ADDRESS OF REV. J. R. THURSTON.
Mr. President and Friends: We have six and a quarter millions of Freedmen at the South and three-quarters of a million at the North. They belong to a strong and prolific race that does not waste at the contact of civilization, neither does it waste under oppression. They numbered but four millions in 1860, and have increased 55 per cent. in the past twenty years. Since 1870, if the statistics are correct, they have increased 33 per cent. If this rate of increase goes on at 55 per cent. for twenty years, in 1900, which many of us expect to see, they will be nearly ten millions; and if the increase of the last ten years continues, they will be more than eleven millions.
It becomes, then, a matter of exceeding moment for us, as a nation, to consider their condition and their future. Several things are at least now clear: that for a long series of generations they are to remain a distinct people. They will not amalgamate so much at the South, Dr. Haygood and others say, as they did before the war. The other elements that come to us from abroad—the German, the Celtic and all—we expect soon to be lost, and they will not retain their individuality; but this race will for generations remain a distinct colored race; so that it becomes a problem of peculiar difficulty to deal with them. We may think we are strong enough to throw them off. We cannot. God Almighty is on their side, and with the welfare of these growing millions our welfare is interlocked.
Again, they will remain, too, doubtless, at the South. We thought that they might scatter over the North. The failure of the migration to the North last year does not favor that theory. What is to bring them up to a Christian civilization? We all say at once a Christian education.
There are 700,000 in their common schools. I will simply give the outlines as to the higher schools. Of higher schools there are 45, scattered in different parts of the South; 42 normal schools, four of them state institutions, the rest under the auspices of religious organizations like this. There are 21 colleges, 21 schools of theology, four of medicine and three of law. That sounds well; but it would be wise to ask what these colleges are, scattered over the South. I asked an officer of one of these institutions this afternoon, “Is Talladega a college? It was referred to as such, but was not reported by the Commissioner of Education in 1879 as a college.” “O yes, it is a chartered institution, and soon they expect to have a college curriculum.” Many of these 21 colleges at the South are much in the same condition. They are high and normal schools, with possibly a theological school, which, however, is not as high as a college class.
Now the question is, what are we to do with them?—what are we expecting to accomplish by them? Several things are manifest. First, that this higher education at the South is to be dependent upon benevolence for its continuance and success. Nor is this any exception to the case of higher education at the North. We little realize that all our colleges have been founded by benevolent men, and have been continued in their endowments by benevolent men. We little realize that our young men who attend our colleges do not pay for their education, in many cases not one-half of the expense of it. Secondly, it is manifest that this work must be very largely a denominational work. Now this morning we had a presentation of what it would be well for us to have at the South—denominational unity. That cannot be. Men will not work upon any principle of that kind. If ever there was a time when we might say we had a clean slate, we had that time when we began our work. All united in support of this Association; but very soon we found our Baptist friends, our Methodist friends, our Presbyterian friends and our Episcopal friends withdrawing. Nor could we complain. The Baptists had thousands of colored people in their churches there and the Methodists had hundreds. To-day the Baptists report 800,000 in their colored churches, and the Methodists report 412,000. These colored churches said to them, “You must educate ministers for us;” and hence they have established their schools and higher schools. The Presbyterians had churches among the whites, and those churches, waking up, said, “You must help us in our work for the colored people;” and so they went into the work.
Again, the question is asked, why so many of these higher educational institutions?—why so many colleges?—why need of anything higher than the normal and high school? And this question is asked by people who have given largely for this work and who love it. Now what is the object—to educate all the colored people in colleges? No; but to educate those who have a desire for it and a profound capacity for it. We have graduated probably less than five hundred from all the colleges at the South so far, so there isn’t much danger of an over-supply at present of teachers and preachers. But isn’t there need of a revision of our idea of this whole matter of what the negro is to be? Let us not make at present an ideal, but ask rather what we can do for and with the negro; and as we do this, let us remember what material we have to work with, and how he has been educated by two hundred years of slavery.
In the first place, where did he come from? Not from Northern Africa; not from Southern Africa; but from the negro belt of Africa where is found the most degraded condition of the human race on the face of the globe.
He has been educated two hundred years in slavery, and not without influence upon his mental make-up. The day that the first colored regiment went from Boston in the war to the front, there was a convention of anti-slavery friends in Music Hall. There had been very severe criticism upon our Gov. Andrews because he had not put more black officers in that regiment. As Frederick Douglass was about leaving the hall, they called him back. He stood with his crumpled hat and leaned upon a chair, and talked more sense in five minutes than his white brethren had in all those hours. He said: “Gentlemen, I have as much interest in that regiment as any one here, for I have two sons in it; but I am glad that Gov. Andrews has not put more black officers into it. Here you have educated us for two hundred years for the position of servants. You have taught us that we could not guide our own steps, much less rule our fellow-men. You have wrought into the very fibre of our being a servile spirit, so that we are not fit for rule. All I ask is that when a man proves his capacity to rule, then he shall have an opportunity.”