RIEF FOR THE HIGHER ED¬
UCATION OF THE NEGRO
BY PROF. KELLY MILLER
HOWARD UNIVERSITY WASHINGTON, D. C.
BRIEF FOR THE HIGHER
EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO
by
PROF. KELLY MILLER
Howard University
WASHINGTON, D. (X
1903
The Negro's Traditional Place in Society.
Ridicule and contempt have characterized the habitual attitude
of the American mind toward the Negro's higher strivings. The
African was brought to this country for the purpose of perfprming
manual and menial labor. His bodily powers alone were required
to accomplish this industrial mission. No more account was taken
of his higher susceptibilities than of the mental and moral faculties
of the lower animals. As the late Mr. Price used to say, the white
man saw in the Negro's mind only what was apparent in his face,
"darkness there, and nothing more." His usefulness in the world
is still measured by physical faculties rather than by qualities of mind
and soul. The merciless proposition of Carlyle that, the Negro is
useful to God's creation only as a servant, still finds wide acceptance.
It is so natural to base a theory upon a long-established practice that
one no longer wonders at the prevalence of this belief. The Negro
has sustained servile relation to the Caucasian for so long a time that
it it easy as it is agreeable to Aryan pride to conclude that servitude
is his ordained place in society. When it was first proposed to furnish
means for the higher development of this race, some, who assumed
the wisdom of thier day and generation, entertained the proposi¬
tion with a sneer, others, with a smile.
MANIFESTATIONS OF HIGHER QUALITIES.
As the higher susceptibilities of the Negro were not wanted,
their existence was at one time denied. The eternal inferiority of
the race was assumed as a part of the cosmic order of things. His¬
tory, literature, science, speculative conjecture, and even Holy
Writ were ransacked for evidence and argument to support the ruling
dogma. While the slave-holder had proved beyond all possibility
of doubt the incapacity of the Negro for knowledge, yet he, prudent¬
ly enough, passed laws forbidding the attempt. His guilty con¬
science caused him to make assurance doubly sure by re-enacting
the laws of the Almighty.
For three hundred years the Negro by his marvelous assimilative
power and by striking individual emanations has been constantly
manifesting the higher possibilities of his nature, until now whoever
assumes to doubt his susceptibility for better things needs himself to
4
be pitied for his incapacity to grasp the truth. The same Carlyle
who regards the Negro as an "amiable blockhead," and amenable
only to the white man's "beneficent whip," also declares: "That
one man should die ignorant who had capacity for knowledge, this I
call a tragedy, were it to happen forty times in a minute." When
it is knovn that the Negro has capacity for knowledge and virtue
there can be no further justification for shutting him out from the
higher cravings of his nature.
IS THE HIGHER EDUCATION OP THE NEGRO WORTH WHILE AS A
PRACTICAL, PHILANTHROPY ?
The education of the Negro is not of itself a thing apart, but is
an integral factor of the general pedagogic equation. Race psy¬
chology has not yet been formulated. No reputable authority has
pointed out just wherein the two races differ "in any evident mental
feature. The mind of the Negro is of the same nature as that of the
white man and needs the same nurture. The general poverty of the
Negro, however, and his inability to formulate and direct his own
scheme of culture, render the question not so much one of abstract
pedagogics, as of practical philanthropy. The philanthropist is
supremely indifferent as to whether an individual, white or black,
should study Kant or Quaternious, except, in so far as the result¬
ing devlopment reacts beneficially upon the common welfare. Does
the higher education of the few capable Negroes possess sufficient
advantage to the race at large to justify its continuance by a wise
and discriminating philanthropy ? The great missionary societies,
representing the philanthropic arms of the Congregational, Pres¬
byterian, Methodist and Baptist denominations after forty years of
arduous, earnest endeavor and the expenditure of many millions of
dollars in this field, answer this question emphatically in the affirm¬
ative. An ounce of opinion from such sources should be worth a
ton of speculation from those who reach their conclusions by a pro¬
cess of "pure reasoning."
THE FUNCTION OF EDUCATION TO A BACKWARD RACE.
The African was snatched from the wilds of savagery and
thrust into the midst of a mighty civilization. He thus escaped the
gradual progress of evolution. Education must accomplish more
for a backward race than for a people who are in the fore-front of
progress. It must not only lead to the unfoldment of faculties but
must equip for a life from which the recipient is separated by many
centuries of development. The African chieftain who would make a
pilgrimage from the jungle to Boston might accomplish the first
5
part of his journey by the origtiial modes of transportation—in the
primitive dugout or on the backs of his slaves; but he would com¬
plete it upon the steamship, the railway, the electric car and the
automobile. How swift the transformation and yet how suggestive
of centuries of toil, struggle and mental endeavor. It required the
human race thousands of years to bridge the chasm between savage¬
ry and civilzation, which must now be crossed by a school curricu¬
lum of a few years' duration. In a settled state of society, the chief
function of education is to enable the individual to live the life al¬
ready attained by his race, but the educated Negro must be a
pioneer, a progressive force in the uplifting of his race, and that,
too, notwithstanding the fact that he belongs to a backward breed
that has never taken the initiative in the progressive movements of
the world.
the higher training of choice youth.
The first great need of the Negro is that the choice youth of
the race should assimilate the principles of culture and hand them
down to the masses below. This is the only gate-waj' through which
a new people may enter into modern civilization. Herein lies the
history of culture. The select minds of the backward race or nation
must receive the new cult and adapt it to the peculiar needs of their
own people. Japan looms up as the most progressive of the non"
Aryan races. The wonderful progress of these Oriental Yankees is
due in a large measure to their wise plan of procedure. They send
their picked youth to the great centers of western knowledge; but
before this culture is applied to their own needs it must first be sift¬
ed through the sieve of their native comprehension. The gradu¬
ates of the schools and colleges for the Negro race are forming cen¬
ters of civilizing influence in all parts of the land, and we confident¬
ly, believe that these grains of leaven will ultimately leaven the whole
lump.
self-reliant manhood.
Another great nee^i of the race, which the schools must in a
large measure supply, is self-reliant manhood. Slavery made the
Negro as dependent upon the intelligence and foresight of his mas¬
ter as a soldier upon the will of his commander. He had no need to
take thought as to what he should eat or drink or wherewithal he
should be clothed.
Knowledge necessarily awakens self-CQnsciousness of power.
When a child learns the multiplication table he gets a clear notion
of intellectual dignity. Here he gains an acquisition which is his
6
permanent, personal possession, and which can never be taken from
him. It does not depend upon external authority; he could repro¬
duce it if all the visible forms of the universe were effaced. It is
said that the possession of personal property is the greatest
stimulus to self-respect. When one can read, his title clear
to earthly possesions, it awkens a consciousness of the dig¬
nity of his own manhood. And so when one has digested
and assimilated the principles of knowledge he can file his
declaration of intellectualindependence. He can adopt the language
of Montaigne "Truth and reason are common to everyone, and are
no more his who spake them first than his who speaks them after;
'tis no more according to Plato than according to me, since he and
I equally see and understand them."
Primary principles have no ethnic quality. We hear much in
this day and time of the white man's civilization. We had just as
well speak of the white man's multiplication table. Civilization is
the common possession of all who assimilate and apply its principles.
England can utilize no secret art or'invention that is not equally
available to Japan. We reward ingenuity with a patent right for a
period of years upon the process that has been invented; but when
an idea has been published to the world it is no more the exclusive
property of the author than gold, after it has been put in circulation,
can be claimed by the miner who first dug it from its hiding place
in the earth. No race or nation can preempt civilization any more
than they can monopolize the atmosphere which surrounds the
earth, or the waters which hold it in their liquid embrace.
I have often noticed a young man accomodate his companion
with a light from his cigar. After the spark has once been com¬
municated, the beneficiary stands upon an equal footing with the
benefactor. In both cases the fire must be continued by drawing
fresh supplies of oxygen from the atmosphere. From whatever
source a nation may derive the light of civilization,it must be per¬
petuated by the exercise of their^ own faculties. Self-reliant man¬
hood is the ultimate basis of American citizenship.
TRAINING FOR LEADERSHIP.
The work of the educated colored man is largely that of leader¬
ship. He requires, therefore, all the discipline, judgment and men¬
tal equipment that long preparation can afford. The more ignorant
and backward the masses the more skilled and sagacious should
the leaders be. If a beneficial and kindly contact between the
races is denied on the lower plane of flesh and blood, it must be
7
sought in the upper region of mental and moral kinship, knowl¬
edge and virtue know no ethnic exclusiveness. If indeed races are
irreconcilable, their best individual exponents are not. All dignified
negotiation must be conducted on the high plane of individual
equality.
"For east is east, and west is west, and never the twain shall mf et,
'Till earth and sky stand presently at God's great judgment seat;
But there is neither east nor west, border nor breed nor birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of >.he earth "
The irreconcilable become reconciled only after each has man¬
ifested the best possibilities of a common nature. The higher edu¬
cation tends to develop superior individuals who may be expected
to excercise controlling influence over the multitude. The indi¬
vidual is the proof, the promise and the salvation of the race. The
undeveloped races which, in modern times, have faded before the
breath of civilization have probably perished because of their failure
to produce commanding leaders to guide them wisely under the
stress and strain which an encroaching civilization imposed.
A single red Indian with the capacity and spirit of Booker T. Wash¬
ington might have solved the red man's problems and averted his
pending doom.
THE MORAL IMPOTENCY OF ELEMENTARY AND MECHANICAL
KNOWLEDGE.
Again, the higher education should be encouraged because of
the moral impotency of all the modes of education which do not
touch and stir the human spirit. It is folly to suppose that the moral
nature of the child is improved because it has been taught to read
and write and cast up accounts, or to practice a handicraft. Tracing
the letters of the alphabet with a pen has no bearing on the Gold¬
en Rule. The spelling of words by sounds and syllables does not
lead to the observance of the Ten Commandments. Drill in the
multiplication table does not fascinate the learner with the sermon
on the mount. Rules in grammar, dates in history, sums in arith¬
metic, and points in geography do not strengthen the grasp on mor¬
al truth. The ability to saw to a line or hit a nail aplomb with a
hammer does not create a Zeal for righteousness and truth. It is
only when the pupil comes to feel the vitalizing power of knowl¬
edge that it begins to re-act upon the life and to fructify in character.
This is especially true of a backward race whose acquisitive power
outruns its apperceptive faculty.
s
THE SOCIAL SEPARATION OF THE RACES.
The Negro has now reached a critical stage in his career. The
point of attachment between the races which slavery made possible
has been destroyed. The relation is daily becoming less intimate
and friendly, and more business-like and formal. It thus becomes
all the more imperative that the race should gain for itself the prim¬
ary principles of knowledge and culture.
The social separation of the races in America renders it impera¬
tive that the professional classes among the Negroes should be re¬
cruited from their own ranks. Under ordinary circumstances, pro¬
fessional places are filled by the most favored class in the commun¬
ity. In a Latin or Catholic country, where the fiction of "social
equality" does not exist, there is felt no necessity for Negro priest,
teacher, or physician to administer to his own race. But in Amer¬
ica this is conceded to be a social necessity. Such being the case,
the Negro leader, to use a familiar term, requires all the profession¬
al equipment of his white confrere, and special knowledge of the
needs and circumstances of his race in addition. The teacher of
the Negro child, the preacher of a Negro congregation, or the phy¬
sician to Negro patients, certainly requires as much professional
skill as those who administer to the corresponding needs of ihe
white race. Nor are the requirements of the situation one whit di¬
minished because the bestoweris of the same race as the recipient.
The Negro has the same professional needs as his white confrere
and can be qualified for his function only by courses of training of
like extent and thoroughness. By no other means can he be qual¬
ified to enlighten the ignorant, restrain the vicious, care for the sick
and afflicted, or administer solace to weary souls, plead in litiga¬
tion the cause of the injured.
THE PROFESSIONAL NEEDS OF THE CITY NEGRO.
According to the census of 1900, there were 72 cities in the
United States with a population of more than 5,000 persons of col¬
or, averaging 15,000 each, and aggregating 1,000,000 in all. The
professional needs of this urban population for teachers, preachers,
lawyers and physicians call for 5,000 well-equipped men and women,
not one of whom would be qualified for his fuuction by the three
R's or a handicraft.
THE EFFECT OF HIGHER EDUCATION UPON THE RURAL MASSES.
The supreme concern of philanthropy is the welfare of the un-
awakened rural masses. To this end there is need of a goodly sprink¬
ling of well educated men and women to give wise guidance, direc-
9
tion and control. I,etno one deceive himself that the country Negro
can be uplifted except through the influence of higher contact. It
is impossible to inaugurate and conduct a manual training or in¬
dustrial school without men of sound academic as well as technical
knowledge. The torch wliic'h is to lighten the darksome places of the
South must be kindled at the centers of light.
THE IMPORTANCE OF CULTIVATED TASTE.
Rational enjoyment, through moderation, is perhaps asgol a
definition as can be given of culture. The reaction of culture on con¬
duct is a well known principle of practical ethics. The Negro race
is characterized by boisterousness of manner and extravagant forms
of taste. As if to correct such deficiencies, his higher education,
hitherto, has largely been concerned with Greek and Iyatin litera¬
ture, the norms of modern culture. It is just here that our educa--
tional critics are liable to become excited. The spectacle of a Ne¬
gro wearing eye-glasses and declaiming in classic phrases about
the "loft}' walls of Rome," and the "wrath of Achilles" upsets their
critical calmness and composure. We have so often listened to the
grotesque incongruity of a Greek chorus and a greasy cabin and the
relative value of a rosewood piano and a patch of early rose potatoes
that if \rc aid not join in the smile in order to encourage the humor,
we should do so out of sheer weariness. And yet we cannot escape
the conviction that one of the Negro's chief needs is a higher form'
of intellectual and esthetic taste.
THE RELATIVE CLAIMS OF INDUSTRIAL AND HIGHER EDUCATION.
Whenever the higher education of the Negro is broached, in¬
dustrial training is always suggested as a counter irritant. Parti¬
sans of rival claims align themselves in hostile array and will not
so much as respect a flag of truce. These one-eyed enthusi¬
asts lack binocular vision. The futile discussion as to whether in¬
dustrial or higher education is of greater importance to the Negro
is suggestive of a subject of great renown in rural debating societies:
which is of greater importance to man, air or water. We had as
well attempt to decide whether the base or altitude is the more impor¬
tant element of a triangle. The two forms of training should be
considered on the basis of their relative, not rival, claims.
THE HIGHER EDUCATION STIMULATES INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY.
Indeed, one of the strongest claims for the higher education of
the Negro is that it will stimulate the dormant industrial activities
of the race. The surest way to incite a people to meet the mate-
IO
rial demands of life is to teach them that life is more than meat.
The unimaginative laborer pursues the routine rounds of his task,
spurred on only by the immediate necessities of life and the task¬
master's stern command. To him, it is only time and the hour
that tun through the whole day. The Negro lacks enlightened
imagination. He needs prospect and vista. He does not make
provision because he lacks prevision. Under slavery he toiled as
the asSj dependent upon the daily allowance from his master's crib.
To him the prayer, Give us this day our daily bread, has a ma¬
terial rather than a spiritual meaning. If you would perpetuate the
industrial incapacity of the Negro, then confine him to the low
grounds of drudgery and toil and prevent him from casting his eyes
unio the hills whence come inspiration and promise. The man with
the hoe is of all men most miserable unless, forsooth, he has a hope.
But if imbued with hope and sustained by an ideal, he can consecrate
the hoe as well as any other instrument of service, as a means of
fulfilling the promise within him. When a seed is sown in the
ground it first sends its roots into the soil before the blades can rise
out of it. But is it not actuated by the plant consciousness to seek
the light of heaven ? For what is the purpose of sending its roots
below, if it be not in order to bear fruit above? The prilgrim fathers
in following the inspiration of a lofty ideal developed the resources
of a continent. Any people who attempt to reach the sky on a ped¬
estal of bricks and mortar will end in confusion and bewilderment as
did the builders of the Tower of Babel on the plains of Shinar in
the days of Eld. It requires range of vision to stimulate the indus¬
trial activities of the people. The most effective prayer that can be
uttered for the Negro is "Lord, open thou his eyes." He can not
see beyond the momentary gratification of appetite and passion.
He does not look before and after. Such stimulating influence can
be brought to bear upon the race only through the inspiration of
the higher culture.
MEN OF HIGHER TRAINING THE LEADERS OF INDUSTRIAL
EDUCATION.
It requires men of sound knowledge to conceive and execute
plans for the industrial education of the masses. The great apostles
of industrial education for the Negro have been of academic train¬
ing, or of its cultural equiyalent. The work of Hampton and Tuske-
gee is carried on by men and women of a high degree of mental cul¬
tivation.
II
DR. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON AN EXAMPLE OF HIGHER CULTURE.
Doctor Booker T. Washington, note the title, is the most influ¬
ential Negro that the race under freedom has produced. He is the
great apostle of industrial training. His great success is but the
legitimate outcome of his earnestness and enthusiasm. And yet there
is no more striking illustration of the necessity of wise, judicious and
cultivated leadership as a me&nsof stimulating the dormant activity
of the masses than he who hails from Tuskegee. His success is due
wholly to his intellectual and moral faculties. His personal oppor¬
tunities of association and contact have been equivalent to a liberal
education. Two of America's greatest institutions of learning have
fittingly recognized his moral and intellectual worth by decorating
him with their highest literary h'onors. Mr. Washington possesses an
enlightened mind to discover the needs of the masses, executive tact
to put his plans in effective operation, and persuasive ability to con¬
vince others as to the expediency of his policies. He possesses no
trade Or handicraft, if so he has never let the American people in¬
to the secret. Nor can it be easily seen what possible benefit such
trade or handicraft would be to him in the work which has fallen to
his lot. Tuskegee has been built on intellect and oratory. If Mr-
Washington had been born with palsied hands, but endowed with
the same intellectual gifts and powers of persuasive speech, Tuske¬
gee would not have suffered one iota by reason of his manual afflic¬
tion. But, on the other hand, had he come into the world with a
sluggish brain and a heavy tongue, whatever cunning and skill his
hands might have acquired, he never could have developed the in¬
stitution which has made him justly famous throughout the civilized
world.
THE DEFICIENCY OE THE SLAVE MECHANIC.
Slavery taught the Negro, to work but at the same time to de¬
spise those who worked. To them all show of respectability was
attached to those whom circumstances placed above the necessity of
toil. It requires intellectual conception of the object and the end of
labor to overcome this mischievous notion. The Negro mechanics
produced under the old slave regime are rapidly passing away be¬
cause they did not possess the power of self-perpetuation. They
were not rooted and grounded in rational principles of the mechani¬
cal arts. The hand could not transmit its cunning because the mind
•was'not trained. They were given the nack without the knowl¬
edge.
12
MONEY SPENT FOR THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO
NOT WASTED.
The charge has recently been made that money spent on the
higher education of the Negro has been wasted. Does this charge
come from the South ? When we consider that it was through
Northern philanthropy that a third of its population received their
first impulse toward belter things; that these higher institutions pre¬
pared the 30,000 Negro teachers whose services are utilized in the
public schools; that the men and women who were the beneficiaries
of this philanthropy are doing all in their power to control, guide
and restrain the South's ignorant and vicious masses, thus lighten¬
ing the public burden and lifting the general life to a higher level:
that these persons are almost without exception earnest advocates
of peace, harmony and good-will between the races; to say nothing
of the fact that these vast philanthropic contributions have passed
through the trade channels of Southern, merchants, it would
seem that the charge is strangely incompatible with that high-
minded disposition and chivalrous spirit which the South is so zeal¬
ous to maintain. Does this charge come from the North? It might
not be impertinent to propound a few propositions for their consid¬
eration. Is it possible to specify a like sum of money spent upon
any other backward race that has produced greater results than the
amount spent upon the Southern Negro? Is it the American Indian,
upon whotn four centuries of missionary effort has produced no more
progress than is made by a painted ship on a painted sea? Is it the
Hawaiian, who will soon be civilized off the face of the earth? Is
it the Chinese upon whom the chief effect of Christian philanthropy
is to incite them to breathe out slaughter against the stranger within
their gates? It is incumbent upon him who claims that this money
has been wasted to point out where, in all the range of benevolent
activity the contributions of philanthropy have been more profit¬
ably spent.
It is true that forty or fifty millions of dollars have been thus
spent, but when we consider the magnitude of the task to which it
was applied, we find that it would not average one dollar a'year for
each Negro child to be educated. Why should we marvel, then,
that the entire mass of ignorance and corruption has not put on
enlightenment and purity ?
NOT MERE THEORIZERS.
We often hear that the advocates of higher education are mere
theorists without definite, tangible plans and propositions. There
has recently sprung into prominence a class of educational philoso-
*3
phers who deny the value of stored up knowledge. We are in¬
formed that only such information as will be honored at the corner
grocery or is convertible on demand into cash equivalent is of prac¬
tical value, while all else is an_ educational delusion and a snare.
The truth is, that all knowledge which clarifies the vision, refines
the feelings, broadens the conception of truth and duty and enno¬
bles the manhood is of the highest and most valuable form of prac¬
ticability. An institution which sends into the world a physician
to heal the sick, a lawyer to plead the cause of the injured, a teach¬
er to enlighten the minds of the ignorant, or a preacher to break
the bread of life to hungry souls is rendering just as practical a ser¬
vice to the race as those schools which prepare men to build houses
and plant potatoes.
NEED FOR THE NEGRO COLLEGE.
It is sometimes claimed that the few capable Negroes can find
opportunity for higher training in the institutions of the North. It
is by no means certain to what extent these institutions would ad¬
mit colored students. The Northern College is not apt to inspire
the' colored pupil with the enthusiasm and fixed purpose for the
work which Providence has assigned him. It is the spirit, not the
letter that maketh alive. The wrhite College does not contemplate
the special needs of the Negro race. American ideals could not be
fostered in the white youth of our land by sending tham to Oxford
or Berlin for tuition. No more can the Negro gain racial inspira¬
tion from Harvard or Yale. And yet they need the benefit of con¬
tact and comparison, and the zeal for knowledge and truth which
these great institutions impart. The Negro College and the North¬
ern institutions will serve to preserve a balance between undue ela¬
tion for want of sober comparison, and barren culture, for lack of
inspirational contact with the masses.
DOES THE HIGHER EDUCATION LEAD AWAY EROM THE RACE ?
It is often charged that the higher education lifts the Negro above
the needs of his race. The thousands of graduates of Negro
Schools and Colleges all over the land are a living refutation of this
charge. After the mind has been stored with knowledge it is trans¬
mitted to the place where the need is greatest and the call is loud¬
est, and transmuted into whatever mode of energy may be necessa¬
ry to accomplish the imposed task.
The issues involved in the race question are as intricate in their
relations and far reaching in their consequences as any that have ev¬
er taxed human wisdom for solution. No one can be too learned or
too profound in whose hands are entrusted the temporal and eternal
14
destiny of a human soul. Even if the educated Negro disired to
flee from his race, he soon learns by bitter experience that he will
be thrown back upon himself by the expulsive power of prejudice.
He soon learns that the Newtonian formula has a social applica¬
tion : "The force of attraction varies directly as the mass."
A CONCRETE ILLUSTRATION.
But Wisdom is justified of her children. As an illustration of
the value of the higher education of the Negro race, I point to How¬
ard University, which is the largest and best equipped institution of
its class. The establishment and maintenance of this institution dur¬
ing the past 35 years has cost between two and three millions of dol¬
lars. As returns on this investment it has sent into the world 200
ministers of the Gospel, 700 physicians, pharmacists and dentists,
300 lawyers, and 600 persons with a general academic and collegiate
training, together with thousands of some time pupils who have shar¬
ed the partial benefits of its courses. These graduates and some time
pupils are to be found in every country and district where the Negro
population resides and are filling places of usefulness, honor and dis¬
tinction, as well as performing works of mercy and sacrificial service.
They serve as inspiration and stimulus, (Quickening the dormant
energies of the people and urging them to loftier ideals and nobler
modes of life. It devolves upon the complainant to present some plan
by which a like sum of money, in a like space of time, can be spent
upon an institution of whatever designation so as to produce a more
wholesome and more wide-spread effect upon the general social
uplift-