A SOUTHERN JOURNEY.
BY SECRETARY A.F. BEARD.
It included every Southern State in extent from Virginia to Texas, and from Texas to Florida. It was a study of schools, their methods and attainments; it was the acquaintance of new teachers and their work, the greeting of those who have become old friends, the look into the eyes of more colored youth in schools than usually falls to one person. It was a comparative study of classes of all grades in schools of the same grade, and of schools in different States and environments. It was an examination of industries in agriculture, industries in mechanics, of schools, normal and collegiate. It was an inspection of properties; an inquiry as to the prices of paints and brick and lime and wall papers.
It was a visit to churches, a handshake with pastors and deacons, a gathering of congregations to "make their wants and wishes known" to "the Association." One soon learns that the correct use of the definite article to designate the A.M.A. is not confined to those who have studied grammar. There is only one Association for these people. They never call it "American" nor even "Missionary." "The" is all sufficient, and it does one good to hear his society thus alphabetically abbreviated, as it does to meet these warm-hearted brethren of the colored churches which have been nourished with life by "The" Association. If anyone is suffering from iciness in the cardiac region, there is no better place for him to get the cockles of his heart well warmed up than in some of the colored congregations' churches which I visited. I said some. Alas! there is a difference in churches—in the South.
I find the schools full of interest, and that in the higher institutions the girls and young women are side by side in nearly equal numbers with lads and young men in climbing up the steep hills of education. It is, indeed, climbing. It takes more time, more patience and more resolution than most white students with happier conditions can realize.
The characteristics of the student are changing somewhat from the [pg 95] former days. Pupils are pushing into the more advanced grades earlier in years. They have not the memories of slavery as had the generations before them—only the traditions of it, and certain of its influences—for influences do not die when institutions pass away. There is not, for example, much old-fashioned Puritanism stalking about in New York in these days, but considerable of Puritan influence is alive and is just now contributing to the hopefulness of the times and the interests of municipal reform and even of the State government. Influences continue, and it will take time for those of slavery or the effect on both races to pass away.
One may not particularize among so many schools and churches as were in the path of my visitation, and one must generalize if he will keep within limits. For ten years now it has been my privilege to study the South as a personal observer, not only in schools and churches and not only on the regular routes of travel, but in the bypaths of rural life and in talks with all classes and conditions of men of every shade of color. I may, therefore, be permitted to generalize.
First, it is often said that those who live among evils best understand them and know how to meet them. This is a fallacy. The missionaries in China knew better what was for the good of China than did the Emperor himself. There are people in the United States, also, who could give some good points to the new Emperor of Russia, and if he would take them and use them it would be for the advantage of that country. It is true that impressions are not facts, and one cannot run over a fashionable route of travel holding converse with some hospitable Southern host and return with much more than impressions. Such are likely to speak with more confidence than knowledge, but, on the other hand, one who confines himself to a single locality in the South and to the local facts is more likely to have his views lean to inclination than to truth. One's opinion ought to be estimated by his information. I have known an otherwise intelligent citizen of New Orleans to be ignorant of the existence of Straight University with its 500 students and its noble accomplishment. A citizen of New York in this case could give the citizen of New Orleans some information about the South.
Secondly, the negroes are gaining. Never were the schools better in their entire range in different States, the studies more exacting, the purpose on the part of students for mastery in their work more resolute. Never was there manifested a more self-reliant spirit. The people are having a hard time just now; many are poorer than ever before, but the negroes are gaining, inch by inch. There are millions in schools and unreached millions yet who could not read a word in the New Testament if they had one; but the gain is seen in many ways; in schools, in churches, in homes, and in the improved quality and character of the [pg 96] newspapers edited by colored men, as also in their increased numbers. The schools under the direction and superintendence of colored teachers are gaining in standing and worthiness.
Thirdly, the white South is gaining. Not very rapidly, but gaining. The lawless part of the South—and there is a lawless part—is as lawless as ever. The lower and more violent elements, however, are but a small part of the Southern people. Still they know that the general public opinion is not positive enough to condemn them in any question between the negroes and the whites; hence they are not afraid to do what they will with the negro. The great body of the Southern people are law-abiding, with the single exception that they do not propose to respect the Fifteenth Amendment. They are committed against this. They deprecate lawlessness. They are personally kind to the negroes. They are busy in the ordinary duties of life, but the lawless know that these good people will never disturb them in their injustices to the negro. Then, there is a relatively small element of the people who are prophets of a better day. They themselves often feel the slavery of a public opinion which puts odium upon them when they are too friendly in behalf of the oppressed colored man. They cannot oppose many things which they feel to be wrong without losing their influence. These seers of the future are in hearty sympathy with our work and give it such personal encouragement as they may under the tyrannical conditions of a public opinion not friendly to equal rights on the part of the negro.
There is a great gain, also, in Southern public opinion as to the capacity of the colored man and his possible future. This gain is seen in the better provisions for the colored public schools, in towns and cities. The schools of the A.M.A. are both object lessons and incentives for the education of the white as well as the colored in the public schools. The South is exceedingly sensitive as to the opinion of the North. A trifle of published criticism, for example, goes through the Southern papers with rebuttals enough to break down a national constitution. An imperfect and incorrect report of an interview, which lived just long enough to be printed, has been lately passionately confuted in certain Southern newspapers with a profusion of epithets which were out of all proportion to the harmless nonsense committed to the press by an untrained reporter—a new illustration of the extreme sensitiveness of the South to Northern opinion. Northern sentiment is often ridiculed, and frequently sends not a few Southern newspapers into spasms, but it is heeded. Let it be kindly and true, and pressed fraternally and constantly "In His Name" who came
"To take away transgressions
And set the captive free."
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