The method of the thesis, therefore, has assumed a four-fold form. The writer took nine months in making personal investigation of twelve typical Negro colleges. One in the Northwest, one in the Northeast, and ten in the South. Of these ten, five are in Georgia, two in South Carolina, two in Tennessee and one in Alabama. The second method was the questionnaire. Questionnaire No. 1 was sent to 60 educational institutions. 38 responded in full. Eight returned the questionnaires with some answers. These were excluded from the study because they lacked desired data. A second questionnaire was used. It contained data from students in the respective institutions considered typical. The Y.M.C.A. leaders also contributed to this sort of data.
Questionnaire No. I follows:
Religious Education in Negro Colleges
1. Name of the institution, president and dean.
2. Enrollment in the college department.
3. What religious services are held by the school? Is attendance required and what number attend?
4. What curriculum courses in religious education have you, viz: Bible courses, Sunday School Teacher Training, Psychology of Religion, Philosophy of Religion, Religious Pedagogy, Social Service, Social Ethics, Methods of Social Reform, etc.
5. Which of the courses are elective and which are required? How much credit is given for each?
6. Have you any courses in the Seminary or Divinity School for which you give college credit? What are they?
7. Are the teachers of curriculum courses of religious education professionally trained for their task, for example; were they trained in a school of religious education or in a divinity school? What institution attended and what degrees received?
8. How many students are in your curriculum courses of religious education?
9. What voluntary religious organizations have you, for example: the Y.M.C.A., Students Volunteer Movement, B.Y.P.U., C.E. League, College Church, Sunday School, etc.?
10. Are the teachers or conductors of your voluntary organizations professionally trained (viz, as in question 7)?
11. How many students are enrolled in your voluntary organizations?
12. What opportunity have the students for the expression of ideals received through these organizations? What Christian work is done, such as handling boys' or girls' clubs, ministering to the poor and infirm, orphans, foreign missions, visiting prisons, asylums, or orphanages, teaching vacation Bible schools, etc.?
13. What is your own estimate of the religious value of your courses and organizations? Have you any definite data upon which to base your estimate?
14. Does your school have a special appropriation for religious work, viz: for the Y.M.C.A., for a chaplain, college pastor, etc.?
15. In your opinion, are the Negro colleges meeting the needs of definite religious training?
16. Any other information or suggestion concerning religious education in Negro colleges will be gladly received.
Questionnaire No. II
1. What is your estimate of the religious services at your college, viz: Church preaching service, Sunday School, Young People 's meetings, Week-day Prayer meetings, Week of Prayer for colleges, Y.M.C.A., Y.W.C.A. or any other religious service? (Mark each according to your estimate as Church 1, Prayer meeting 2, Y.W.C.A. 3, etc.)
2. What are the items of importance in these respective services, the sermon, prayer, ritual, congregational singing, special music, etc.?
3. Why did you make the preceding ranking as you did?
4. What suggestion have you to offer for the improvement of these services? What other criticism have you to offer on these services?
5. What is your church affiliation? For example, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, etc.?
The majority of Negro institutions—all included in this study—have published statements concerning religious education in their respective curricula and voluntary organizations. These statements appear in announcements, catalogues, and reports. These have been secured and critically reviewed. From these the spirit of religious education, the attitude towards the work, their aim, their own ideas as to value of results obtained from such instruction may in a large measure be determined.
The last means resorted to were the reports of denominations on education. These reports appear in various forms, sometimes in year books, and at other times in the quadrennial reports, viz: the General Conference reports of the Methodist Episcopal, the African Methodist Episcopal, the A. M. E. Zion and Colored Methodist Episcopal Churches.
I. Religious Education in Private and Denominational Colleges and Universities
Let us first direct our attention to the work as it is being conducted in private and sectarian schools. The most important factor in this study is the teacher. What is the type of teachers in Negro institutions, for the progressive socialization of the individuals whom they instruct? The student's religious life will be conditioned very likely, by the teachers in the colleges. The preparation of the teacher then requires careful consideration.
There are 86 teachers of religious education in some form in these institutions. Of these 86 instructors, 64 have had some degree of professional training for their tasks. Thirty-one of those who have received professional training are graduates of first rank institutions. The institutions in which they were trained are among the best in the country and of long standing. The distribution shows: Yale College 1; Yale Divinity School 3; Drew Theological Seminary 3; Oberlin College and Divinity School 2; Ohio Wesleyan University 1; Columbia University 1; Union Seminary 1; Boston University 2; Colgate University 1; Rochester Theological Seminary 2; the University of Chicago and Divinity School 3; Princeton University 2; Newton Theological Seminary 2; the Chicago Bible Training School 2; Grinnell College 1; Hillsdale College 1; New York School of Philanthropy 1; Andover Theological Seminary 1; Union Theological Seminary 1; and the Chicago Theological Seminary 1. The remaining 33 teachers were trained in Negro seminaries and colleges, the most of them coming from the older institutions for Negroes, such as Wilberforce, Howard, Lincoln, Talladega, and Fisk.