prejudiced? Is it because we are ignorant
of the need or indifferent to God's call? Or do we think
God blundered when he created the Negro? Why do we not
have a larger share in this work?
Here is a great field ripe for the harvest. Here is a
nation stretching out its hands to us. We know their life;
we know their needs ; we can help them if we will. God pity
the Southern Christians, the Southern churches and the
Southern States if we do not awake to our responsibility
in this hour of opportunity. We need a vastly multiplied
amount of money ; we need a volume of deep, earnest, heart-
searching, prayerful sympathy; we need an outpouring of
the most splendidly endowed and gifted life. What we
have done in the past has been good; what we do in the
future must be a thousand times better.

CHAPTER VII
WHAT THE ASSOCIATIONS ARE DOING FOR
THE NEGRO

NOT THEY WHO SOAR
Not they who soar, but they who plod
Their rugged way, unhelped, to God
Are heroes ; they who higher fare.
And, flying, fan the upper air.
Miss all the toil that hugs the sod.
'Tis they whose backs have felt the rod.
Whose feet have pressed the path unshod.
May smile upon defeated care,
Not they who soar.
High up there are no thorns to prod.
Nor boulders lurking 'neath the clod
To turn the keenness of the share.
For flight is ever free and rare;
But heroes they the soil who've trod,
Not they who soar !
— Paul Laurence Dunbar.

CHAPTER VII
WHAT THE ASSOCIATIONS ARE NOW DOING
FOR THE NEGRO
The first Colored Young Men's Christian Association
in the world was organized in Washington, D. C, dur
ing the month of December, 1853. The second association
was organized in Charleston, S. C, in April of the year
1866, and the third in New York City, February, 1867.
The Charleston association has had a continuous existence
since its organization, though at times it has been lament
ably weak.
The first colored delegate who attended an international
convention of Young Men's Christian Associations was E.
V. C. Eato, who was present at the Montreal convention in
1867, representing the association work of New York City.
At this convention. General W. T. Gregory, an ex-Confed
erate soldier of Fredericksburg, Va., in his report on the
conditions of association work in that State, expressed a
deep personal concern about the work for colored men.
The following resolution was unanimously adopted by the
convention :
"That the Committee on Associations of this conven
tion be instructed to report such measures as, in their judg
ment, will best promote the formation of Young Men's
Christian Associations among colored brethren throughout
the United States and British provinces."
Mr. George A. Hall, of Washington, made extended
tours throughout the South prior to the Indianapolis con
vention of 1870, at which convention he reported as follows :
"There is another branch of work in the South which it
(169)

170 'PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
may be proper that the convention specially consider in this
connection — namely, the promotion of associations among
colored men. There are already some six or eight of them.
Of course, they are small and their resources are limited.
It is believed, however, to be the plain duty of the associa
tions represented in this convention to make ample provi
sion for the prompt prosecution of the general work of
visitation of all young raen, without distinction of color, a^
soon as the season will perrait."
Richmond Convention.
The International Convention of Young Men's Chris
tian Associations for 1875 convened at Richraond, Va., and
Major Joseph Hardie, of Selma, Ala., a prominent South
ern Christian leader, was elected President. During one of
the sessions a petition from the colored pastors of the city
of Richmond was handed Major Hardie, in response to
which he said:
"A number of requests for prayer for colored young
men of this city have been handed in. There is a great
work to be done among the colored men of the South.
I place it upon your hearts and your consciences here to
night, and if you will carry it to the throne, God will bless
the colored young raen of this country, that they raay be
rescued from the inroads of disease and corruption and the
many evils by which they are now surrounded. They are
environed by temptations of which you and I know noth
ing — seductions, blandishments and difficulties beset their
pathway. Nothing but the grace of God will enable them
to stand and overcome these trials and walk in the paths of
holiness." At the next convention in 1876 at Toronto Major Hardie
made another appeal urging work araong colored young
men by a Secretary of the International Committee.
First Secretaries.
After prayer was offered by Col. C. W. Loveless, of Ala-

WHAT THE ASSOCIATIONS ARE DOING 171
After prayer was offered by Col. C. W. Loveless of Ala-
baraa. Dr. Stuart Robinson of Louisville, Ky., urged the
necessity of iraraediate action. There and then seven hun
dred dollars were secured for the support of a secretary to
work araong colored raen. The first Secretary of the Col
ored Associations was General George D. Johnston, an ex-
Confederate soldier and a warm friend of the colored
people. He spent a year traveling through the South, in
vestigating conditions and needs, and reported at the Louis
ville convention in 1877. In this convention, held in the
South, the Associations of North America deliberately
voted to authorize the International Coraraittee to continue
definite work for colored young raen. Representatives were
there frora three colored student associations — Howard in
Washington, and Fisk and Walden in Nashville.
In Deceraber, 1879, Henry Edwards Brown, the founder
of Talladega College, and also a graduate of Oberlin Col
lege, a man well known and respected both by white and
black alike, became the Traveling Secretary of the Inter
national Committee in its work for colored men. It
should be noted that almost exclusive emphasis was then
placed on work araong colored students in school and col
lege and that eraphasis was continued by Mr. Brown's suc
cessors so that to this day student associations outnuraber
others, in city and country. The first Colored Student
Association was organized at Howard University, Wash
ington, D. C, in 1869. The work has greatly prospered
under the leadership of Messrs. W. A. Hunton and J. E.
Moorland, who succeeded Mr. Brown as the Traveling
Secretaries of the International Committee. The former,
who is now Senior Secretary, began work in 1890,
and the latter entered the service of the coraraittee in
1898. At the present time the city section of the colored
departraent reports 41 associations in existence, 6b,S54

172 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
members, 1,319 men serving on committees, 1,145 Sunday
meetings for colored men, with a total attendance of 85,808,
in which 480 raen professed conversion, and 1,229 men en
rolled in the Bible class.
The student associations report 91 organizations in
schools having 9,178 young raen enrolled, 3,775 of whom
are merabers of the association. This departraent reports
1,051 men serving on committees, 1,369 enrolled in Bible
class, and both city and student combined report build
ings owned valued at $224,600.
Mr. Rosenwald's Offer.
The work of this department has had a great irapetus
during the past year through the generous offer of Mr.
Julius Rosenwald, of Chicago. On the first day of January,
191 1, at a raeeting held for the purpose of launching a
building carapaign for the colored raen of Chicago, Mr.
Rosenwald offered to give $25,000 on condition a total
araount of $100,000 was secured, and in his announce-
raent of this gift stated that he would give a like $25,000
to any city in the United States which would, during the
next succeeding five years, raise an additional $75,000 for
a Colored Young Men's Christian Association building.
Already the cities of Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles,
Atlanta, Washington and Indianapolis are erecting raagnifi-
cent buildings for the housing of colored associations, tak
ing advantage of Mr. Rosenwald's generous offer. It now
seems quite likely that during these five years frora ten to
twenty of the leading Southern cities ought to be able to
avail theraselves of this offer.
Work for Women.
The Young Woraen's Christian Association sends a
brief summary of the work for colored women, as fol
lows:

WHAT THE ASSOCIATIONS ARE DOING 173
"The colored associations aim as far as possible to carry
on the four-fold work such as is found in most of our
cities, although not every branch has been able to do this,
partly on account of lack of equipment and funds and partly
owing to the lack of a trained staff. All of them have a
boarding home, an employraent directory, Bible classes,
a Sunday vesper service and a few educational classes.
Sorae associations have developed the educational work so
that it includes besides classes in elementary English, arith
metic and gramraar, classes in doraestic art and science
planned to equip girls for wage-earning. The reading
roora and library, inforraal talks and entertainments are
also features of the association. Junior work, too, has been
somewhat developed among the younger girls, clubs and
sewing and cooking classes being the most attractive fea
tures. . . . There are now in the United States ten
colored associations. Four of these are branches of the
central association and thus are affiliated with the national
organization. . . . The colored associations are to be
comraended for their earnest efforts to co-operate with other
organizations doing work for colored women. The Society
for the Protection of Colored Woraen, which carries on a
travelers' aid work in raany cities, is glad to be able to send
girls to the association home for a night or two, or until a
respectable boarding place can be found for them. Valu
able inforraation has also been given to kinds of eraploy-
ment open in the city, and present vacancies. The associa
tions work in harmony with other societies, such as the
White Rose Society, and in all cases the field is so divided
that there is no duplication or wasted effort."
The future policy of this raovement is outlined as fol
lows :
"i. Concentrate on the development of existing asso
ciations along the following lines:
"a. Securing of trained secretaries as local leaders.

174 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
'(Provision has been made for the training of secretaries in
our training centers.)
"b. Responsible committee work.
"c. Greater publicity.
"d. Systematic finance raethods.
"e. Educational, physical, recreative and religious
work. "/. Enlarged employment and travelers' aid work.
"2. Organization for the present to be limited to those
communities having a population of five thousand colored
women, where conditions are most favorable for model as
sociations. "3. For other places where conditions do not warrant
the establishment of an association, advise and suggest plans
for study and investigation which may prepare for an asso
ciation in the future.
"4. Preparation of letters and literature especially
adapted to the needs of the colored field. Preparation of
bibliography for those wishing to study the colored field.
. . . A thoughtful study based on this outline will give
anyone a working knowledge of specific conditions relating
to colored women and their needs."
Need for This Work.
There cannot be any doubt about the need for such work
as this which the associations undertake to do for and with
the young men and women of the negro race. If the white
college men and women need the inspiration and direction
of these organizations, how much more do the colored stu
dents need them? These latter students have usually had
less of home life, less of real religious instruction, less of
training in leadership, and are, therefore, all the more de
pendent on outside influences for fostering their Christian
activities. It must be remerabered, too, that the students in the

WHAT THE ASSOCIATIONS ARE DOING 175
negro schools in the South, because of their small numbers,
will have disproportionately larger power, and if the race
is to become sober, moral and (jod-fearing, we must see to
it that their leaders have proper moral and religious in
struction. The three traveling secretaries of the Young
Men's Christian Association, Messrs. Hunton, Tobias and
Jones, all of them scholarly and sane representatives of the
race, ought to insure aggressive policies for the religious
life of the men students. The Young Woraen's Christian
Associations are not apt to fall behind in this good work.
Conferences are now organized for the training of lead
ers in the student work. The first suraraer conference on
the order of the Northfield conference for white students
will be held in North Carolina this summer.
Needs for City Work.
Of all the Negroes, those living in cities are by far the
most needy from the moral and physical standpoint. In
most cases their housing is poor ; ventilation is bad ; usually
the sanitation is atrocious; there is overcrowding, under
feeding, and lack of all beauty in the surroundings. Add
to this the fact that even their schools and churches are often
located in unsanitary, unsightly and noisy locahties and the
picture of need grows very dark. A modern Young Men's
Christian Association building for Negroes, such as is now
being erected in Atlanta, Chicago, Washington and other
cities, ought to help solve some of the larger probleras of
the city negro life.
Example of a Cheerful Home.
What has just been said indicates one of the chief prob
leras of negro progress — the negro home. It is all too
frequently simply a sleeping loft, with none of the com
forts or attractions which should tend to keep the boys and
girls off the street. Many of the race have so long lived

176 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
under such handicaps that they scarcely realize that any
thing else is possible. What they need is an example of
real home-keeping. Not a tumbled-down old building aban
doned by some white faraily, but a real building where
vhings can be kept clean, and where the simple, neat and
attractive furnishings can create a desire for better things
at home. The negro can have better if he wants it. He
can raake good laboring wages ; his services are always in
deraand ; but one raain difficulty is to get him to want better
houses and more comforts. Many a mission school has
done its greatest work for the race, not through the recita
tion room, but through the atmosphere of cleanliness and
simple comfort which surrounded and pervaded its build
ings. A Young Men's or Young Women's Christian Asso
ciation building ought to, in a larger sense, do this for a
whole city. Its real effect should be to create ideals and
stimulate ambition.
Au Example of Christian Unity.
One of the most serious handicaps of moral and reli
gious life among negroes lies in the factional spirit to be
found in the churches. Here denominational jealousies are
at the highest tension, and even two churches of the same
denomination may have the bitterest rivalry. Those who
look at the negro race frora afar and suppose them one
united race in religion, politics and social life are very far
from being familiar with the facts. No principle of organi
zation has yet been found in the negro church which is
able to bind large groups together and prevent church splits.
The Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associa
tions have had a great message to white Christendom on
this point. Men who work side by side for men during the
week are not apt to be wholly sectarian on Sunday. It does
not make them less churchraen, but it makes them more
tolerant and more Christian churchmen. This moveraent

WHAT THE ASSOCIATIONS ARE DOING 177
established among the Negroes could not fail to have a
similar result. Besides the sanity and straightforwardness
of the associations would do much to overcome the over-
prevalent emotionalism too frequently found in the negro
churches. No greater boon could be given to the religious
hfe of the race. Then there is a great need for real Bible
study among these men and women. If this is needed
among white raen, why should it not be raore needed among
negro men, who have fewer teachers, less favorable home
conditions and less training which fits thera for a proper
understanding of the Bible when read? In this field the
associations have proven their unique ability.
Hygienic and Sanitary Training Needed.
The actual physical exercise of a gymnasiura is not
nearly so ranch needed by negro young people as it is by
whites, because the forraer do not live such a sedentary life
as do raost of the latter in an ordinary city. But there is a
tremendous need that there be someone in the community
like a physical director who is open to all who want to
know the laws of healthful living. We have long since
passed the time when we consider the leading of class drills
as the main business of the physical director of a city asso
ciation. He or she is to be a community force making for
better hygienic customs and better sanitary conditions. A
gymnasium for a negro association would justify itself on
the one score of baths alone. It is a well-known fact that
comparatively few negro homes have bath tubs or even
sufficient facilities or privacy for sponge baths. Neither
are there any public facilities in most of our Southern cities.
I have recently made an investigation of the conditions of
recreation, amusement, public parks, bath houses, etc., open
to Negroes in' Southern cities. I have before me the facts
from seventeen typical Southern cities, including such places
as Richmond, Charleston, Raleigh, Columbia, S. C, Nash-
—12

178 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
ville, Knoxville, Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, Ga., New Or
leans, Baton Rouge, Little Rock, Dallas, Fort Worth,
Austin, etc. Besides, I have the facts for a number of
smaller places. In these investigation cards there is a
question asked about baths open to negroes, and only one
city of the entire list reports any such accommodations;
that city is Columbus, Ga., the baths being found in the
Young Men's Christian Association building. Columbus,
by the way, is the only one of these cities having a modern
Young Men's Christian Association building for colored
men. In every one of the other cities the nearest approach
to a bath house is a barber shop, usually dirty enough and
entirely too expensive to encourage habitual cleanliness.
This is not simply a health question, but a moral question
as well. No man can be his best morally who does not have
a chance to keep decently clean. It is not unlikely that
public baths would pay for themselves through the reduc
tion of criminal expenses.
An Athletic Center.
It is further true that our Southern cities do not furnish
anything like adequate facilities for the social life of the
Negro. There are very few public parks, only four of the
above cities reporting such parks for Negroes, and two or
three others having private amuseraent parks open to
Negroes in the summer, but not run for the good of the com
munity, but for the remuneration of the owner. It is a
positive shame that in most of our Southern cities Negroes
are not allowed to go to the white parks and no Negro parks
are provided. If we want separation, then we ought at
least to be fair-minded enough not to take all the parks
there are and provide the Negroes none.
This is a most serious question. It raeans that the negro
boy cannot play ball. It means he cannot have any real
games, for no game worth the name can be played on the

WHAT THE ASSOCIATIONS ARE DOING 179
Streets. Everyone who has studied just a little child psy
chology knows well that health and character call for play.
It is as difficult to build child character without wholesorae,
clean sport as it is to make bricks without clay or straw.
The negro child is no exception to this. This may be one
reason why the coramunities around schools are almost al
ways more quiet and orderly and the children better behaved
because the school grounds are almost always used as a
park and playground for the coramunity.
Now, the Colored Young Men's Christian Association
can help to meet this pressing need. It cannot take the place
of public parks, but it can furnish indoor and outdoor play
life to hundreds and hundreds of boys, just as the white
association does for white boys. It is none too soon to start
this work if we want to save the rising generation of boys.
A Social Center.
Neither is there anything in the way of a social center
for the Negro during his leisure hours. No man can work
all the time. Every man must have some leisure. These
unoccupied hours are the most dangerous to the average
Negro and by far the most costly to the community. It is
during these hours that most of the quarrels and fights take
place, and during this time also that most of the schemes
for the worst crimes are conceived. As a matter of self-
defense, we must take care of the leisure hours of these
young people just as we raust for any other class. Of the
seventeen cities investigated, five report one or more the
atres for Negroes, several allow thera in the "peanut" gal
lery of the white theatres, and the other five report nothing
of this kind of amusement. Eight of these cities have
moving picture shows for negroes ; nine have none. Of the
nineteen picture shows reported in these eight cities, about
half are reported as very low and degrading, having the
cheapest and vilest vaudeville attachments. One investi-

i8o PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
gator reports : "The principal places of amusement for the
male population are the saloons, pool and billiard rooms."
In one city "they are not allowed to attend the picture
shows, and the one formerly run for them has closed up."
Another investigator reports: "Negroes admitted into
'peanut' gallery in white theatres, but better class say they
will not go unless for some special attraction, as they are
put with the lowest class of whites." Another reports:
"Picture shows with vaudeville attachment are rotten, at
tended by lowest types of all colors." Another investigator,
this tirae a college president, whose thorough sociological
training raakes hira a discrirainating critic, writes as fol
lows: "There have been several moving picture shows in
 exclusively for Negroes. They have been on the
vilest streets and have been attended largely by the worst
element of Negroes, and from all I can learn the pictures
have not been of the cleanest sort, to say the least." As
certain as the recreation hour determines the character of
a man or woman, so certain are we condemning thousands
of these helpless people to a life of shame and crirae by fail
ing to provide for thera or helping thera to provide for them
selves decent recreation.
The Colored Young Men's Christian Association of
Columbus, Ga., helps to meet this situation, as do many
other associations, by giving wholesome social life in its
building. In its small auditorium once or twice a week it
has high-grade moving pictures, which not only entertain,
but instruct and elevate. Besides, in its parlors it has a
piano, where the young men can indulge their musical
¦abilities. There ought to be such a social center, both for
men and women, in every Southern city.
Any organization which has shown its capacity to raeet
such needs as these, besides ministering to the deepest spirit
ual needs of the comraunity, has a claim on the hearty
support of every loyal Southerner.

WHAT THE ASSOCIATIONS ARE DOING i8r
County Associations Needed.
If, however, the students in the negro schools and the
young people in the cities need associations, it raay be
raaintained that the country Negro needs its work even more.
There the humdrum of life eats like a canker into the fibre
of ambition; the weary raonotony tends to bring all exist
ence down to a dead level of the commonplace. There are
no new ideals; there is so little to stir ambition, so little
to keep hope alive. The danger of the country is that all
the raore active young raen and girls become restive and go
away to the city. The one way to keep these better young
people in the country is to make life there more virile.
In this connection one needs to refer to recreation again.
Speaking of rural recreation. President Butterfield says :
"The closest observers of rural life are quite convinced
that the recreations of the country, not only for children,
but for young people and for adults as well, are grossly
inadequate. Farmers themselves are, as a rule, apparently
satisfied with the situation, and, as a matter of fact, if one
should take a census of the recreations of the rural people,
a long list could be named. But it would also appear that
recreation on the whole is inadequate in amount, in variety
and in quality ; that the country people do not take sufficient
tirae for play, and that such recreations as exist are unor
ganized and are not adapted to develop the best phases of
character. There are notable exceptions to these general
truths, and there are wide variations of conditions, but in
general it is safe to say that rural life is lacking in recrea
tion."' This stateraent is alraost too mild to apply to the negro
community, for it can hardly be said that a long list of
amuseraents for thera could be naraed. In fact, I sent let
ters to more than two hundred workers among Negroes in

"The Country Church and the Rural Problem," p. 42-

i82 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
the rural districts and was able to get a Hst of only four
types of amusements from thera all — hunting and fishing,
visiting shows and fairs, going to church, and going to town.
This shows the terrible poverty of this side of the negro's
life.A Religious Demonstrator Needed.
In the chapter on the negro farraer, we have shown what
marvelous econoraic results have corae frora the work of
the United States farm demonstrator, who brings the farmer
new ideas and up-to-date methods. In the chapter on rural
schools we have shown similar splendid results coming into
school life frora the industrial supervisor, who is really an
educational deraonstrator. What we need to complete the
circle is a religious demonstrator in the person of a Young
Men's and YoUng Women's Christian Association County
Secretary. This religious deraonstrator would organize the
play life of the coraraunity ; would initiate and foster cora
munity meetings, which would create community spirit;
w-ould help to bring all the churches together in a real
campaign for moral and religious uplift — in a word, he
would become the moral, social and religious engineer of
the community. Already the students of Pennsylvania
State College have agreed to pay the salary of such a
demonstrator for one county in the South, and a Hampton
graduate, scientifically trained in agriculture, and hence
sympathetic with the needs of the rural Negro, is now get
ting ready to open up the first field of service. Many other
colleges ought to follow the lead of Pennsylvania State
College and have their representative working in some of
these local fields. I do not know of any place where a thou
sand dollars would do so much for the uplift of the negro
race as if put into the work of a county secretary of the
jassociation in some of the darker counties.

WHAT THE ASSOCIATIONS ARE DOING 183
Growing Interest Among White Men.
Perhaps the raost important thing, however, which the
association is doing for the Negro is not directly, but in
directly done. The difficulty for forty years has been to
get an intelligent interest on the part of Southern white
men in this problem. I have shown in the preceding chap
ter that the Southern man before the war was carrying on
a much raore aggressive carapaign of betterment for the
Negro than has ever been carried on since the war. In
i860 the Southern Methodists alone had 327 missionaries
at work, raost of them white men, and spent $86,000 in that
year alone for the upHft of slaves. Now that the church
has grown ten- fold, it is giving the paltry sum of $15,000
to a work for twice as many people. Every other Southern
church is doing about the same. Southern white men have
not been interested, and this has been the most difficult
aspect of the whole problem. After my first volume for
the study of negro life appeared. Dr. Booker T. Washing
ton wrote me, saying that, in his judgraent, the association
was now attacking the most important and difficult phase of
all the work — the interesting of white men in the problem;
Success of the Attempt.
No one with the least knowledge of the conditions
hoped — even in the raost sanguine raood — that we should
find such a splendid response from the college men of the
South as we have found. We had hoped that two thousand
Southern college men might be secured for the study of the
text-book' in sraall groups throughout the Southern col
leges. What was our araazeraent to find four thousand
studied it the first year? During the current year of
1911-1912 we already have nearly six thousand college
men studying this sarae book. There were at the Agricul
tural and Mechanical College of Mississippi one hundred
"'Negro Life in the South," by the author.

i84 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
and ninety-eight men enrolled in the study classes last year
(1910-1911), and this year (1911-1912) five hundred and
one have enrolled. In another State institution, where sorae
of the students thought men would not study about the
negro's conditions and needs, a canvass was made, offering
the men a choice between a study of the foreigner and a
study of the Negro, and at the close of the canvass it proved
that ninety-six per cent of all the men had signed up to
study the Negro. Similar success has been reported from
many colleges.
A special reference liberary of seven volumes, entitled
"Race Relationships in the South," has been bound in uni
form bindings and is being put into raost of the college and
city association libraries, so that sane and scientific in
formation is now available to all who are interested.
Sociai Service.
But not only are the educated men of the South willing
to study this question; they are also beginning to put the
knowledge into practice. A fine student in one college,
after he had becorae interested in the study, brought to
gether all the negro cooks, waiters, and janitors on the
campus into a Civic Righteousness Club, where they dis
cussed the probleras of moral iraport to these men, basing
it all on the study of the Bible. The white student was the
leader. In another institution all the negro raen working
on the carapus were organized into a straight Bible class,
led by a white student. In one State university the Student
Secretary of the association organized a civic club araong
the Negroes in the city where the university was located.
The group, with seventy one initial members, met in a negro
tailor shop and was led by the advanced white students.
In another college the men are going out to the
convict camp near by, teaching not only the Bible, but
the siraple rudiraents of knowledge. They also hold a regu-

WHAT THE ASSOCIATIONS ARE DOING 185
lar religious service for these raen. In this work they have
the raost hearty support and co-operation of the warden,
because he says it makes the convicts less sullen and more
easily handled. In a great many colleges the white students
have organized Sunday schools for negro children. In other
places they have taught normal classes of the colored Sun
day school leaders. Groups of white students have taken
tours to leading negro schools and have invariably come
away with a new conception of the Negro and his progress.
Investigations. One of the most important needs of the times is for
first-hand information. Men become interested when they
go and see for themselves. One real tour of investigation
is better than reading two books. Uniform investigation
cards have been issued to guide students in their attempt to
find the facts. Those who are going out have new eyes
because of the study and because of the guidance of these
cards. Dozens of Southern students are realizing the need
for effort, because of such investigations, as they never
could have realized thera' by study. One worker for boys
in the South said recently that two years ago no college
raan would even consider working with negro boys, but now
he could get raore of the very choicest white students than
he could possibly use.
A New Era.
This is the dawning of a new era. Those who know
must of necessity be interested, and those who are inter
ested will of necessity help. The need is appalling, but the
response is becoming more and more enthusiastic. God is
surely thrusting forth laborers into his harvest. It takes
a little courage still for a white man to throw himself into
this great conflict. There are still those who are not big
enough to sympathize; they are only big enough to laugh.

i86 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
Let no man who is afraid of his reputation ; let no man who
is seeking for honor ; let no man who wants to win applause
enter here. But if a raan has a heart big enough to have it
bleed because of the suffering of others ; if his soul is sensi
tive to the bitter cry of hungry children, horaeless woraen,
struggling raen; if he aspires, even in an hurable way, to
be in corapany with those heroic souls who have dared all
for a great cause — then here is a place of service. In this
service no raan need be asharaed of his corarades, for here
the little raen will not dare. Here is Paul, the raan who
knew no race; here is Lee, who labored unselfishly for his
own slaves ; here is Jackson, than whom the Negro had no
better friend ; yea, here is Jesus Christ himself, with yearn
ing heart, waiting to help this belated race. If we are big
enough, let us aspire to this noble company, for of such
friends no Southern man need be ashamed.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 187

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Following the line of the bibliography of "Negro Life in the
South," I here add a note about a few additional volumes which
may help some to select those books most needed in this study.
Each book has been carefully reviewed for this purpose. For fur
ther titles see bibliography in "Negro Life in the South." — W. D. W.
Braithwaite, William Stanley — "Lyrics of Life and Love."
Herbert B. Turner & Co., Boston. A series of poems of more
that passing beauty by a Negro poet.
Brown, William Garratt — "The Lower South in American His
tory.'' The Macmillan Company. A true picture of the rise
of the Old South and its early influence ; just a little pessimistic
in tone.
Cutler, James ELSEitT — "Lynch Law." Longmans, Green & Co.
A careful compilation of the facts of lynching and a statement
of the causes and effects. It should be read by every South
ern raan.
Davis, Daniel Webster— " 'Weh Down Souf." The Heiman
Taylor Company, Cleveland. Poems of the Old South of true
beauty and sentiment.
Ellwood, Charles A. — "Sociology and Modern Social Problems."
American Book Company. Contains a very illuminating chap
ter on the "Negro Problem."
Johnston, Sir Harry H.— "The Negro in the New World." The
Macmillan Company. A compendium of facts about the Negro,
very suggestive, and quite accurate on the whole, though a bit
superficial as to Southern conditions.
MuNFORD, Beverly B. — "Virginia's Attitude Toward Slavery and
Secession." One of the best statements yet written concerning
the causes of the Civil War; not belligerent, but setting forth
simple facts.
Odum, Howard W.— "Social and Mental Traits of the Negro."
Longman's Green & Co. A statement based on an extended
investigation, but not altogether too fair-minded. It hardly
lives up to its title.
Phillips, Ulrich B.— "A Documentary History of American In-

l88 PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS
dustrial Society," Vols. I and II. Arthur H. Clark Company,
Cleveland. Bringing together a great many -of the old manu
scripts bearing on plantation and frontier life ; invaluable to
the student who wishes to get back to first sources.
RiLEY, B. F.— "The White Man's Burden." Published by the author,
Birrainghara, Ala. A very sane and sympathetic discussion of
the negro question frora a Southern raan's standpoint.
Stephenson, Gilbert Thomas — "Race Distinctions in American
Law." D. Appleton & Co A clear, unbiased and helpful state
ment of just the distinction — and at times discriminations —
raade throughout the United States in the laws governing race
relationships.
Washington, Booker T. — "The Story of the Negro," Vols I and II.
Doubleday, Page & Co. A history of the Negro, past and pres
ent, written in a most interesting and readable style. It cannot
fail to be of great service to all who want to know the negro
as a race.
Washington, Booker T. — "My Larger Education." Doubleday,
Page & Co. A continuation of the life story of the author,
written in that easy conversational style which makes it very
readable. Like everything else Dr. Washington has written, it
is fair-minded and will give ample returns for reading.

NOTE: The books in the foregoing list may be secured through
ASSOCIATION PRESS, 124 East 28th Street, New York

INDEX

189

INDEX

Agricultural Conditions in the
Old South, 94-95 ; amount of
land cultivated, 96; one crop
systera, 102-103 B
Banks, Charles, 46-47
Baptists, 150
Birth Rate, 66
Boyd, Dr. R. H., 42
Butterfield, Pres., 106

Churches Southern — ^Larger ef
forts needed, 164
Carver, Geo. W., 45
D
Darwin's "Origin of Species," 13
Davis, Jackson, 137
Death rate, 65 ; explanation of,
67; responsibility for, 73-74
Deraonstration Farraing, log; in
Alabaraa, no; Effects on com
munity life, 114; Negroes
eager for, in; results among
Negroes, 111-113
Dillard, Dr. Jas. H., 137
Dolls, Negro, 42
Douglas, Frederick, 44
Dowd, Prof,, 18, 23, 29
Dunbar, Paul Laurence, 26, 39,
48,53 E
Economic progress, 111-113;
need for spiritualization, 115
Environment, fitness for, 14, 15;
racial, 14
Episcopalians, 150-151 F
Farm life, enemies of, 97; isola
tion, 104; Relation of county
Young Men's Christian Asso
ciation to, 181

Farm ownership, 107; demon
stration work; struggle for
ownership, 105
Fiske, John, 16, 22

Gloucester County, 24, 56
H
Hampton, 31, 40
Health, care of, 67, 69. special
diseases, 70; Relation to
whites, 74; sanitation, 122, 125
Henrico County, Va,, 135, 138/.
Hunton, W, A., 171
Homes, 136
Hook Worm, 122, 125
Hospital facilities, 68
Howells, Wra. Dean, 49
I
Imagination, 22
Individualism, 35
Industrial work, 134, 147, 141 ¦
effect on attendance, 138;
effect on the coramunity, 135/,;
¦supervision of, 137; training,
160 J
Jeane's foundation, 137^.

Leadership of unraixed ances
try, 43
Exaraples of :Maj. R. R. Moton,
44; Charles Banks, 46, 47
Edward Wilbur Blyden, 56;
Wm. Washington Brown, 56;
George W. Carver, 45 ; Lott
Cary, 56; George W, Clinton,
54; Alexander Crummel, 56;
D. W, Davis, 56; Paul Lau
rence Dunbar, 48, 53; Lucy
Laney, 56; M. C. B. Mason,
56; Isaiah Montgomery, 46,

I90

PRESENT FORCES IN NEGRO PROGRESS

47; Joseph C. Price, 45; Vir
ginia Randolph, 56; J. H.
Smith, 56; Bishop Tyree, C.
T. Walker, 53; T. C- Walker,
56; Georgia Washington, 56;
Phillis Wheatley, 48; Mr.
Wood, 56; R. R. Wright, 55
M
Methodists, early relations con
cerning slavery, 148; missions,
[Missionaries to the Negroes, 152
Montgomery, Isaiah, 46, 47
Moorland, J. E,, 41, 171
Moravian Missions, 149, 150
Moton, Maj. R. R., 24, 44
Music, Negro, 31, 40

Odum, H. W., 21
"Old-time Negro"

Page, Thos. Nelson, 26, 61
Penn School {see also St.
Helena Island), 40, 160
Population, increase by decades,
62; distribution, 71, 76 (see
also maps 78f.) movement
cityward, 64; movement to the
North, 63; rate of increase in
the South, 63; factor in the
future redistribution, 71, 72 ;
statistical table, 77
Presbyterians, 151
Price, Jos. C, 45
Progress, signs of, 183^., 109-
112, I3if. R
Racial characteristics, (see char
acteristics)
Race consciousness, 36; growth
of, 38; race sufficiency, 38
Race pride, 36; basis of, 38; ap
preciation of their past, 39;
collection of books and pic
tures, 41 ; business interests,
41 ; growth in, 38
•Randolph Virginia, 138
Reconstruction, evil effects of,
152-154

Recreation, athletic center need
ed, 178; playgrounds needed,
125 ; social centers needed, 179
Religious training, 147-149;
method of work, 152; planta
tion owners interested, 147-
149
Rosenwald, Julius, benefactions
to associations, 172

Sanitation, 122-125, i77
School funds, raised by the Ne
groes, 131 ; raised from taxa
tion, 132-134
School, rural, 105 ; course of
study, 134 f.; enrollment in,
119; hopeful features, 131 f.;
opportunity of, 119; super
vision, 126, 136/^; weakness of,
120-130
Segregation, 37
Self control, lack of, 16
'Smith, Prof. 41
Smith, Dr. W. B., 61
Social investigation, 185
Social service, 184
Society for the propagation of
the Gospel, 147
Stephenson, G. T., 21

St. Helena Island, 27, 30, 40,
119, 160 T
Tate, Prof. W. K., 120, 128, 136
Teachers, salary, 126-127; prep
aration, 127, 142
Tenant system, 97; advantages
of, 98; disadvantages of, 99;
tenants, types of, 98, 102; ten
antry and whiskey, lOO
Thomas, Wm. H., 23
Tuskegee, 31, 40, 45
U
Unity of the human race, I-2,
16, 32 W
Walker, Dr. C. T., 24, 53
Walker, T. C, 24, 56
.Washington, Dr. B. T., 24, 29,
37, 38, 40, 41, 44. 61

INDEX

191

•Wheatley, Phillis, 12, 48
Wilcox, Walter F., 61
Women as bread winners, 6g
Wright, Arthur D., 137, 138
Wright, Hon. Seaborn, 20

Yoimg Men's Christian Associ

ation — County secretaries need
ed, 182; examples of unity,
176; first organization, 169;
first secretaries of, 171 ; need
of the work, 174, 175
Young Women's Christian Asso
ciation — Present policy, 173-
174

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