I think we shall all agree with Dr. Haygood when he says, as he did at the meeting of the National Educational Association in Washington last winter, “This is bad enough.” And perhaps we should also be able to agree with him in the further statement that it “is far from being the worst of this sad case. The worst,” he says, “is this: the illiterate vote in these States is increasing. From 1870 to 1880 the increase of this army of ignorant voters in the South amounted to 187,671.” Of course this is worse, in one sense; for the more we learn of this illiteracy the worse we are off, no doubt. But there is a brighter side to this picture, thank God! It is dark enough, at best; and I want you to see it in all its blackness; but I do not want to paint it any blacker than it is. After you have seen the facts just as they are, you will still find on your hands a stupendous task; but you will have, I trust, some reasons for believing that it is not a hopeless task.
It is true, then, as Dr. Haygood says, that there was a positive increase of illiterate voters in the South between 1870 and 1880. He makes this increase in round numbers 197,000; the figures I have found increase it a little to 208,000. But that is not a relative increase. The increase in the illiterate vote does not keep pace with the increase of the population. The population increased 30 per cent. in the ten years; the illiterate vote increased less than 20 per cent. In 1870, more than 40 per cent. of the voters of the South were illiterate; in 1880, only 32 per cent. were illiterate.
This is what I call very substantial gain. Under the circumstances I am inclined to call it a splendid gain, one that is quite worth singing the doxology over, one that should cause us all to thank God and take courage.
But there are other features of the case to my own mind still more significant. Dr. Haygood says in the same address to which I have referred: “In this downward progress the two races keep well together.” We have seen that it is not a downward, but an upward progress. And I think we shall see that instead of the two races keeping well together, one of them is falling a good ways behind. Which is it? “The increase of the illiterate white vote,” says Dr. Haygood, “was 93,279; of the illiterate negro vote, 94,392. The whites being in the majority, take the South as a whole, the increase of the illiterate vote is relatively greater among the Negroes.”
This is a great misconception. Dr. Haygood has no purpose whatever of misrepresenting the facts; we all know that. No man in the country is doing better work for the colored people than he is doing; no man deserves more honor; but he has misapprehended the facts in this statement; and I know that he will be glad to be corrected. It is true, then, that the actual increase of the illiterate white vote in the Southern States during the last decade was about the same as that of the illiterate Negro vote; 93,000 of the one, 94,000 of the other. But how was it in 1870? In that year there were in the Southern States 317,281 adult whites who were illiterate, and 820,022 adult Negroes. There were at that time considerably more than two and a half times as many Negro illiterates as white illiterates. Now, if the Negroes have added to their eight hundred thousand illiterates only about 94,000, while the whites have added to their three hundred thousand about 93,000, it seems to me that the relative increase is immensely greater among the whites than among the Negroes. In fact, the increase of the illiterate white vote, in the ten years, was more than twenty-eight per cent., while the increase of the illiterate Negro vote was only eleven and a half per cent.
Dr. Haygood gives the figures with respect to several of the States. “In Georgia,” he says, “the illiterate white voters in 1870 were 21,899; in 1880, 28,571; the illiterate Negro voters in Georgia, in 1870, were 100,551; in 1880, 116,516.” Let us see what these figures mean. In Georgia, in 1870, the whole number of males of voting age was 237,640; in 1880, it was 321,438. The increase of adult males was, therefore, about 31 per cent. But the increase in the whole number of illiterate voters was only about 18½ per cent. according to Dr. Haygood’s figures. The white illiterates, however, increased 30½ per cent. while the colored illiterates increased not quite 16 per cent.
Two other States in which we are deeply interested, are reported to us in Dr. Haygood’s figures, and, neglecting the numbers which he gives, I will give you the percentages, which he neglects. In Kentucky the number of male adults has increased 23 per cent. and the whole number of illiterate voters about 21½ per cent. But the per cent. of increase among the illiterate white voters is very nearly 23, almost keeping up with the increase of population, where the per cent. of increase among illiterate Negro voters is not quite fourteen.
In Tennessee the facts are still more striking. The increase in the whole number of males of voting age was, in the ten years, about 26 per cent., while the increase in the number of illiterate voters was only 13 per cent. The illiterate voters increased only half as fast as the voting population. Here, evidently, a very successful attack has been made upon the strongholds of illiteracy. But where have these victories been gained—among the whites or the Negroes? Almost wholly among the latter. The number of illiterate white voters increased during the ten years 24 percent., almost as fast as the population, while the illiterate Negro voters increased during the same period less than five per cent.
Taking these three States together, we find that the percentage of increase of males of voting age was 27; of illiterate voters, 18; of illiterate white voters, 25; of illiterate Negro voters, 12.