What the Negro Reads
What the negro reads is in itself a large and interesting subject. A brief article on it dealing equally with what the negro does not read, appeared in the Critic, July 1906, from Mr. George B. Utley, then librarian of the Jacksonville public library. The first book drawn from the Louisville library was Washington's "Up from slavery." The most striking feature of the circulation in general is the comparatively small percentage of fiction read. Of the 258,438 volumes drawn from the Louisville library during its first six years only 46 per cent was fiction.
This may be due to the fact that the so-called leisure class, who are supposed to read most of the fiction, is smaller among the colored people; or that the novel does not appeal so strongly to the negro mind; or that the library is used more largely by pupils, teachers, ministers and other professional people, who come to it for more serious purposes.
A book entitled "Tuskegee and its people," edited by Booker T. Washington, contains biographical sketches of many negroes who have gone out from that school to work for the elevation of their race. These sketches give a remarkable picture of the "conditions that environ the masses of the negro people," as well as their struggles for improvement.
One of them describing the country school which he attended writes, "When I reached the point where the teacher ordered me to get a United States history, the book store did not have one, but sold me a biography of Martin Luther instead, which I studied for some time thinking that I was learning something about the U. S."
Years later "I betook me to the woods, where I read everything I could get. It was during this time that accidentally, I may say providentially, I got hold of a book containing the life of Ignacius Sancho; and I have never read anything that has given me more inspiration. I wish every negro boy in the land might read it."
Another Tuskegee graduate, a woman whose mother as a slave had been taught to read by her master's daughter, writes: "Sundays, with my sisters gathered about her knees, we would sit for hours listening as mother would read church hymns for us."
The articles by Mr. Dickerman above referred to give the results of some investigations on their choice of books. He received answers from 35 leading negro schools in response to a request for a list of such "books as had been found in the experience of their schools to be the most popular and the best and which they would recommend." The "Life of Lincoln" appeared on 15 of these lists; "Little women" 15; "Robinson Crusoe" 14; "Paul Dunbar" 11; "Uncle Tom's cabin" 10; "Ivanhoe" 9; "Souls of black folk" 9; "Ramona" 8; "Life of Douglass" 8; "Uncle Remus" 7. Six lists included "Alice in wonderland," Grimm's "Fairy tales," "John Halifax," "Last days of Pompeii," and "Swiss family Robinson."
These lists all came from schools and therefore bear the earmarks of the schoolmaster. But the largest part of the reading by negroes is done by the pupils and teachers in connection with their school work. This would account for the preponderance of the literature and history classes. Miss Sarah B. Askew observes that among the general readers in a public library "the colored people's tastes are for quick action, strong emotion, vivid coloring, and simplicity of narration." Books by and about their own people are in constant demand. The colored magazines, those devoted especially to their interests and those published by colored men are always popular.
There is also a growing demand for books useful to the mechanic in his daily work. Chauffeurs "avail themselves of technical books on automobiles." An early experience in the Louisville library was with a woman who made a business of raising chickens. She called at the library for medical help because many of them were dying. Strangely enough this subject had been overlooked in selecting the books and the librarian was unable to prescribe for sick chickens. But a book on poultry was ordered for her immediately.