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Title
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"Negro Education And Advancement Discussed by the Contemporary Club"
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Description
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From the (Phil.) Standard Echo.
Perhaps few if any subjects has been the cause for so much consideration or furnished a greater topic for discussion to the American nation since the war, than that of the question, "What shall be done for the betterment of the Negro race in this country?" especially as it relates to his present as well as future success on this continent.
The Contemporary Club, an influential and social literary organization, whose membership is composed of our best and most representative white citizens, at their regular monthly social meeting held on last Tuesday evening in the Art Club rooms, on Broad above Locust street, at which between two and three hundred members and invited guests were present. The topic discussed before them at this meeting, was "What is the wisest way of attempting to overcome the difficulties in the way of the advancement of the colored race."
Prof. Booker T. Washington, principal of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, located at Tuskegee, Ala., an institution for the training of the colored youth, was invited to open the subject, and spoke most eloquently upon the topic from a personal practical standpoint and the result of twelve years labor and observation.
After reviewing briefly his own experience as the head of an institution that was endeavoring to solve the much vexed question said: "Tuskegee Institute is the outgrowth of the Hampton Institute, started in 1869 by General Armstrong. It was organized in 1881, and was started in a shanty and church, with one teacher and thirty students, and has now grown to a membership of 650 students, representing all parts the South, and forty officers and teachers, all colored. It is the largest institution in the country entirely controlled by the colored people themselves.
We make a special effort to combine with the literary education industrial training. As an example of the work, we have recently completed a three-story brick building. The masonry, plastering, tinsmithing, painting, etc. was all done by the students, and, while accomplishing this work, the students were taught the trades connected with the erection of such a building.
In this way, during the twelve years of the existence of the school, we have put up thirty six buildings, large and small. Not only this, but the industrial training emphasizes the value of the dignity of labor. The institute now owns property valued at $200,000, largely created by the labor of the students themselves. In all the work done at this institution we aim to prepare a high class of leaders, who will go out and spend their lives in showing the masses how to lift themselves up.
We have gotten to the point, in education in the South, where the Southern white people are beginning to help and take more interest in the negro. It is surprising to find how much hard common sense many of the black people on these plantstions [sic] have. You will not take offense at my saying that I believe the average negro has more natural intelligence than the average ignorant white man, since I belong half to your race and half to the other.
If there has been any mistake made in the education of my people in the South thus far, it is that of trying to make good christians of a hungry people. No matter how long an people have belonged to the church and get happy and shout, as they do, if they go home hungry at night and do not find anything to eat, they are tempted to find something before morning.
I simply mean to say by this that we must give attention to the material as well as to the religious side of the question.
The relations between the races in the South will be changed for the better, in proportion as the black people get hold of something that the white people want or respect. The Southern white people have not yet reached the point where they will invite colored people generally to their prayer meetings; but they will invite them to their stockholders' meetings. Let there be ten colored men in any Southern town worth $50,000 each and there will be no race problem there. The most sensible colored people have settled down to the fact that it is best for them to give their strength to the acquiring property, education and morality, if these do not give them all the rights enjoyed by any other citizen, then everything in nature is false.
Following Prof. Washington, Hon. Durham, Dr. McConnell, Rev. H.L. Wayland, Dr. Brinton, Prof. Frisell, Mr. Robert C. Ogden and a number of others, made short addresses. All of which, concluded but one exception felt that all the Negro wanted and should have was a fair and equal chance in the development of those qualities with which he was so richly endowed. The subject was enthusiastically discussed from beginning to end and the keenest interest was manifested. The spirit of those present was excellent, an earnestness and determination of purposes seemed to be the general feeling to do something in a more practical way for the Negro n the part of his friends in future.
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Date
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March 24, 1894
