Twentieth Century Negro Literature Part 46

SECOND PAPER.

WHAT IS THE NEGRO TEACHER DOING IN THE MATTER OF UPLIFTING HIS RACE?

BY PROF. E. L. BLACKSHEAR.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Prof. E. L. Blackshear.]

PROF. E. L. BLACKSHEAR.

Prof. E. L. Blackshear was born in Montgomery. Ala., in 1862. He was educated in the negro public schools of Montgomery. So rapid had been his progress that he graduated from Tabor College at the age of eighteen.

Prof. Blackshear is now princ.i.p.al of Prairie View State Normal School and Industrial College of Texas.

The following is the testimony of Prof. Blackshear concerning his grandmother. These words give us a glimpse of the bright side of slave life, and of the ideal "mammy" of the ante-bellum Southern plantation home.

"My grandmother was a remarkable woman. She idolized my mother, the only child that slavery had allowed her to keep.

When grandma was sold from Georgia to Alabama, the humanity of her Georgia owners caused them to sell mother and child to the same people.

"My grandmother, although ignorant, had a profound belief in education. But if she knew absolutely nothing of the world of letters, she had something as good, perhaps better--a warm, honest, loving heart and Christian principles. She had genuine hatred for dirt and disorder, a regard, amounting to a fearful reverence, for white people of 'quality,' and a great and ill-disguised contempt for common, shiftless, 'darkies,' and low-bred whites. She was the best type of the faithful and efficient slave. But it was as a cook that 'Grandma's' reputation was known in two States. To my youthful imagination she was a magician; things she cooked for the white folks seemed so good to me. I think now of the batter-cakes, the light rolls, the syllabub, the sally-lunn, the ship-ships and the wafers grandma made. The light-bread she made is made no more. It is a lost art, an art that died with grandma."

When the Negroes were set free the first aim of thousands was to learn to read and write. Gray-haired veterans of the plantations sat side by side in the day schools as well as in the night schools with the smallest pickaninnies. And all seemed eager to learn the mysterious arts of the schoolroom. The school-book, in the eyes of the unlettered slave, was a sort of fetich to which he attributed the power of the white man. The young slave could follow his master to the door of the schoolhouse, but thus far and no farther. The mysterious rites and ceremonies which went on within were forbidden him. Human nature has ever been curious to know that the knowledge of which is prohibited, and so the slave had a great curiosity to master the printed page and to be admitted to the privileges of the schoolroom. It was not surprising that the whole race tried to go to school, and it need not surprise us if, in the enthusiasm for book-learning, from which the race had been so strictly debarred, too much stress may have been placed on mere book learning and too much confidence placed in the formal processes of the schoolroom. But, better even this exaggerated enthusiasm than indifference to all education of the schoolroom. The race would soon learn that the blue-back Webster's Speller was not the magic wand that would turn all troubles and difficulties into success and prosperity; that the ability to spell B-a-Ba, k-e-r-ker, baker, would buy no bread of the baker; while the power to read, "Do we go up by it!" with painful praiseworthy effort, would help the ex-slave but little as he strove to "go up by" the dangers ahead of him.

But they went to school, all of them at first, or all that could possibly do so, either by day or by night. It is not recorded that the chickens of that time had rest, but it must be that they did, for verily, in the first mad rush of letters, even chickens must have been forgotten by a race whose predilection for them has furnished the point for many a joke, as well as the occasion for painful if not indignant regret on the part of those whose fowls may have been abstracted. And it is a hopeful sign for the future of the Negro that while his first wild enthusiasm for the school-house has been moderated, his real desire for educational improvement continues strong and steady. He will go to school--the public school--when he can, and the higher inst.i.tutions for his race are all filled to their capacity and are expanding. Will not this thirst for knowledge on the part of a so lately savage race bear good fruit both for the Negro and for humanity?

But who were to teach these black fanatics, seeking initiation for the first time, in the long and gloomy history of their race, into the mysteries, elusinian, of a modern, and, to them, totally foreign cult?

A faithful band of Christian missionary white women gave answer by coming in the face of an inevitable social ostracism to light the torch of thought in a region hitherto unblessed by a single ray of education's light. The first Negro schools were taught by these white ladies at Charleston, at Atlanta, at Montgomery, at New Orleans, at Austin, and at the other great centers of the South's Negro population. The success of the first labors of this devoted band led to the foundation of permanent inst.i.tutions for the elementary and later for the normal and collegiate instruction of the Negro youth. At Nashville, at Atlanta, at Raleigh, at Memphis, and at New Orleans inst.i.tutions were founded which have become great schools and have contributed beyond measure to the process of civilizing the Negro as a ma.s.s--a process confessedly still far from completion. Complicated and annoying as the race problem a.s.suredly is and will be for years to come at the South, it would be far worse--much farther away from even a hopeful degree of solution--but for the work done by the missionary colleges.

The missionary schools, of which Fisk, Atlanta, Straight, Roger Williams and Central Tennessee may be taken as types, furnished the first Negro school teachers and the Negro owes to these schools, founded and maintained in the spirit of the purest Christian philanthropy, a debt he can never repay in either kind or equivalence.

The nearest like payment he can make is to imitate the beautiful, pure, devoted, lives of the missionary teachers. Too much cannot be said in praise of their labors. Perhaps if only the missionary Christian teachers had come and the political missionaries had remained at home, all might have been better.

But the missionary schools could reach but few. How was the great ma.s.s of the colored population to be educated? This was the question, and it was a most serious one. But the answer came not from the federal government, as some expected--that source from which so many had looked to get the mythical "mule" and the legendary "forty acres"--it came from the South, from the wasted resources of the former master.

History furnishes no precedent as it affords no parallel to the action of the ex-slaveholders--a dominant race--in entering at once--before any opportunity had been afforded for recuperation from the losses of the Civil War--on the expensive work of giving a public school system to their former slaves--now technically, at least, their political equals. And nothing can be gained by the Negro in refusing grat.i.tude to the South for this most magnanimous act and policy. An instance of this unselfish policy of the South in its att.i.tude toward Negro education is seen in the history of Texas, the most liberal as well as the most progressive of the Southern commonwealths. The Const.i.tutional Convention of 1876, which of course was Democratic, framed the present state const.i.tution of Texas, and in it absolutely equal provision is made for both the elementary and the higher education of the Negro youth of Texas. And it is to the credit of Texas as an enlightened state as well as fortunate for her Negro population, that in the distribution of the magnificent school fund of the state, no discrimination is made between the races.

The Negro public schools are doing a great work for the elevation of the colored people. In a silent, un.o.btrusive way, these schools are leavening the thought and life of the race. The status and progress of the Negro are too commonly gauged by the deeds of the loafing and criminal element. The honest, law-abiding Negro who has a home, is getting a little property, has a small bank account, and is educating his children to useful citizenship, attracts little or no attention.

But a race that has in a generation since chattel slavery gotten property worth by reliable estimate upward of $400,000,000 has been doing something. All of such a race are not either lazy, vicious, or immoral. The public school is doing effective work for the Negroes of the South in awakening in them a desire for better ways of living and higher ideals of conduct. Much remains to be done but that already accomplished is an earnest of better work yet to be done.

The Negro public school teacher has been more than a mere schoolkeeper. No cla.s.s of educators in any race has done more, all things considered. The colored teacher has been a herald of civilization to the youth of his people. His superior culture and character have acted as a powerful stimulus to the easily roused imagination of the colored youth, and the black boy feels, in the presence of the black "professah," to him the embodiment of learning, that he too can become "something." At first he does not know what that something is, but he determines to be "somebody" and to make a place and a standing for himself in the world. In this way the colored school teacher is leading his race "up from slavery;" that is from the slavery of ignorance and superst.i.tion, of intellectual and moral inertia, of aimlessness and shiftlessness, into the freedom of intelligence, of energy, ambition and industry. Lincoln removed the formal yoke of a legal bondage, but the colored teacher is helping his race to get free a second time from a bondage just as galling--the bondage of intellectual and moral blindness and of industrial independence. Booker T. Washington is such a teacher--a teacher, indeed, and the leader of a race. And what Mr. Washington, himself a product of the missionary schools, is doing in a large way as the teacher and leader of the entire Negro race in America, hundreds, yea, thousands, of colored teachers in city and village, in the malarial river bottoms and among the pine-clad hills, are doing in a local but no less effective, though less comprehensive way. These colored men and women, many of whom are people of genuine culture and character, are giving their lives to the upbuilding of a race. And it is for them a labor of love.

These teachers teach by example as well as by precept. Their homes are models in neatness and refinement that are readily imitated by the other colored people of the community. It is to the credit of the colored teacher that he is, with rare exceptions, a model in his moral conduct and home life, and sets a high standard for his race, which they invariably--some of them--seek to follow. The colored teacher, too, has always been conservative and has been the wise adviser of his people. Himself dependent on the sentiment of the best white people of the community, he has usually won the confidence and respect of the white people, and they in turn have given him their moral support in the work of improving the minds, morals, and habits of the Negro youth of the community. In this way it is throughout the entire South--the best white people of the community by maintaining public schools for the Negro youth and by co-operation with the colored teacher, and often by personal interest in the work of both teacher and pupil, are actually aiding most effectively if not really directing the educational development of the colored race.

It is also greatly to the credit of the colored teacher in the South that he has not gotten above his race or tried to leave them, but has remained at his post and in his place doing the duty Providence has a.s.signed and content to leave results to G.o.d and the future.

THIRD PAPER.

WHAT IS THE NEGRO TEACHER DOING IN THE MATTER OF UPLIFTING HIS RACE?

BY T. W. TALLEY.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Prof. T. W. Talley]

PROF. THOMAS WASHINGTON TALLEY.

Thomas Washington Talley is a native of Bedford County, Tenn. His boyhood was spent upon his father's farm where he imbibed a love for nature. Some of the experiments made by him, as a child, with some of the lower animals, have proven most valuable aids in answering scientific problems encountered in later years.

In 1883 he entered the preparatory department of Fisk University, and after three years of study was admitted to college.

He began teaching in the public schools of his native state at the age of twelve. By teaching during his summer vacations, and by obtaining state scholarships through compet.i.tive examinations, he secured the larger portion of the means necessary for his support in college. He graduated from the cla.s.sical course of Fisk University in 1890, receiving the degree of A. B. From 1890 to 1891 he was a member of the Fisk University Jubilee Singers, who raised funds for the building of the Fisk Theological Seminary. In this company it was his duty aside from singing, to present the needs of the school. This he did with much eloquence and his appeals were always answered by liberal contributions.

In 1892 he received the degree A. M. from his alma mater for special work done in Natural Philosophy, Latin and German.

On October 1, 1896, he matriculated in the Graduate Department of Central Tennessee College (now Walden University), having spent the two preceding summers in resident work along the lines indicated by his courses of study in the inst.i.tution. He selected courses leading to the degree of Doctor of Science.

He has been chiefly engaged in educational work and has held the following positions: Instructor in Mathematics and Music, Alcorn A. & M. College, Westside, Miss., two years; Professor of Natural Sciences, five years, and Vice-President two years in the State N. & I. College, Tallaha.s.see, Fla. He at present occupies the chair of Natural Philosophy and General, a.n.a.lytical and Industrial Chemistry in the Tuskegee Inst.i.tute, Tuskegee, Ala.

He is a member of the American Ornithologists Union, the Michigan Ornithological Club, a Vice-president of the Florida Audubon Society, and a Fellow of the American Negro Academy. He is considered an authority in Biology and Chemistry.

As soon as the clouds of the Civil War had cleared from our country and the Negro had become a free man, the question immediately presented itself as to how he could be made worthy of citizenship and capable of exercising the rights and privileges of free government.

Free government exists through intelligence and integrity in citizens.

The whole system of slavery in which the Negro had been schooled was such as to leave him without either intelligence or integrity. It rather taught him that deception was a better way to recognition than decency; and that whatever supplied his wants, regardless of its nature, was the means to be used. As the Negro stepped forth from the darkness of bondage into the light of freedom, the eye of his mind accustomed to the blackest and lowest was not ready to exercise the function thus suddenly thrust upon it. It was blinded and needed treatment that it might be so reconstructed as to guide and lead aright in this new atmosphere to which it had suddenly gained admission. The Negro came from slavery in want of training, and training is requisite to citizenship.

A man, to be trained symmetrically, must be trained mentally, morally and physically. Although this symmetrical training is much a result of personal effort, the effort must be directed by an intelligent, interested teaching. It is to such teaching that the Negro school teacher has directed and is directing his efforts.

The first schools established distinctively for Negroes in our country were supported and taught by philanthropic white people of the North.

At the date of the founding of these schools there were practically no Negro teachers, but in these inst.i.tutions, fostered by consecrated white men and women, Negro boys and girls began to receive training through which they developed into the first teachers of the race.

These schools, begun by philanthropy (although at first they did primary work) have developed into the Negro colleges, normal schools and industrial schools of the South. These schools of higher learning are still manned largely by white men and women. Thus the work of the Negro teacher is almost entirely limited to a few state colleges and to the public schools of the Southern cities and of the country districts. The especial point of excellence which characterizes the work of the Negro teacher is its interestedness. Whatever may be the sentiment in other sections, in the South--the real home of the Negro--every Negro's standing is gauged by the standing of the whole race in case of those who are most kindly disposed to him, while those who are illy disposed judge all by the lowest of the race. There is little or no recognition of individual merit except in so far as it meets the approval of his Southern white neighbor. Such being the case, the Negro teacher, realizing that their own elevation comes only through and in so far as the whole race is elevated, have a double stimulus for zealously doing their best work; first their love for the race which naturally springs up between those of the same blood and of the same descent, and second a selfish reason--their personal elevation, which only comes through the elevation of the whole race.

Such interested teaching is not without its effect. Illiteracy is disappearing from day to day. A consultation of the latest census reports, and a contrasting of them with those previously taken, will show that the Negro has wiped out some of his illiteracy and is increasing in wealth, intelligence, etc.--yes, in all that which will finally force his recognition as a full-fledged American citizen without any "ifs," except that he be as any other man in possessions, in mind, and in character.

The Negro teachers are more and more studying the needs of their race and are shaping their work to meet the demands of the times. The Negro race formerly sang, and still sings, with much fervor of spirit: "You may have all this world; Give me Jesus." In the days of its ignorance, the Negro race observed this beautiful song in letter, but not in spirit. The Negro teachers have caught the spirit and are beginning to spread it among the ignorant ma.s.ses. These teachers go into the Sunday schools and there teach the race to keep the spirit, "You may have all this world; Give me Jesus." They teach them that Christ is far above and is to be preferred to the whole world, but they also teach them that which is equally good, and that is, getting a hold on a portion of the goods of this world is a splendid preparation for getting a hold upon the things which lead up to heaven. In other words, the Negro teachers have become the great preachers of wealth getting, not because they would have the race carnally-minded, but because they know that no race of paupers can ever amount to anything or enjoy the full rights of citizens.

To the end of replenishing the empty treasury of the race the Negro teachers are encouraging their fellows to gain a skillful use of the hand. Many of them are enthusiastic to the extent that they would see every Negro school in the land teaching skill in the trades and in the tilling of soil. In this movement for the education of the hand the Negro teacher is meeting with encouragement on all sides. Such an education cannot fail to work great benefit for the race, and help to give it standing. Given an intelligent Negro ma.s.s, masters of the trades and of science of agriculture, there need be no fear for the Negro's future. The only mistake which it seems that the Negro teachers may possibly make at this time is, that having pictured in their minds the benefit of having a ma.s.s skilled in industry, and noting the present popularity of industrial training, they may lose sight of the fact that the skilled hand must be backed by and rest upon a mind trained to logical thinking. Industrial training does much indeed toward mental training, but by no means does it, nor can it, do all. There is quite a tendency at present aside from industrial training to limit the mental training of the race to the "3 r's,"

viz., reading, writing and arithmetic. The highest industrial attainment is not possible with such a limitation. The making, the repairing and the manipulation of machinery calls for a knowledge of natural philosophy and higher mathematics. The masterly tilling of the soil demands one learned in chemistry and botany--botany, which we know is not even a stranger to Latin. So we might go through every industry and point out that its perfection is conditioned on the highest mental training. Let the Negro teacher, while loving industrial training for his race, not learn to despise that which appears on the surface to be merely a mental gymnastic, but which, when examined more carefully, proves to be that only which furnishes a condition for the best and the highest even in that which he may most love.

Since social conditions in the South are such as to necessitate a system of separate schools for whites and Negroes, and since this necessitates the establishment of a large number of extra schools, it inevitably results in the shortening of school terms and the cutting down of the salaries of teachers. I have found some Negro country schools in Alabama paying the teachers from twelve to fifteen dollars per month, and the length of the school term was only four months. In these cases I did not find the teachers worrying over the small salary, but they were working to have the Negro patrons, from their own scanty purses, lengthen the school term. In not a few cases the Negro teachers observed were thus lengthening out the school term from one to two months every year.

The Negro teacher is also here and there founding inst.i.tutions of higher learning. He is getting a hold on the churches, the state, benevolent societies, and individuals, and is causing them to contribute money and goods to educational centers which are to prove most potent levers in lifting the race to a higher level.

The fact that at present a large number of the states of the Union are basing suffrage upon an educational qualification enhances the value of the literary work to be done by the Negro teacher. In some states in the South the educational qualification is avowedly adopted by the whites to eliminate the Negro from the body politic. The Negro teachers are not sleeping over the interests of their race in this matter. They are working quietly, but earnestly. Most of them have the resolution which I heard expressed during the past summer by a Negro country school teacher, viz.: "I intend that all my pupils shall learn to read, write, and have the qualifications for voting if nothing more."

This, then, is what the Negro teacher is doing in the matter of uplifting his race: he is giving to it literary training, teaching it to skillfully use the hand, and encouraging it to acc.u.mulate property.

He is lengthening school terms and founding inst.i.tutions of learning.

He is entering into the inner life of his people; and is implanting ideas and ideals there which will make them strong and respected by all the races of mankind.

FOURTH PAPER.