RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN NEGRO COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES[1]
Within the last few decades a deepening sense of responsibility for the religious direction of the American College and University students has arisen. The problem of religious education has become a part of our national consciousness. The term "religious education" has come into general circulation respecting every grade of education. And in every instance it seems to be more or less a characterization of an ideal type of education and a method of realizing that type. Evidence of this is presented in the numerous religious, semi-religious and educational periodicals, as well as in the reports and published statements of educational institutions and organizations since 1903.
There is a new conscience for character and social usefulness in the college and university. It manifests itself in topics under discussion in conferences of educators, in their personal inquiries, and in the hearty cooperation given agencies for the higher life. In the whole range of education there is a growing recognition of the religious and moral elements inherent in all education. The former emphasis on the difference between religious education and secular education is passing. The foundation of teaching is being lifted into the religious realm. Education is aiming to develop men and women to their highest possibilities for their own sakes and for the sake of their contribution to the welfare and progress of society. The National Educational Association is a potent factor in establishing a strong belief in the worth of religion in education.
The Religious Education Association, organized in 1903, is one of the chief, if not the chiefest, agencies in hastening this new era. The secretary has said: "The leadership of this new crusade seemed successful in directing a passion for religious education born of the fusion of the scientific spirit with the spirit of humanistic idealism." Between 1903 and 1913 over $120,000 was spent in religious educational endeavor. The period subsequent to 1913 shows a larger proportionate expenditure. The larger part of this sum stands for gifts.
How has the movement demanding efficiency in religious education affected Negro institutions? The status of religious education in Negro colleges and universities, considered quantitatively and qualitatively is the task of this investigation. What do the supervisors of Negro institutions conceive religious education to be? How does religion function in student life? These are questions arising during the investigation of the problem before us.
There are 38 private and denominational institutions for Negroes, which do college grade of work with varying degrees of efficiency. Of this number, thirty-four are co-educational colleges, two are colleges for men and two are colleges for women. There are six State colleges which do some college work. These are all land-grant colleges with donations from the respective States in which they are located. There are several so-called colleges having curricula for college grade of work prescribed but no students matriculated to take the courses. They are not included in this study for obvious reasons.
The terms "colleges and universities" are by no means safe criteria for measuring the efficiency of, or even for classification of Negro colleges and universities. This condition is not peculiar to Negro colleges. Those for whites, in the South especially, present the same condition of variety. It seems that there has been a special mania, in our South Land especially, for setting up a laudable ideal in the classification of educational institutions, and then working up to it during subsequent ages. They believe there is much in a name or title. This keen sense of potentiality being in the classification, college or university, is too often misleading if taken on faith.
Another phase of this classification may throw some light on the numerous Negro "colleges" with such wide divergences in standards of curricula. In the South, $9,000,000 are spent for the elementary education of the Negro, when $25,000,000 should be used for that purpose by the States. There are 1,000,000 without any school facilities at all, and 2,000,000 who cannot read or write. Then the money spent does not begin to meet the needs of those who are receiving the education given. For example, the South spends $10.23 for each white student of elementary age and $2.82 for each Negro student of the same age now given the opportunity to attend school. Thus many institutions of a private nature are stimulated by this State of affairs and seek to meet it. But in so doing, they are actuated by various motives and perhaps they all could not justly be labelled sinister. It is evident then that our study deals with 38 private colleges, all denominational except four, and six State colleges on land-grant bases.