Twentieth Century Negro Literature Part 9

J. W. JOHNSON, A. B.

J. W. Johnson was born in Jacksonville, Fla., and after finis.h.i.+ng the public schools of his native city he went to Atlanta University, from which inst.i.tution he graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1894. The same year he was appointed princ.i.p.al of the Central Colored Grammar School, which position he now holds. In 1895 he edited and published the "Daily American," an afternoon paper. The publis.h.i.+ng of this paper was one of the greatest and most creditable efforts in journalism ever made by any member of the race. In 1898 he was admitted to the bar, and in 1899 to the Supreme Court of Florida. In 1901 he was elected President of the Florida State Teachers' a.s.sociation.

Mr. Johnson is a man of varied talents. He has a reputation as a pleasing speaker and fluent writer. He has devoted much of his time to literature, and is a contributor to the leading magazines. Mr. Johnson is a poet of more than ordinary talent and ability, and is widely known as the writer of the words of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," a national hymn for the Colored people of America. He is also the author of many songs and ballads, and also of the lyrics of two comic operas.

In answering the question involved in the above subject it becomes necessary to define the word "education"; for the term, "education given to the whites," is too loose and broad to be easily or logically handled. If the word is used in its ordinary sense, then it embraces every known form of education, from instruction in the elementary English branches on up through to instruction in the most abstruse sciences; and I can see no reason why the blacks should not receive the same instruction as the corresponding cla.s.s among the whites. Mark you, I say, as the corresponding cla.s.s among the whites.

If by the term, "education given to the whites," is meant higher education as opposed to industrial training, the question can not be answered in the form in which it is stated; for there is no "the Negroes" in the unit sense. Since its freedom the colored race has cla.s.sified itself into almost as many grades, as regards ability and capacity, as there are to be found among the whites; it is, therefore, no longer possible to speak of "the Negroes," meaning that they are all upon the same mental and moral plain. It is as absurd to say that every Negro should be made to receive an industrial training as it is to say that every Negro should be given a college education.

The question of higher education or industrial training is one that depends entirely upon the individual; and there should be no limit placed upon the individual's right of development. I think it a great folly to educate a colored man beyond his capacity; I think it an equally great folly to so educate a white man.

It is needless, and not within the limits of the subject, for me to make any defense of higher education for Negroes; but, I do say that every man, be he black or white, should be allowed to make the most of all of his powers, his possibilities, and his opportunities. I recognize the fact that the great majority of Negroes must, and, I hope, will be engaged in agriculture and the trades; that is true of every race; but there is, and ought to be, no power to say that this or that individual in any grade of society shall not break through his environments, and rise above his conditions. And I think it safe to say that the proportion of colored men and women who have been given an education beyond their capacity for receiving and using, is very little larger than the same among the whites; and, in the years to come, as the race shall more and more fit itself to the grinding process which it takes to turn out a people, that proportion will become less and less, and each individual will settle to his level, or rise triumphant over obstacles and circ.u.mstances to the place for which his ability and aspirations fit him.

But let us consider our subject in a deeper sense; if by education is meant that training, those influences by which the habits, the character, the thoughts, and the ideals of a people are formed and developed, then, the answer hinges upon the answer to another question: Is the Negro to remain in this country a separate and distinct race, or is he to become one of the elements in the future composite American?

If, as some claim, the Negro is to remain in this country a separate and distinct race, then, in this deeper sense of the word, he should receive an education different from that given to the whites.

Because the Negro and the white race, although they have the same inherent powers, possess widely different characteristics. There are some things which the white race can do better than the Negro, and there are some things which the Negro can do better than the white race. This is no disparagement to either. It is no fault of the Negro that he has not that daring and restless spirit, that desire for founding new empires, that craving for power over weaker races, which makes the white race a pioneer; neither is it the fault of the white race that it has not that buoyancy of spirit, that cheerful patience, that music in the soul, that faith in a Higher Power, which supports the Negro under hards.h.i.+ps that would crush or make pessimists of almost any other race on earth.

There have been given to each race certain talents, and for them each will be held accountable, and rewarded accordingly as they shall use them. Two boys in the same family may be gifted differently, one with an artistic, the other with a scientific, turn of mind; both cannot become artists, nor both scientists, yet they may each become equally great in their respective spheres. It is for the Negro to find out his own best and strongest powers, and make the most of them. He cannot by merely imitating the white man arrive at his fullest and truest racial development. He cannot and will not, as an absolutely distinct race, evolve, along the same lines, the _identical_ civilization of the white race, but who shall say that along his own lines he may not evolve one equally as glorious and grand?

It is true, situated as he is among the most advanced people of the world in the very height of their power, with almost all of the ideals before him belonging to that people, the American Negro is greatly handicapped in distinct racial development; but the task is, perhaps, not an impossible one. Some of the most accessible means have not yet been fully employed; for instance, the race has never been made entirely familiar with the deeds and thoughts of the few men of mark it has already produced. In this deeper sense of education the knowing of one Crispus Attucks is worth more to the race than the knowing of one George Was.h.i.+ngton; and the knowing of one Dunbar is worth more than the knowing of all the Longfellows that America will ever produce.

If the Negro is to remain in this country a separate and distinct race, and is, as such, to reach the highest development of his powers, he ought to be given an education different from that given to the whites; in that, in addition to whatever other instruction he may receive, those virtuous traits and characteristics which are peculiarly his should be developed to the highest degree possible.

If, on the other hand, he is to become, in time, one of the elements in the future American race--and this seems the more plausible answer to the question--his education ought to be purely American and not in any special way Negro.

History affords no precedent of two races, distinct yet equally powerful, living together in harmony; one has always reduced to a secondary position or destroyed the other, or the two have united. So it will be a question, if the Negro succeeds in making himself the equal of the white man in intellectual attainment, wealth, and power, whether or not what is now antipathy between the two races will develop into outright antagonism; and if we are to judge from human experience through all the past we must say that it will. If the Negro shall succeed in making a new record in history so well and so good; but if he is to follow the precedents of the past, it will be a far n.o.bler destiny for him to become an integral part of the future American type than to drop into an acknowledged and permanent secondary position.

And may it not be in the great plan of Providence that the Negro shall supply in the future American race the very elements that it shall lack and require to make it the most perfect race the world shall have seen?

If the Negro is to become an inseparable part of the great American nation his education should be in every way the same as that of other American citizens.

SECOND PAPER.

SHOULD THE NEGRO BE GIVEN AN EDUCATION DIFFERENT FROM THAT GIVEN TO THE WHITES?

BY PROF. JAMES STORUM, OF WAs.h.i.+NGTON, D. C.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Prof. James Storum]

PROF. JAMES STORUM.

Prof. James Storum was born in the city of Buffalo, New York, March 31, 1847. His mother, Mary Cannady, was a native of Suss.e.x County, Virginia, where she lived for twelve years, when her father sold his farm and moved to Ohio and located with his wife and eight children near Urbana. His mother was a woman of strong character, deep religious convictions, and piety, and full of energy and enterprise, a counterpart of which is seen in her worthy son.

His grandfather, Charles Storum, of d.u.c.h.ess County, New York, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and did valiant service for the independence of this Republic. He died in 1843 at the age of one hundred years. Prof. Storum began his school life in the public schools of his native city. He was admired by his a.s.sociates for his manly qualities and good fellows.h.i.+p, and was held in high esteem by his teachers for his studious habit and exemplary deportment. At the age of thirteen he embraced religion and united with the Michigan Street Baptist Church, where both his parents were useful and active members.

He frequently heard his parents express their purpose to send him to college, and as he grew older and better able to appreciate the value of education, the desire grew very strong within him to fit himself for a larger field of usefulness. In due time he entered Oberlin College, and after spending eighteen months in the preparatory department he entered the college proper, and graduated with the cla.s.s of 1870.

Immediately after his graduation, Prof. Storum came to the city of Was.h.i.+ngton to teach in Wayland Seminary, one of the schools fostered by the Baptist Home Mission Society. He taught at Wayland thirteen years. Here, as in every walk in life, he exerted a most wholesome influence over the young men and women attending the seminary, whose graduates are found in all parts of this country. They delight to speak of the inspiration and high incentive they received from Prof.

Storum while under his instruction.

After leaving Wayland, Prof. Storum taught in the public schools of Was.h.i.+ngton one year, whence he was called to the city of Petersburg, Virginia, to organize the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Inst.i.tute, provided for by the Legislature of the "Old Dominion." He remained here three years and endeared himself to the pupils of the new school and to the citizens of Petersburg, irrespective of race, political bias or denominational creeds. He then returned to Was.h.i.+ngton and from that time until the present he has been teaching in the public high school.

Prof. Storum has ever been interested in and connected with the various enterprises whose aim has been the improvement and elevation of the Colored people. For five years he was secretary of the Capital Savings Bank of Was.h.i.+ngton and a member of the Board of Directors of the Industrial Building and Savings Company. For three consecutive years Prof.

Storum was president of the Bethel Literary and Historical Society, the most prominent a.s.sociation of its kind in the country. Through his influence and by his energy the library and reading room were established and are now the most interesting and prominent features of the society.

In addition to his many and exacting duties, Prof. Storum has written and lectured on a great variety of subjects, religious, political, educational and financial.

He was happily married in 1872 to Mrs. Carrie Garrett Browne, a teacher in the public schools of Was.h.i.+ngton. There are three surviving children. Their domestic life has had its suns.h.i.+ne and its shadow. The darkest cloud that has overhung their household was the death of their oldest son, who died eight years ago at the age of eighteen, and who had given promise of being an unusually brilliant and useful man.

The excuse for presenting this article is the oft repeated declaration that there should be one kind of education for the more favored cla.s.s and another kind of education for the less favored cla.s.s of our citizens. This declaration was never mooted until these latter years.

The following incident will serve to ill.u.s.trate the position taken by the advocates of this subject: A young man of more than ordinary ability, having a fine mind, and exceedingly apt and ambitious to learn, came to one of the schools in the South supported by Northern friends. He had had some advantages and had proved his capabilities to learn. He was giving great satisfaction to his teachers. He was prepared to take up one of the advanced studies, and did so and wrote to his friend telling him of the studies he was pursuing and the progress he was making. His friend, a would-be philanthropist, replied that he would not a.s.sist him if he pursued such studies. "You only need to learn to read, write, and cipher a little to teach your people." Yet this same man thought it necessary to take the common school course, a college course, and a professional course to teach his people. What cla.s.s of people will have confidence in or give their support to a teacher, preacher, lawyer, or physician who knows only the A, B, C's of his profession? It is an historical as well as a scientific fact that no people have ever risen to influence and power without a strong intellectual and moral cla.s.s permeating and leavening the entire ma.s.s. From the very beginning of our educational system the idea that the system and method of education should be different for the different cla.s.ses of our people never entered the mind or thoughts of our educators nor any part of the body politic.

In the Southern part of our land the ruling cla.s.s denied educational facilities to the colored people, and quite generally throughout the South it was made a penal offence to teach a colored man, woman, or child to read. The reason for this was well understood. Education produces intelligence and unfolds to one his powers and capabilities, and an intelligent people cannot be enslaved.

After the close of the war of the rebellion, schools were opened for the colored people. The newly-emanc.i.p.ated were not entirely oblivious to some of the advantages and benefits that follow from education, for they were constantly in touch with the master-cla.s.s, so that when the opportunity was offered the colored people flocked to the schools in numbers far beyond the accommodations given. The colored people showed such avidity for learning and made such surprising progress that it seemed almost miraculous. Dr. Mayo says: "No people in human history have made such progress as the colored people of the United States." I can see no reason why the colored people should be differently educated from mankind generally; nor can I understand why persons should urge a different education unless they are hostile to and bitterly opposed to the progress of the colored people.

The aim or purpose of education is, always has been, and will ever be, preparation for complete living, that is, to be useful in one's day and generation and to live happily. "To secure this requires the acquisition of knowledge found in two fields of human endeavor. First, man and his experience and achievements and external nature; second, training to intelligent and productive activity in the use of this knowledge and the proper enjoyment of it."

What the education of the youth of a nation shall be depends upon the aim, purpose, and character of the government.

The history of the education of a people is the history of its civilization. Its civilization is not to be found in its material success, nor in its achievements in arms; but its civilization is manifest in its intellectual, moral, and esthetic development. It follows, then, that the education of a nation is to be found in the characteristics of its civilization; this includes religion, politics, justice, art, and mode of thought. The history of education fully attests this fact.

The government of Egypt was monarchical in form. The ruling cla.s.ses were educated; the lower cla.s.ses were not; yet while they were the beasts of burden and forced to toil under the most exacting taskmasters they were of a mild and kind disposition, the result of their religious training.

The government of the Jews was Theocratic; their civilization was distinctively religious; their education was along religious lines.

Their poets sing of the love, the power, the majesty, and the everlasting dominion of "I AM THAT I AM." Through the Jews indeed are all the nations of the earth blessed, in that they have preserved and transmitted through the ages the religion of their King and His Anointed.

Greece had two distinct ideas of government. The Dorian, as exemplified by the laws of Sparta, whose fundamental principle was that the individual existed for the state and must obey the behests of the state. The Ionian, as we find it in the const.i.tution of Athens, whose basic principle was that the state existed for the individual and the individual was a freeman. The educational system of Sparta was entirely military, in keeping with the aim and purpose of the state.

The boys at the tender age of seven years were taken from their homes and placed in state schools to be taught the art of war, and how to endure all of its hards.h.i.+ps and privations. The educational system at Athens reflected the aim and purpose of the Athenian State; it was humanistic. The intellectual, ethical, and physical powers of the child were developed. In that little peninsula of Southern Europe there were two distinct civilizations having very little in common and always antagonistic. Sparta developed human machines, men of great physical force, but contributed nothing to the civilization of the world, nothing for the betterment of mankind. Liberty, patriotism, love of home and kindred, are the characteristics of the Athenian civilization. The contributions of Athens for the civilization of the world and the elevation of mankind are beyond human conception. The mind of man cannot conceive of the innumerable blessings that have flowed from Athenian civilization, the great reservoir of thought and perfected art. The profoundest thoughts of philosophy, the most electrifying words of statesmen and orators; the grand, sublime and patriotic strains of the muses, the illimitable beauty and symmetry of her art have been bequeathed to the world by Athens, "THE EYE OF GREECE." But above and beyond these is the principle of personal liberty and popular government that has come down to us from the Athenian Commonwealth. The aim and purpose of the Athenian Republic in its educational system was to train the children to become useful citizens, capable of aiding in the management of the state. Aristotle says: "Education should be regulated by the state for the ends of the state; * * * as the end purposed to the State, as the whole, is one, it is clear that the education of all the citizens must be one and the same and the superintendence of it a public affair rather than in private hands."

The aim and purpose of the Roman government was to bequeath to humanity moral energy and jurisprudence, the latter of which is the basis of all modern law. A strong and an abiding faith subsisted between the Roman State and each of her citizens. "I am a Roman citizen," was the proudest allusion a man could make to himself, for he knew that the great Roman power was behind him to protect him in his rights. The children of the Romans were educated to be of use to the state. Cicero says: "The fatherland has produced us and brought us up that we may devote to its use the finest capabilities of our minds, talents, and understanding. Therefore, we must learn those arts whereby we may be of greatest service to the state, for that I hold to be the highest wisdom and virtue."

The aim and purpose of our government is to maintain and perpetuate the idea of const.i.tutional liberty and to develop a popular government in which each inhabitant shall feel a personal interest in all that pertains to the government, and the government in turn shall feel itself obligated to protect and defend the interests of the humblest citizen within its dominion. Our government is "of the people, for the people, and by the people."

In this country there must be but one system of education welding all the people in one aim and purpose. Unity of thought, unity of action, and sympathy, unity in American life and duty, is and must ever be maintained in the stratification of American society. The government must be unique and h.o.m.ogeneous in its aim, purpose, and sympathy. The entire question of American citizens.h.i.+p is especially important in harmonizing the elements. Herbert Spencer says: "The education of the child must accord, both in mode and arrangement, with the education of mankind as considered historically; or, in other words, the genesis of knowledge in the individual must follow the same course as the genesis of knowledge in the race. * * * It follows that if there be an order in which the human race has mastered its various kinds of knowledge, there will arise in every child an apt.i.tude to acquire these kinds of knowledge by the same order. As the mind of humanity placed in the midst of phenomena and striving to comprehend them, has, after endless comparisons, speculations, experiments and theories reached its present knowledge by a specific route, it may rationally be inferred that the relations.h.i.+p between mind and phenomena, is such as to prevent this knowledge from being reached by any other route; and that as each child's mind stands in this same relations.h.i.+p to phenomena they can be accessible to it only through the same route."

Man is a trinity in his nature, consisting of mind, soul and body; these must be developed and the same means must be employed to bring it about. Intellectual, moral and physical training must characterize our system of education. The intellectual and the physical is being emphasized and the moral training must be made more prominent than it has been in the past. The aim and purpose of the founders of this Republic was to preserve in the substrata of the government those n.o.ble and lofty principles of the Christian religion for the maintenance of which they left their native land that they might plant these principles in the virgin soil of America.

Manual training is now being made an attractive feature in our schools, though by no means a new feature. Manual training must be made to strengthen the intellectual and moral training or it will fail in its purpose and end as an educational value. Trade schools are one thing, manual training schools another thing. It is not the purpose nor the end of manual training schools, as a branch of our school system, to teach trades _per se_, but rather to aid the pupils to find out their natural bent and to strengthen the trend of their ambition along chosen lines; or, in other words, to help the pupil to discover his powers, capabilities and capacity, to reveal the pupil to himself.

Dr. Mayo says: "The higher education according to the last American interpretation is just this: The art of placing an educated mind, a consecrated heart, and a trained will, the whole of a refined manhood and womanhood, right at the ends of the ten fingers of both hands, so that whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do you may do all to the glory of G.o.d."

There were two distinct civilizations attempted in this country; one was planted at Jamestown, Virginia, the other at Plymouth, Ma.s.sachusetts. They were antagonistic in thought, aim and purpose. The civilization at Plymouth was an example of the "survival of the fittest," the errors of the one must be engulfed in the ever abiding principles of the other. The educational feature of the one must yield to the educational feature of the other. There must be but one system of education for all the people, great and small, black and white.

This is essential for the peace, comfort, and prosperity of the nation.

This is an Anglo-Saxon country. The thought of this country is Anglo-Saxon. The progress of this country is Anglo-Saxon. The colored people of this country, like all others born and reared on our sh.o.r.es, are Anglo-Saxon in thought, in religion, in education, in training, and hence it is unsafe and dangerous, not to say impracticable, to educate them or any other cla.s.s of our citizens along different lines.

The people of this nation must be one in purpose, one in aim; there must be a common bond uniting them in a common sympathy and fraternity. To secure this end all the people must be trained to the highest wisdom. "The fear of G.o.d is the beginning of wisdom." Hence, says Milton: "To govern well is to train up a nation in true wisdom and virtue and that which springs from thence, magnanimity and likeness to G.o.d, which is called G.o.dliness. Other things follow as the shadow does the substance."