Twentieth Century Negro Literature Part 17

Nathan B. Young was born in Newbern, Ala., September 18th, 1862. He was educated in the private schools at Tuscaloosa, Ala., at Talladega College, and at Oberlin College. He has taught school in Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama.

He is now President of the Florida State Normal and Industrial College, Tallaha.s.see.

The answer to this question depends upon what is meant by placing these schools in the hands of Negro teachers. If it means that they are to be manned and managed by them I answer, no. If, on the other hand, it means that they should have some hand in managing these schools, I answer, yes.

For two reasons I claim that the time has not arrived for the pa.s.sing of these inst.i.tutions into his sole control: the first is a _financial_ reason, the second is an _intellectual_ or _cultural_ reason.

At present the majority of the Negro colleges and inst.i.tutions of higher and professional learning are supported by white people, either directly or indirectly, and the withdrawal of white faculties and boards of trustees will mean a withdrawal of white supporters. Whether this withdrawal will be logical or ethical, it will nevertheless be a fact. Those whose duty it is to collect funds for these schools can testify to the certainty of such a result if the experiment should be made.

The white man is a very careful giver to charitable inst.i.tutions of any kind, and he takes every precaution to see that his donations are wisely expended, and that, too, according to his standards. Hence, when he makes a charitable contribution he feels safer when one of his own race is a trustee, or dispenser of the contribution. This explains the fact that in cases where Negro schools under Negro management make an appeal for large endowment funds they find it necessary to appoint a white endowment committee to manage the fund.

The Negro has no standing in the financial world, because he has made no financial record. This is not so much his fault as it is his misfortune. He is without the financial experience that he would need in order to manage successfully large sums of money such as he would be called upon to collect and to manage in colleges. Without aid from the white donors these colleges would be unable to do the work of a college--in other words, with possibly one notable exception, it takes a white man to get a white man's money, and since it is necessary to get a white man's money to support these inst.i.tutions, it is also necessary to put their management into his hands. This condition will gradually change as the Negro race acc.u.mulates wealth within itself. This will naturally bring with it that experience which will eventually enable him to be a successful manager of these inst.i.tutions.

It is generally known among those who are familiar with college management that the financial feature is the most difficult feature in this work. It requires a rare combination of qualities in a man to carry on successfully this phase of college work. The managing boards of white colleges find it exceedingly difficult to find white men fully equal to the task. If this takes place in the green tree, what may we expect in a dry?

At present the Negro race, to say the least, is too poor to take on itself the complete control of its colleges. Such a transfer would be a calamity, indeed, for under the white management these inst.i.tutions are leading only a tolerable existence, are progressing but slowly and some of them not at all. To take these feeble inst.i.tutions, then, and to connect them with a poorer source of supply would be practically to destroy them--certainly seriously to handicap them.

Besides, even if their financial support were guaranteed, at present a more serious obstacle would present itself. It would be impossible from the present supply of educated Negro men and women to get faculties for them. I mean, to get faculties every whit prepared for their progressive management. An up-to-date college must have not only strong financial backing but it must also have strong intellectual and moral backing. Each teacher should be so trained, intellectually and morally as to have a very keen appreciation of the deep significance of the work in which he is engaged. This means that he must in addition to a careful formal training, have a sort of intellectual and culture background to cause him to stand out in clear relief before his students as an embodiment of what he would have them become. He should, in very truth, be "a scholar and a gentleman."

The fact that a man or a woman is a graduate from some of these misnamed Southern "_universities_" or "_brevet_" colleges does not argue that he has a liberal education. The fact is that there are no Negro universities in this country and less than half a dozen "_bona fide_" colleges. These reputed "universities" and colleges are but indifferent high-schools for the most part, and their graduates without additional study, are not prepared to take a place on a college faculty. Strange to say, very few of these graduates feel the necessity of doing additional study before becoming anxious candidates for presidents of colleges or for professors.h.i.+ps.

I stand by the statement that there are not enough really educated men fully equipped to manage the colleges such as we have, not to say anything of those that we ought to have. The race is not yet far enough removed from slavery to have that intellectual and moral background necessary to the bringing out of college professors and college presidents. It has taken the white race many generations to develop an Eliot, a Dwight, a Hadley, and an Angell, not to say anything about the Butlers, the Harrises, and the Wheelers. These men are developments--the very cream of the intellectual history of the Anglo-Saxon race in America. As I have indicated elsewhere, the trustees find it hard to fill their places when vacant.

The incipient Negro teacher and educator might as well admit the fact of their incompetency and with the admission bend themselves with renewed energy to hard study, laying aside all bogus degrees and meaningless t.i.tles, and acknowledge the fact that they are yet intellectual pigmies. If they will do this, perchance they themselves may not only add to their own statures but they may also become the ancestors of intellectual giants, fully competent to occupy the positions which they fain would hold in the educational world.

Although the time has not yet come, as I believe, for the entire management of Negro colleges by Negroes, yet the time has come when he should have some hand in managing both as teacher and as trustee. It would be a sad commentary upon the Negro race and upon its white teachers to have these schools remain permanently under white tutelage and management. It would also be a sad commentary upon the Negro to have an alien race to continue giving its money to educate his children. He must be brought gradually to see the necessity of his supporting and managing his own inst.i.tutions of learning. The only way to do this is to gradually place the managing of them upon his shoulders. Every Negro college ought to have one or more Negro trustees on the board, as well as one or more Negro teachers on the faculty. The only way to learn how to swim is to go into the water--the only way for the Negro to learn how to manage his inst.i.tutions is for him to have a hand in managing them.

Of the large number of Negro youth that are graduated every year from our colleges, there are not a few among them who have in them the making of fine professors if they were stimulated by the sure hope of securing a place on the faculty of their "alma mater." It is the imperative duty of the faculties of these schools to inspire these men to their best efforts and when they have done so it is the duty of the trustees to give them a place on the faculty.

I would not, however, make vacancies for them by moving efficient white teachers, but, when these white teachers fall out because of age or other reasons, I would appoint in their places competent Negro men.

This policy would at once keep the support of the white donors and also the support of the Negro patrons. The Negro must have a larger hand in managing his inst.i.tutions of learning even from the lowest to the highest.

I answer, then, that the time has not yet come for the complete transfer of Negro colleges to Negro management because the Negro is not yet able to a.s.sume the financial control of these inst.i.tutions, nor the intellectual control; but he is able to have a larger hand in controlling them as donor, as trustee, and as teacher. This policy is being pursued by some of the educational agencies now at work in the South.

The efforts of the Negro churches, especially of the A. M. E. Zion church, the A. M. E. church, of the C. M. E. church, and a _wing_ of the Baptist church, are to be commended in so far as they do not a.s.sume a hostile att.i.tude toward other agencies which pursue a slightly different policy. There cannot be too much educational activity among Negroes for Negroes, and there certainly should be no antagonism among these agencies growing out of differences of opinion as to policies and methods of work. They should all make "a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together" for the educational, moral, and spiritual uplift of the ma.s.ses of the Negro people.

SECOND PAPER.

IS IT TIME FOR THE NEGRO COLLEGES IN THE SOUTH TO BE PUT INTO THE HANDS OF NEGRO TEACHERS?

BY PROF. D. J. JORDAN, M. S., LL. B.

[Ill.u.s.tration: D. J. Jordan, LL. B.]

PROF. D. J. JORDAN, M. S., LL. B.

Nature has not been extravagant in her gift of geniuses.

What has come to most of our leading men has come by hard work.

Although Prof. D. J. Jordan possesses talents about the average, he owes his success largely to persistent work. He was born near Cuthbert, Ga., October 18, 1866. His father was Rev. Giles D. Jordan who was for twenty-five years a highly respected minister in the A. M. E. Church in Georgia.

He inherits many of his excellent traits of character from his mother, Julia Jordan.

In his early life he was unable to attend school more than three months of the year, but by close application while in school and faithful study during vacations, he was always able to make the next higher cla.s.s at the beginning of the following school year.

After finis.h.i.+ng the English branches he attended Payne High School at Cuthbert. In 1892 he graduated at Allen University, Columbia, S. C., with the degrees of B. S. and LL. B.

His record at this inst.i.tution was in many respects remarkable. He was successful in pa.s.sing the written examination given by the Supreme Court of South Carolina, and was admitted to practice in all the courts of that state, May, 1892.

After his graduation, he returned to his native city, taught a term and made preparations to enter upon the practice of the legal profession, but he was prevailed upon to accept a position on the faculty of Morris Brown College, in 1893.

He served here as Professor of Science and Dean of Law until November, 1895, when he resigned to accept the Presidency of Edward Waters College at Jacksonville, Fla.

He was married December 31, 1895, by Bishop A. Grant, to Miss Carrie J. Thomas, princ.i.p.al of one of the public schools of Atlanta. Four children have been born to them.

He was elected as a lay delegate to the General Conference of the A. M. E. Church which was held at Wilmington, N. C., in 1896.

In the spring of '96 he accepted the position of Professor of Literature at Morris Brown College, which position he held until September, 1898, when he was appointed Professor of Mathematics and Vice-President of the same inst.i.tution.

The degree of M. S. was conferred upon him by Allen University in 1900. In the Summer school, held at Clark University in 1901, Professor Jordan was instructor in mathematics. He has developed with the inst.i.tution with which he has been connected, fitting himself for every promotion which has come to him.

Professor Jordan has an experience of eighteen years in the cla.s.s room and is an excellent disciplinarian. The fact that he has filled four different chairs with credit is sufficient argument that he is an able "all-round scholar."

His greatest strength, however, lies in his knowledge of English. His language is chaste; his diction, pure.

As one of the best writers and speakers of the race, he has contributed articles to our leading periodicals, including the "Atlanta Const.i.tution," "Atlanta Journal," "A. M. E.

Review" and "Indianapolis Freemen," and has delivered several commencement addresses.

I am asked to say whether or not it is time for the Negro colleges in the South to be put into the hands of Negro teachers? The education of a people is the greatest question that can possibly concern them. It touches every phase of human interest and holds the key to the solution of every rational problem arising out of man's duty and destiny. The foundations of every helpful inst.i.tution known to our social system rest upon such conceptions of right and wrong as the people's intelligence has called into being: for true teaching is not only the application of methods for the development of one's powers, but is also a directing or turning of those powers into proper channels. With any people it will not matter ultimately who now writes the laws, issues decrees, or enforces judgments if their youth are kept under wise, efficient instructors. How necessary, then, must it be to a race so conditioned as is the Negro in America that their schools should be conducted by only those who are most capable and worthy!

However, before we attempt to answer the question propounded, it is important that we fully comprehend its meaning. As I understand it, the matter might be stated in other words thus: Should Negroes exclusively be placed now on the faculties of the several missionary colleges which Northern philanthropy has established in the South since the close of the Civil War? There were then not only no schools for us, but there were no teachers and no money with which to employ teachers. No night in Egypt in the time of Israel was darker than those years immediately following the Negro's emanc.i.p.ation. And what must have been our condition to-day had not those pillars of light been placed in our starless sky? But what is more, for thirty years the same spirit and the same people who first made these colleges possible among us, have continued their aid, and still make them possible to-day.

And now let us see what advantages could be reasonably expected from such a change in management as the subject suggests. So far as I know, they who advocate the change establish themselves upon this proposition, namely, "_Negro teachers_ are best for Negro schools."

And this is true, say they, (1) because being of the same race, there must of necessity exist such a spirit of sympathy and helpfulness between teacher and student as we could not reasonably expect were the teacher and the taught of different races; (2) because placing before students competent men and women of their own race as teachers sets before them an example and an object lesson of what the students themselves may become and do, that cannot fail to be inspiring; (3) because the employing of Negro teachers in Negro schools furnishes an honorable vocation to a large number of our own people who otherwise would possibly be unemployed; (5) because Negro teachers in Negro colleges, by their presence and work, increase the race pride among ourselves and win for us greater confidence and respect from others.

These are weighty considerations, and, _per se_, have my most hearty approval. But however complete may be our endors.e.m.e.nt, we must not forget that unqualifiedly acting upon them in the matter under discussion would not be without its losses. Let us now consider what these might be, and then we shall be prepared to decide whether we would not--

"* * * rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others we know not of."

In the first place, if the people who own and sustain these schools could be induced to sever their connection with them and turn them fully into the hands of Negroes, although the colleges are already built, equipped and advertised, yet, chiefly on account of our poverty, we should have to close the majority of them at once. This would be a most serious loss. The amount of ignorance and the lack of trained leaders among us, together with the small pittance done for us in the direction of even high-school education by the states and cities in which we live certainly do not suggest the advisability of ridding ourselves of even one agency for enlightenment. Far better would it be for us and for the country if they were increased tenfold.

This view takes into consideration the fact that the great majority of people who give of their means to support the schools do so because they have confidence in the ability, integrity and experience of those who control them. And if any one is so credulous as to believe that the schools under the management of Negroes could command the amount, of interest and support as they now receive, I would ask him, why _have_ Negroes, from Mr. Booker T. Was.h.i.+ngton down, who are trying to gain public confidence and a.s.sistance for their work, _find_ it necessary to invite white men to accept members.h.i.+p on their boards of trustees? One need not go far to find the correct answer. In this connection, it will be in order to inquire also if there are, under the control of Negroes, any colleges that receive anything like the amount of money for their support that is received by similar inst.i.tutions under the management of white men?

Furthermore, the placing of the colleges referred to wholly into the hands of Negroes would be an unnecessary drawing of the race line, and would very effectually close our mouths against making protest or complaint on account of our being discriminated against for similar reasons.

Again, at this time, when there seems to be, on the part of certain persons of influence, a foul conspiracy against the Negro, it is of great importance that we have among us persons whose knowledge of the facts, and whose intellectual and social standing with those whose good opinion we value enable and impel them to speak out in our behalf. I recall with much gratification several instances where white persons connected with Negro schools have used the superior opportunities afforded them by the accident of race to say good things of us at a time when a spokesman who had the ear of the king was sorely needed. If, under present conditions, this cla.s.s of people be sent from among us, I fear it might in a measure be with us as it was with a certain people in ancient times when "a new king arose who knew not Joseph."

And finally, would it not be highly presumptive and insolent on our part to demand of others that they deliver into our keeping, without price, property which they have purchased with their own money, and of which we have had the use and benefit for a third of a century? Until we shall be able to buy these colleges and properly support them, even the serious discussion of the question, it seems to me, is inappropriate and puerile. When, therefore, you ask me, if in my opinion the time has come when the Negro colleges in the South should be put into the hands of Negro teachers, I must answer you frankly, _no_.

I would not be understood, however, as placing my approval upon everything pertaining to the management of the schools under consideration. I do not deny that in some cases teachers are employed who are not possessed of the proper spirit for doing the best work among us. They are sometimes haughty, unsocial, and unsympathetic, and find themselves among us because there is offered better pay for less work than was found in their own neighborhoods. But these do not vitiate the schools; they are exceptions. I think, too, that the faculties of the several schools, together with the boards of trustees, should be as largely composed of competent, worthy Negroes as the interests of the inst.i.tutions will allow. I am sure that such a policy would both encourage our people and train them in the management of such interests, and would be fully in harmony with the spirit and purpose of the inst.i.tutions' founders. But we cannot state this as a demand based on what is justly ours; let it stand rather on its soundness as to what is best as a policy designed to accomplish the highest results. Before we find too many faults, though, with these missionary colleges, we ought to show by our full, loyal support of the few colleges we do control, that we are both able and willing to do the proper thing when the time shall come, if ever, for placing the Negro colleges in the South into the hands of Negro teachers.