The following is taken from Publication 8, Twelfth United States Census:
“The illiteracy of the native white population of the Southern States ranges from 8.6 per cent. in Florida, 8 per cent. in Mississippi, and 6.1 per cent. in Texas, to 17.3 per cent. in Louisiana, and 19.5 per cent. in North Carolina, as contrasted with 0.8 per cent. in Nebraska, 1.3 per cent. in Kansas, 2.1 per cent. in Illinois, 1.2 per cent. in New York, and 0.8 per cent. in Massachusetts. A far juster comparison, however, is that which indicates the contrast, not between the South and the rest of the country in 1900, but between the South of 1880 and the South of to-day.’
TABLE SHOWING THE RANK OF EACH STATE IN PERCENTAGE OF ILLITERACY OF THE NATIVE WHITE POPULATION TEN YEARS OF AGE AND OVER:
1900.
| 1 | Washington | 0.5 | 26 | Ohio | 2.4 |
| 2 | South Dakota | 0.6 | 27 | Maine | 2.4 |
| 3 | Montana | 0.6 | 28 | Oklahoma | 2.5 |
| 4 | Nevada | 0.6 | 29 | Colorado | 2.7 |
| 5 | Wyoming | 0.7 | 30 | Vermont | 2.9 |
| 6 | Massachusetts | 0.8 | 31 | Indiana | 3.6 |
| 7 | Minnesota | 0.8 | 32 | Maryland | 4.1 |
| 8 | Nebraska | 0.8 | 33 | Missouri | 4.8 |
| 9 | Connecticut | 0.8 | 34 | Delaware | 5.6 |
| 10 | Oregon | 0.8 | 35 | Texas | 6.1 |
| 11 | Utah | 0.8 | 36 | Arizona | 6.2 |
| 12 | Dist. of Columbia | 0.8 | 37 | Mississippi | 8.0 |
| 13 | North Dakota | 0.9 | 38 | Florida | 8.6 |
| 14 | Idaho | 0.9 | 39 | West Virginia | 10.0 |
| 15 | California | 1.0 | 40 | Virginia | 11.1 |
| 16 | New York | 1.2 | 41 | Arkansas | 11.6 |
| 17 | Iowa | 1.2 | 42 | Georgia | 11.9 |
| 18 | Wisconsin | 1.3 | 43 | Kentucky | 12.8 |
| 19 | Kansas | 1.3 | 44 | South Carolina | 13.6 |
| 20 | New Hampshire | 1.5 | 45 | Indian Territory | 14.0 |
| 21 | Michigan | 1.7 | 46 | Tennessee | 14.2 |
| 22 | New Jersey | 1.7 | 47 | Alabama | 14.8 |
| 23 | Rhode Island | 1.8 | 48 | Louisiana | 17.3 |
| 24 | Illinois | 2.1 | 49 | North Carolina | 19.5 |
| 25 | Pennsylvania | 2.3 | 50 | New Mexico | 29.4 |
POPULATION AT LEAST TEN YEARS OF AGE AND NUMBER AND PER CENT. ILLITERATE FOR THE NEGRO AND WHITE RACES: 1900 AND 1890.
| POPULATION AT LEAST TEN YEARS OF AGE. | ||||||
| RACE. | Number Illiterate. | Per Cent. | ||||
| Illiterate. | ||||||
| 1900 | 1890 | 1900 | 1890 | 1900 | 1890 | |
| Continental U. S.: | ||||||
| Negro population. | 6,415,581 | 5,328,972 | 2,853,194 | 3,042,668 | 44.5 | 57.1 |
| White population. | 51,250,918 | 41,931,074 | 3,200,746 | 3,212,574 | 6.2 | 7.7 |
| South Atlantic and | ||||||
| South Central | ||||||
| divisions: | ||||||
| Negro population. | 5,664,975 | 4,751,763 | 2,717,606 | 2,883,216 | 48.0 | 60.7 |
| White population. | 12,020,539 | 9,456,368 | 1,401,273 | 1,412,983 | 11.7 | 14.9 |
“There are 352 counties in the United States in which one-half the Negro population at least 10 years of age was illiterate in 1900. With the exception of New Madrid County, Mo., all these counties are in the South.
“If the educational facilities of the country should remain up to their present standards, but not improve, and should impart the elements of education to as large a proportion of the rising generation as they have done to those between 10 and 14 years in 1900, then, at the end of the generation, illiteracy among the Negroes in the country will have sunk from 44.5 to 30.1 per cent.; that is, nearly one-third of it will have disappeared. At the same time, illiteracy among the whites in the country will have sunk, immigration aside, from 6.2 to 3.5 per cent.; that is, about three-sevenths of the illiteracy among the whites will have disappeared.
“At the present time, nearly one-half of the Negroes in the Southern States are unable to write, but if educational facilities for that race remain about as they are at present for another generation, and be availed of to the same extent, the proportion would sink to one-third. The illiteracy of the Negro at the present time is about four times that of the white in both the North and the South; in the North a little less, in the South a little more.”