it was started eleven attended. In 1911 the number registered was 1,900. This work has proved of the greatest value as a stimulus and encouragement. These are only a few of the extension activities which radiate from Tuskegee. . . .3

"The authorities here claim that the average earnings of the 9,000 students who have passed through the Institute are $700 per annum. Their average earnings before they entered were $100 a year. They also say of adult students, of whom there are a considerable number, that before entering their earning capacity was $5 to $10 a month. After remaining at the Institute from one to three years such are in demand at wages running from $1.50 to $3 a day, with prospect of increased pay as experience is gained. The exceptional ones are able to command almost at once from $4 to $5 a day.”

There are about twenty other industrial schools of minor importance scattered over the South, all more or less copies of Hampton and Tuskegee, and a majority of them founded by graduates of the above-named institutions.

In the Southern states there are about twenty-five publicly supported libraries for the Negroes and about the same number supported by private donations. The Carnegie Corporation has donated funds for library buildings for Negroes in Atlanta, Georgia; Greensboro, North Carolina; Houston, Texas; Knoxville, Tennessee; Meridian, Mississippi; Mound Bayou, Mississippi; Nashville, Tennessee; New Orleans, Louisiana, and Savannah, Georgia.

There are public libraries for Negroes without outside aid at Charlotte, North Carolina; Galveston, Texas; Memphis, Tennessee; and Louisville, Kentucky.

The Carnegie Corporation has donated funds varying from $6,000 to $20,000 for libraries for Negro schools. Mrs. C. P. Huntington has given $100,000 for a library at Hampton.

By way of comparing the facilities for higher education among the Negroes in America and South Africa, Evans says: "there is not a single State institution either for higher literary, vocational, or other training in the Union of South Africa. Only one voluntary institution in the whole Union-that of Lonedale, supported by the Presbyterians of Scotland-is in any way comparable with the many in the South. When this state of things is compared with the Universities, Normal Colleges, Medical and Dental Colleges and industrial instituOp. Cit., p. 136.

tions provided by the States and by philanthropic bodies for the higher intellectual and vocational training of the Negro, it makes a South African wonder at the complaints of the Southern Negro at his lack of educational facilities." "

'Op. cit., p. 261.

CHAPTER 24

THE SITUATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION

General Estimate of Institutions of Higher Learning for Negroes-Too many of Such Institutions-Few of Them Doing Work of College Grade-Many of Them Badly Located-Need of Elimination and Coöperation in the Interest of Efficiency

A

CONSPICUOUS fault in the educational system of the Negroes, as formerly in that of the whites, is that it is top-heavy; i. e., it has too many so-called colleges and universities absorbing the funds and energies which might be better applied to strengthening and building up institutions of a more elementary character. The oversupply of Negro colleges has resulted in such competition that, in order to get pupils at all, it has been necessary to admit those who are not even far enough advanced to enter courses of the high-school grade. It thus turns out that many of the Negro colleges make no pretense of doing college work. Only thirty-three percent of the Negro "colleges" in the United States offer any courses of college grade.1

Even the colleges which offer some college courses have to devote most of their energies to preparing their pupils to enter them. Only ten percent of the pupils enrolled in the Negro colleges are pursuing courses above the secondary grade. This elementary instruction is partly necessary because of the absence of high schools and private schools which prepare students for college. Not many years ago the colleges. and universities for the whites found it necessary to do much preparatory work for the same reason.

One might suppose that these numerous Negro colleges are at least doing a valuable work in supplementing the shortage in high schools, but their geographical situation does not fit them to answer the demands of a high school for the reason that they require the pupils to live away from home.

The institutions of higher learning maintained by Northern white organizations are generally doing serviceable work, but in many cases they are badly located, and maintain an old-fashioned curriculum which is ill-adapted to the Negro's needs.

'Jones, "Negro Education," U. S. Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1916, No. 38.

The institutions supported by Negro organizations are generally doing elementary work, and in most cases have neither the equipment nor the teaching staff necessary to give any kind of instruction efficiently. Of the 153 Negro-owned schools, only sixty are of importance and "a few are brazen frauds imposing upon the philanthropy of Northern donors." 2 Out of a total attendance of 17,299, only 115 are pursuing courses of college grade. In all of the private schools for Negroes there are 83,679 pupils, of whom only 1,588 are pursuing college courses. Only three of the private schools have a student body, faculty, equipment, and income sufficient to warrant the title of college.

There is very great need of coöperation between the privately owned schools for Negroes in the interest of concentration of resources and energy upon the schools favorably situated and capable of maintaining proper standards. Also there should be coöperation in the interest of modernizing the courses of study, and adapting them better to the needs of the race. The theological schools especially need departments of social science, and many of the other schools might serve a useful purpose in introducing training courses for teachers.

It is gratifying to note that a beginning in the direction of coöperation of the private schools has already been made. In 1913 Dr. James H. Dillard effected a conference of representatives of the various agencies concerned in the private schools for Negroes with the view of preventing duplication of work and readjusting the curricula to the needs of the community. A good suggestion of a plan for redistribution of schools for the higher education of the Negro is given on a map on page sixty-three in Bulletin 38, published by the United States Bureau of Education in 1916.

CHAPTER 25

RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO

Church Affiliations-Emotional Outbursts at Revival Meetings-Character of Negro Preachers-Their Former Tendency to Become Leaders in PoliticsSocial Aspects of the Negro Church-Great Value of Religion for the Colored People

SIN

INCE the Civil War the Negro members of the various white religious denominations have to a great extent withdrawn and formed independent churches. Among the independent Negro churches the Baptists and Methodists take the lead, the former with a membership of over 3,000,000, and the latter, about 1,000,000. There are, however, about 600,000 Negroes who belong to white denominations. The Methodist Episcopal Church has 320,025 Negro members; the Northern Baptists, 53,842; the Roman Catholics, 51,688; the Primitive Baptists, 35,706; the Presbyterian Churches, 33,445; and the Protestant Episcopal, 23,775. Most of the Negro members of white churches reside in the Northern states, except the members of the Roman Catholic Church, who are mostly residents of Louisiana.

The Negroes of the South at the close of the Civil War were very ignorant and retained a great many superstitions which had been brought over from Africa. They believed firmly in ghosts, haunts, witches, charms, magic, and signs of good and bad luck, and they used a variety of outlandish roots and herbs and hocus-pocus to cure disease. Very naturally, the first Negro converts to Christianity carried over into their new religion a large amount of African superstitions, the elimination of which has been a slow and difficult process. The ignorant white people of the South have not been free from superstition, and they have not greatly helped the Negro to outgrow his.

A characteristic of the Negro's religion, very outstanding for many years following the Civil War, was its high degree of emotionalism. and tendency to express itself in frenzied shouts, gesticulations, and ecstatic visions.

'Negro Year Book, 1921-22.