Progress and Achievements of the Colored People / Containing the Story of the Wonderful Advancement of the Colored Americans—the Most Marvelous in the History of Nations—Their Past Accomplishments, Together With Their Present-day Opportunities and a Glimpse Into the Future for Further Developments—the Dawn of a Triumphant Era. A Handbook for Self-improvement Which Leads to Greater Success

by Kelly Miller; Joseph R. Gay

Compiled from official figures recently issued by the United States Bureau of Education.—Editor.

INTRODUCTION.

Education is the highest test of a people’s capacity and the best measure of their progress. The ability of the Negro to become educated according to the highest standards of the times is one of the great marvels of the last half century. Never in the history of the world has any people met with such overwhelming opposition against acquiring such training as will fit them for the full duties of citizen, as have the Freedmen in the United States; never before has a people struggled as nobly and succeeded so well in mastering every branch of learning, as this people, practically all of whom were illiterate at the close of the Civil War; but of whom only thirty per cent were illiterate in 1910.

The influences through which the colored people have passed in their quest for learning constitutes one of the most interesting pages of American history. No historian can chronicle the heart throbs, the ambitions and the untiring energy that they have spent, and are still expending, in their education.

The various education processes to which the Negroes of America have been subjected is interwoven with the history of the United States from the year 1619, when the first slaves were landed, to the present moment. The story of the development of the African slave, to the present condition of the American Negro is full of interest and instruction and worthy of much more extended scientific treatment than this chapter can possibly comprehend.

With all the mistakes that have been made by a loose-jointed American democracy in its treatment of the Negroes, both as slaves and as free men, the general movement of the Negro people has been decidedly forward. Even under slavery these people benefited by a contact with civilization that no corresponding groups have had in any other part of the world. They were quick to perceive that the mastery of the white man over them lay in his education. Though crushed to the lowest level, they never lost hope or opportunity to learn the meaning of books and figures. Sometimes through sympathy of a master’s child, sometimes by a kindly stranger from the North, a slave learned the alphabet and a little arithmetic. When the Emancipation Proclamation was sounded the eagerness and determination of the Negro to obtain an education opened into full blossom, and the colored people consecrated themselves to the one great task of educating their children, so that these coming men and women might be able to live happier and better lives. It was here that systematic efforts were undertaken to build schools for the colored and by the colored people. How wonderful has been the result of their effort is revealed by facts which have just been published by the United States Bureau of Education. These figures show:

1. That $5,860,876 is spent annually by the public authorities of Southern States in the wages of teachers in public schools for Negroes.

2. That the Federal State and land-grant schools have an annual income of $963,611, and a total property valuation of $5,727,609.

3. That the private schools have an annual income of $3,026,460, and a property valuation of $28,496,946.

4. That eight educational funds are devoting part or all of their income for the improvement of Negro schools.