The Journal of Negro History, Volume 5, 1920 | Page 5

been reduced to a negligible quantity. At the last sitting of the grand jury there were only 17 cases of all kinds.[36] The "Rising Star" School in West Virginia through a change in teacher and curriculum has affected the community in as equally astonishing manner. Not only are the homes of the farmers improved, but the number of land-owning citizens has also increased. Even the religion preached has been greatly changed with the introduction of industrial training.[37] There is one school fund which is for the purpose of improving rural conditions, that is the Jeanes Fund amounting to $1,000,000, the interest on which is to be used for the rural schools in supplying competent teachers as supervisors to introduce industrial training. The influence of this fund together with the influence of Hampton and Tuskegee Institutes seems to be the hope of the future for the rural districts.
In the matter of secondary education, high schools for the Negroes are practically lacking. In Atlanta with a Negro population of 51,902 Negroes; in Savannah with 33,246; and in Augusta with 18,344, there are no Negro high schools whatsoever.[38] The following table shows the distribution of the 156 high schools for Negroes[39] (1913):
Alabama 6 Maryland 1 Arkansas 4 Mississippi 10 Delaware 1 Missouri 14 District of Columbia 2 North Carolina 3 Florida 6 Ohio 1 Georgia 14 Oklahoma 5 Illinois 5 Pennsylvania 1 Indiana 6 South Carolina 13 Kansas 1 Tennessee 9 Kentucky 8 Texas 37 Louisiana 1 Virginia 4 West Virginia 5
The increase in the number of high schools in the Southern States from year to year is shown by the following:[40]
============+==============+============+============== Year | High Schools | Year | High Schools ------------+--------------+------------+-------------- 1899-1900 | 92 | 1905-1906 | 129 1900-1901 | 100 | 1906-1907 | 121 1901-1902 | 99 | 1907-1908 | 106 1902-1903 | 123 | 1908-1909 | 112 1903-1904 | 131 | 1909-1910 | 141 1904-1905 | 146 | | ------------+--------------+------------+--------------
Apparently there is no effort in the South to supply high schools for the Negro. The General Assembly of Georgia passed a bill to establish high schools in all of the congressional districts of the State. Eleven were established and supported by a fertilizer tax, most of which was paid by the Negroes who numbered 45.1 per cent of the population of the State, and 80 per cent of whom lived in the rural districts. None of these schools, however, were for members of the Negro race.[41]
The founding of the two most important industrial schools has been mentioned before. Hampton Institute which was founded by the American Missionary Society in 1868 now consists of 113 buildings, including the instructors' cottages.[42] 76 of these buildings were erected by student labor. There are 120 acres to the Home Farm and 600 acres to Shellbanks, six miles from the Institute. The enrollment in 1910 was 875, or 1,399 including the Normal Practice School. Tuskegee Institute which began with one hoe and a blind mule now possesses 2,000 acres of land, 800 of which are cultivated each year by the young men of the school. During 1903, 33 trades were taught to over 1,400 men and women. By means of this work, the students pay more than one half of their expenses. Of the sixty buildings, all but four were almost wholly erected by students, even to the making of the bricks.[43] Although the average Negro was greatly antagonistic regarding this training at the beginning of the work at these institutes and many protests were heard from all sides, Mr. Washington stated in The Negro Problem that it has been several years since they have received a protest from parents against teaching industrial training.[44] The graduates of Tuskegee have established more than fifteen similar schools in the South.[45] Among those established are Voorhees Industrial School, Robert Hungerford School, Snow Hill Normal and Industrial Institute, Topeka Normal and Industrial Institute, Port Royal Agricultural School, and Mt. Meigs Institute.
No one of the Negro institutions for higher learning has as yet become a fully equipped university. No one of the institutions maintains a graduate school. Howard University is the only one that has even started graduate work.[46] The real influence of the college has been to prepare men to be leaders in education, as may be witnessed by the fact that out of the 5,000 Negro college graduates in the United States 54 per cent are teaching, while 20 per cent are preaching.[47] The following table shows the number of college graduates by decades:[48]
==========+===============+==========+=============== Year | No. of Grads. | Year | No. of Grads. ----------+---------------+----------+--------------- 1820-29 | 3 | 1870-79 | 313 1830-39 | -- | 1880-89 | 738 1840-49 | 7 | 1892-99 | 1,126 1850-59 | 12 | 1900-09 | 1,610 1860-69 | 44 | | | +----------+--------------- | | Total | 3,856 ----------+---------------+----------+---------------
The distribution