In the July number of the South Atlantic Quarterly appears The Black Codes, by Prof. John M. Mecklin, of the University of Pittsburgh.
Prof. Benjamin Brawley will soon publish a work to be known as The Genius of the Negro.
La Revista Bimestre Cubana has published Los Negros Esclavos, a study in sociology and public law by Fernando Ortiz, professor in the University of Havana.
The United States Bureau of Education in cooperation with the Phelps-Stokes Fund has published in two volumes a report entitled Negro Education, a Study of the Private and Higher Schools for Colored People in the United States. This report was prepared under the direction of Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones, specialist in the education of racial groups. This work was undertaken to comply with that provision of the will of Miss Caroline Phelps-Stokes directing that some portion of the income from a fund originally amounting to about $900,000 be used for the education of Negroes and for research and publication. In 1912 it was decided to prepare a report on Negro education to furnish the public with valuable information as to existing conditions throughout the South. The Bureau of Education agreed to cooperate with the trustees of the Phelps-Stokes Fund, bringing the work under the general supervision of the United States Commissioner of Education. This report is the result of their efficient cooperation.
On the thirtieth of August, there assembled at the request of the United States Commissioner of Education a conference to discuss this report. For two days practically all of the active white and colored educators in Negro schools discussed the various phases of education as brought out by this report and undertook to find a working basis for a more extensive cooperation of all agencies in the uplift of the Negro. The frank statements of several of the State Superintendents, like that of Mr. Harris of Louisiana, showed how much good a report of this kind may do in arousing the best white people of the South to a realization that it pays to educate all citizens of the state whether they be white or black. No definite decision was reached but the conference was a success in leading men to study more seriously the problems of Negro education.
The First Biennial Meeting of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History at Washington
There is no fixed rule to determine exactly where the meetings of the Association shall be held. The constitution grants this power to the Executive Council. Washington, however, naturally proved attractive for the reasons that it is located mid-way between the North and the South, the Association is incorporated under laws of the District of Columbia, and several of its officers reside there. The extensive advertising given the meeting and the occurrence of the conference in Washington on the education of the Negro the following day brought to the meeting probably the largest number of useful and scholarly Negroes ever assembled at the national capital. Among these were: President Nathan B. Young, Mr. W. T. B. Williams, President Byrd Prillerman, Dr. C. V. Roman, Prof. George E. Haynes, Mr. Monroe N. Work, President W. J. Hale, Dean Benjamin G. Brawley, Bishop I. N. Ross, Prof. J. R. Hawkins, Mr. R. P. Hamlin, Mr. C. H. Tobias, and Mr. A. L. Jackson. The meeting was further honored with the presence of some of the most useful and distinguished white persons in the country, namely: Mrs. Louis F. Post, the wife of the Assistant Secretary of Labor; Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones, Educational Expert of the United States Bureau of Education; Dr. James H. Dillard, Director of the John F. Slater Fund; Mr. George Foster Peabody, the New York banker; and Mr. Julius Rosenwald, the well-known philanthropist.
The morning session proved to be the most interesting of all. The introductory address was delivered by Dr. J. E. Moorland, the Secretary-Treasurer, who, in the absence of the President, presided throughout the meeting. In his remarks Dr. Moorland gave a brief account of what the Association had undertaken and endeavored to show how important the work is and how successfully it is being prosecuted under tremendous difficulties. He paid a high tribute to the Director of Research and Editor as the one who has done most of the work and contributed most of the money to finance the movement.