The Atlanta University Publications, No.

16
fH E

COMMON SCHOOL
TUB

NEGRO AMERICAN
A Social Study made fey Atlanta Universiti, under the patronage of the Trustees of the John E Slater lurid t~
Price, 75 Cents
*

The Atlanta Universilfy Press

ATtANtA.OA, 19J1

The Atlanta University Publications, No. 16

THE

O ESPECTINGTHE BRAINS
of American Negroes thete are known to me no facts, deductions, or arguments that, in my opinion, justify withholding from men of Af rican descent, as such, any civil or political rights or any educational or industrial opportunities that are en joyed by whites of equal character, intelligence and property. -Burl G. Wilder.

COMMONi SCHOOL
AND THE

NEGRO AMERICAN
Report of a Social Study made by Atlanta University under the patronage of the Trustees of the John F. Slater Fund; with the Proceedings of the 16th Annual Conference for the Study of the Negro Problems, held at Atlanta University, on Tuesday, May 30th, 1911
Edited by

if

IV. E. Burghardt DuBois, Ph.D.

Director of Publicity and Research, National Association for the Adoancement of Colored People and

Augustus Grancille Dill, A.M.

Associate Professor of Sociology in Atlanta University

The Atlanta University Press

ATLANTA, GA.
1911

The Sixteenth Annual Conference

"The Negro Common School" PROGRAM
First Session. 10:00 a. m. President Ware presiding. Subject: "The Negro Rural School." "Methods of the Present Investigation." Mr. A. G. Dill, of Atlanta University. Address: Mr. Henry A. Hunt, Principal of the Fort Valley High and Industrial School, Fort Valley, Ga.
Second Session, 11:3O a. m.

Preface
In 1901 the Atlanta University Negro Conference made an investigation into common schools for Negro Americans. The publication which resulted from this investigation was quoted and discussed especially because of the questions which it raised in regard to the contributions of Negroes for their own elementary education and in regard to the meagre school facilities afforded Negro children. Ten years later we return to the same investigation aided by an appropriation of $1,000 from the Trustees of the John F. Slater Fund. The results are based on national and southern state school reports, local reports and studies and reports from school officials. The study is not exhaustive and much material information is missing; but even this par tial survey is of much value. This study is, therefore, a further carrying out of the Atlanta University plan of social study of the Negro American, by means of an annual series of decennially recurring subjects covering, so far as is practicable, every phase of human life. The object of these studies is primarily scientific a careful research for truth; conducted as thoroly, broadly and honestly as the material resources and mental equipment at command will allow. It must be remembered that mathematical accur acy in these studies is impossible; the sources of information are of varying degrees of accuracy and the pictures are wofully incomplete. There is necessarily much repetition in the suc cessive studies, and some contradiction of previous reports by later ones as new material comes to hand. All we claim is that the work is as thoro as circumstances permit and that with all its obvious limitations it is well worth the doing. Our object is not simply to serve science. We wish not only to make the truth clear but to present it in such shape as will

Subject: "The Common School and Health." men and women.) Address to men: Dr. W. F. Penn. Address to women: Mrs. H. R. Butler.
Third Session, 3:00 p. m.

(Separate meetings for

Fourteenth Annual Mothers' Meeting. (In charge of the Gate City Free Kindergarten Association.) Mrs. I. E. Wynn presiding. Subject: "The Kindergarten and the Common School." 1. Kindergarten songs, games and exercises by 125 children of the five free kindergartens: East Cain Street Mrs. Ola Perry Cooke. Bradley Street Mrs. Hattie Sims Fountain. White's Alley Miss Leila Golden. Martin Street Mrs. John Rush. Leonard Street Orphanage Miss Rosa Martin. 2. Address: Mrs. Anna E. Murray, Washington, D. C. 3. Explanation of Kindergarten Exhibit: Miss Gertrude H. Ware. 4. Report of the Treasurer: Mrs. Lizzie Burch. 5. Collection.
Fourth Session, 8:00 p. m.

President Ware presiding. Subject: "The Common School as a Key to the Problem." Address: Mrs. Anna E. Murray, Washington, D. C. Address: "The Importance of the Public School." Rev. Silas X. Floyd, D.D., of Augusta, Ga.

The Negro Common School

encourage and help social reform. The resolutions which fol low this preface are the expression of the members, delegates and attendants upon the sessions of the sixteenth annual Con ference. Our financial resources are unfortunately meagre: Atlanta University is primarily a school and most of its funds and energy go to teaching. It is, however, also a seat of learning and as such it has endeavored to advance knowledge, par ticularly in matters of racial contact and development, which seem obviously its nearest field. In this work it has received unusual encouragement from the scientific world, and the published results of these studies are used in America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Very few books on the Negro problem, or any phase of it, have been published in the last decade which have not acknowledged their indebtedness to our work. On the other hand, the financial support given this work has been very small. The total cost of the sixteen publica tions has been about $18,500, or something over $1,000 a year. The growing demands of the work, the vast field to be covered and the delicacy and equipment needed in such work, call for far greater resources. We need, for workers, laboratory and publications, a fund of $6,000 a year, if this work is going adequately to fulfill its promise. Four years ago a small temporary grant from the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D. C., greatly helped us; and for four years our work has been saved from suspension by an appropriation from the John F. Slater Fund. In past years we have been enabled to serve the United States Bureau of Labor, the United States Census, the Board of Education of the English Government, many scientific asso ciations, professors in nearly all the leading universities, and many periodicals and reviews. May we not hope in the future for such increased financial resources as will enable us to study adequately this the greatest group of social problems that ever faced America?

Resolutions
The Sixteenth Atlanta Conference feels great concern over the condition of common school training among Negro Americans. In the North the Negro children usually have the same facilities for schooling as other children have but they often lack encouragement and inspiration. In the larger cities of the border states, Negroes have good tho crowded schools. In Texas, their town schools are good and the county schools fair. But in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkan sas and in the country districts of the border states, elemen tary training for Negroes is in a deplorable condition. In the larger part of this area it is our firm belief that the Negro common schools are worse off than they were twenty years ago, with poorer teaching, less supervision and comparatively few facilities. In Virginia and North Carolina there are signs of improvement an din isolated instances in other states; but on the whole, thruout the lower South and to a large degree thruout the whole South these things are true: 1. The appropriations for Negro schools have been cut down, relatively speaking. 2. The wages for Negro teachers have been lowered and often poorer teachers have been preferred to better ones. 3. Superintendents have neglected to supervise the Negro schools. 4. In recent years few school houses have been built and few repairs have been made; for the most part the Negroes themselves have purchased school sites, school houses and school furniture, thus being in a peculiar way double taxed. 5. The Negroes in the South, except those of one or two states, have been deprived of almost all voice or influence in the government of the public schools.

The Negro Common School

Summarizing then: As a result of such conditions it is cer tain that of the Negro children 6 to 14 years of age not 50 per cent have a chance today to learn to read and write and cipher correctly. Unless we face these facts the problem of igno rance in the race question will soon overshadow all other problems. The Negroes themselves are making heroic efforts to remedy these evils thru a wide-spread system of private, selfsupported schools and philanthropy is furnishing a helpful but incomplete system of industrial, normal and collegiate training for children of the black race. In many parts of the South Negroes are paying into the school fund in the way of taxes much more than they are receiving in actual appropria tions for their school facilities. Wherever this is true it may be said that the Negroes are helping to pay for the education of the white children while the states are depriving the Negro children of their just share of school facilities. In order to secure the best results it is necessary to take a more liberal view concerning Negro education and to provide adequate facilities for the instruction of Negro youth. The Conference feels that in the case of continued failure on the part of the South to provide adequate school facilities for Negro children, permanent relief can be secured only from national aid to education with such safeguards as will insure the fair treatment of black children. (Signed) MRS. A. E. MURRAY, Washington, D. C. H. A. HUNT, Fort Valley, Ga. A. G. DILL, Atlanta, Ga. W. E. B. DuBois, New York, N. Y.

A Select Bibliography of Common School Education for Negro Americans Part I

Arranged alphabetically by authors

Atlanta University Publications, The Negro Common School. Atlanta, 1901. ii (2), 120pp. 8vo. Baskerville, W. M. Shall the Negro be educated or suppressed? Nash ville, 1899. 24 pp. 8vo. Boston, Mass., Grammar school committee. Report of a special com mittee of the Grammar school board. Abolition of the Smith col ored school. Boston, 1849. 71 pp. 8vo. Boston, Mass., Primary school committee. Report. Abolition of col ored schools. Boston, 1846. 38 pp. 8vo. Boston, Mass., Public school. Report of the minority of the committee of the primary school board on the caste schools of Boston (E. Jackson and H. I. Bowditch) with remarks by Wendell Phillips. Boston, 1846. 36 pp. 8vo. Boston, Mass., School committee. Report of the minority of the com mittee upon the petition of J. T. Hilton and other colored citizens of Boston, praying for the abolition of the Smith colored school. Boston, 1849. 13 pp. 8vo. Brousseau, Kate. L'education des Negroes aux etats unis. Paris, 1904. xvi, 396 pp. 8vo. Brown, M. H. A plea for industrial education among the colored people. New York, 1884. 30 pp. 16mo. Brown, William Wells. The rising son. Boston, 1874 (1873). 12 mo. Portr. Bumstead, Dr. Horace. Secondary and higher education in the South for whites and Negroes. 1910. Coon, Charles L. Public taxation and Negro schools. Twelfth annual conference for education in the South. Atlanta, Ga., April 14-16, 1909, Curry, J. L. M. Difficulties, complications and limitations connected with the education of the Negro. Baltimore, 1895. 23 pp. 8vo. J. F. Slater fund papers. Curry, J. L. M. Education of Negroes since 1860. Baltimore, 1890. 32 pp. 8vo. J. F. Slater fund papers. Delaware association for the moral improvement and education of the colored people. Annual reports, 1868, 1869, 1870. Wilmington, Del. Douglass, H. P. Christian reconstruction in the South. Boston, 1909. 407 pp. Eaton, John. Report of freedmen's schools for 1864-1865 (contained in report of the general superintendent of f reedmen. Department of the states of Tennessee and Arkansas. 1864-5.)

10

The Negro Common School

Bibliography

11

Finger, S. M. Educational and religious interests of the colored people of the South. U. S. Bureau of Education. Circular of informa tion, No. 2. 1886. Pp. 123-133. Fletcher, Hon. Richard. Opinion as to whether colored children can be lawfully excluded from free public schools. Boston, 1846 (?). Friends. A brief sketch of the schools of the black people and their descendants, established by the religious society of Friends. Philadelphia, 1867. 32 pp. 8vo. Goodwin, M. B. History of schools for the colored population in the District of Columbia. U. S. Bureau of Education. Special report District of Columbia for 1869. Pp. 193-300. Greogoire, H. Enquiry concerning the intellectual and moral faculties, etc., of Negroes. Brooklyn, 1810. 253 pp. 8vo. Harris, Wm. T. Education of the Negro. An address made to the stu dents of Atlanta University, Atlanta, Ga., Oct. 29, 1895. Hartshorn, W. N. An era of progress and promise. Boston, 1910. 576 pp. Haygood, Atticus Green. Our brother in black, etc. New York, 1881. 252 pp. 12mo. Haygood, Atticus Green. The case of the Negro, as to education in the southern states, etc. Atlanta, 1885. 59 pp. 8vo. Institute for colored youth, Philadelphia. Objects .... list of officers and students, etc. Philadelphia, 1860-65. 12mo. Massachusetts general court. Petitions. Equal schools for all without regard to color or race. Boston, 1851. Mayo, Amory Dwight. How shall the colored youth of the South be educated? Boston, 1897 (1). 213-224 pp. 8vo. Mayo, Amory Dwight. The northern and southern women in the educa tion of the Negro in the South. U. S. Bureau of Education. Cir cular of information, No. 1, p. 71, 1892. Miller, Kelly. The education of the Negro. Washington, 1902. U. S. Bureau of Education Reports. 1900-1. Vol. I. Pp. 731-859. Miller, Kelly. The primary needs of the Negro race. Washington, 1899. 18 pp. 8vo. Orr, Gustavus. The education of the Negro. Atlanta, Ga., 1880. 15pp. 8vo. Report of the actuary of the Delaware association for the education of the colored people (1877-78). Wilmington, 1878. 8vo. Ruffin, Frank G. The cost and outcome of Negro education in Virginia. Richmond, 1889. 20 pp. 8vo. Smith, Thos. P, An address before the colored citizens of Boston in opposition to the abolition of colored schools^ 1849. Boston, 1850. 12 pp. 8vo. Stetson, Geo. R. The problem of Negro education. Boston, 1884. 21 pp. 8vo. Triumph of equal rights in Boston. Meeting in honor of W. C. Nell. Boston, 1856. 24 pp. 12 mo. United States Bureau of Education. Education of the colored race. Washington, 1901. Report, 1899-1900.

United States Bureau of Education. Education of the colored race. Washington, 1902. Report, 1900-1901. United States Bureau of Education. Education of the colored race. Negroes in America. Washington, 1896. (In report of commission for 1893-94. Vol. I, pp. 1038-1061.) United States: Report of the Industrial Commission, 1901-1902. 19 Vols. Washington. Vol. 15: On immigration and on education. 259 pp. Wright, R. R., Jr. Self-help in Negro education. Cheney, Pa. Wright, R. R., Sr. Brief historical sketch of Negro education in Geor gia. Savannah, Ga., 1894. 58pp. 8vo.
Part II. Periodical Literature

American Journal of Political Economy: Education of Negroes. A. A. Gundy. 1:295. American Journal of Social Science: Education of Negroes. C. D. Warner. 38:1. Education of Negroes. K. Miller. 39:117. Negro schools in Virginia. O. Langhorne. 11:36. Present problem of the education of Negroes. W. H. Baldwin. 37:52. American Magazine of Civics: Education of Negroes. J. L. M. Curry. 8:168. Andover Review: Negroes at school. H. Bumstead. 4:550. Education of Negroes. A. Salisbury. 6:256. New basis of education of Negroes. G. R. Stetson. 14:254. Annals of the American Academy of Political Science: Negro education in the South. W. B. Hill. 22:320-9. Anthropological Review: Brain in the Negro. J. D. Davis. 7:190. Arena: Education of Negroes. C. M. Blackford. 23:24-30. Educational possibilities of the Negro. B. T. Washington. 21:445. Atlantic: Education of Negroes. W. T. Harris. 69:721. Negro schoolmaster in the new South. W. E. B. DuBois. 83:99. Catholic World: Education of Negroes. J. R. Slattery. 63:265. Century: Yankee teacher in the South. E. G. Rice. 62:151. Crisis: Colored high schools. Mason A. Hawkins. June, 1911. Current Literature: Blow at Negro education. 36:491. South's verdict oh. Negro schools. 36:425. Education: Education of Negroes. C. G. Andrews. 6:221. Educational Review: Education of the Negro in its historical aspects. D. L. Kiehle. 27:299. New education in the South. P. B. Barringer. 21:233. Forum: Expenses-of the education of Negroes. Does the Negro pay it? G. W. Cable. 13:640. Gunton's Magazine: Education of Negroes and New Orleans. 20:66. Harper's Weekly: Education of freedmen. D. H. Strother. 49:457.

12

The Negro Common School

Independent: Burden of Negro schooling. W. E. B. DuBois. 53:1667-8. Education of Negroes, symposium. April 7, 1892. Education of white and black. E. A. Alderman. 53:2241-9. New Orleans and Negro education. 53:1630. South's dual system of education. N. B. Young. 52:314-16. Lend a Hand: Educational statistics of Negroes. 6:149. Education of Negroes. Report of Calhoun school. C. R. Thorn and W. M. Dillingham. 13:52. Lippincott's Magazine: Education of Negroes of the South. W. R. Hooper. 4:671. Methodist Quarterly Review: Education of freedmen. S. G. Arnold. 38:48. Missionary Review: What intellectual training is doing for the Negro. W. E. B. DuBois. 27:578-82. Nation: Education of Negroes of the South. 24:276. First colored school in Philadelphia. 72:316. Negro education and the South. 78:62-3. New England Magazine: Education of Negroes. A. D. Mayo. 17:213. New World: Education of Negroes. H. B. Frissell. 9:625. Niles Register: Negro school at New Haven. 41:74-88. North American Review: Education and civilization of freedmen. E. E. Hale. 101:528. Education of Negroes. J. R. Gilmore. 143:421. Education of Negroes of the South. F. B. Stowe. 128:605; 129:81. Negro intellect. W. Matthew. 149:91. Old and New: Education of Negroes of the South. S. Andrews. 1:200, 373. Outlook: Aims of Negro education. H. B. Frissell. 74:937-9. Education of the Negro in the United States. 78:96-7. Educational solution of the Negro problem. 74:632-5. Negro Common Schools. 71:675-7. Popular education and the race problem in North Carolina. J. W. Bailey. 68:114-16. Shall the Negro be educated? 68:13-15. Should southern whites aid Negro schools? C. H. Poe. 71:1010-13. Training of Negroes for social power. W. E. B. DuBois. 75:409-14. Public Opinion: Negroes and schools. 3:526. Putnam's Monthly Magazine: Negro schools. E. Kilham. 15:31. Review of Reviews: Alabama Negro schools. O G Villard Slater Fund: Proceedings and occasional papers of the, No. 3. Curry: Education of Negroes since 1860. Proceedings and occasional papers of the, No. 5. Curry: Difficulties connected with education of Negroes. Southern Workman: The outlook in Negro education. W T. B Wil liams.

The Common School and the Negro American

Section 1. Scope of the Inquiry

In 1901 Atlanta University made a study of the Negro Common School. Ten years later we come back to the same study. The present investigation is based on the following data in addition to other miscellaneous sources: 1. The annual reports of the United States commissioner of education. 2. State school reports as follows:
Alabama ......... Arkansas (Adv. sheets) . Delaware. Florida. Georgia. . . Kansas ... ...... Kentucky . 1908-1909, Louisiana. . . . . Maryland. . 1910 1910 1910 1908-1910 1909-1910 1907-1908 1910-1911 1908-1909 1909-1910 Mississippi . 1907-1908, 1908-1909 Missouri......... 1910 N. Carolina. . 1908-1909, 1909-1910 South Carolina . . 1910 Tennessee. . . 1909-1910 Texas.......... 1909-1910 Virginia . . 1907-1908, 1908-1909 Washington, D. C. . . 1907-1908 West Virginia. .1908-1910

3. Replies of city superintendents to the following cir cular:

DEAR SIR: Atlanta University is making a study of Negro public schools. Will you kindly answer the following questions and return the blank to us at your earliest convenience? 1. City ...... .... State . . . 2. Number of Negro school buildings? 3. Seating capacity? 4. Number of Negro pupils enrolled? 5. Number of Negro teachers employed? 6. Where were these teachers educated? 7. Do they make efficient teachers? 8. What are their chief defects? 9. Salaries of Negro teachers? 10. What is your opinion of the work of the Negro schools? NOTE. Will you write on the back the names and addresses of the principals of the Negro schools in your system?

4. Replies to the following general questionnaire sent to teachers and citizens thruout the South:

14

The Negro Common School

Illiteracy

15

DEAR FRIEND: Will you kindly answer the following questions as well as possible and return the blank to Atlanta University? We will hold your answers in strict confidence and use the information only to help the schools of our race. Please be prompt in replying. 1. State and county. 2. Are there any printed school reports published in your county? If so, can you send us copies, or tell us whom to write? 3. How many colored schools and how many white schools are there in your county? 4. What was the length of the term of the colored schools and of the white schools last year?
5. How many grades are there in the colored schools? How many grades in the white schools? 6. How many colored and how many white teachers are there in your county?

7. How well are the teachers educated and where? 8. What salaries do the colored teachers get a month? What sala ries do the white teachers get a month?
9. What is the total amount spent annually on colored schools and on white schools in the county? 10. How many colored and how many white children regularly at tend school? 11. How do the school facilities now compare with ten years ago? 12. Are there any Separate town school systems in the county? 13. Do they lay a special school tax? If so, how much of this goes to colored schools? 14. Do the colored people support any schools of their own or do they supplement the school term? 15. In general what is the condition of Negro public school educa tion in your county?

Section 2.

Illiteracy

The Negro population in America had its beginning in 1619, when nineteen Negroes were landed upon the Virginia coast and sold as slaves to the settlers in that region. For more than two hundred years this importation of Negroes continued. As a rule the imported slaves were kept in igno rance for the unwritten law of the land was that Negroes should receive no instruction. In the main this was accom plished by acts of legislation. For instance, South Carolina,

in 1740, declared: "Whereas, the having of slaves taught to write or suffering them to be employed in writing may be attended with inconveniences, be it enacted, That all and every person and persons whatsoever, who shall hereafter teach or cause any slave or slaves to be taught, or shall use or employ any slave as a scribe in any manner of writing whatever, hereafter taught to write, every such person or persons shall for every such offense forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds current money." Louisiana, in 1830, declared that "All persons who shall teach, or permit or cause to be taught, any slave to read or write shall be imprisoned not less than one month' nor more than twelve months." Georgia, in 1770, fined any person who taught a slave to read and write 20 pounds. In 1829 the State enacted: "If any slave, Negro or free person of color, or any white person, shall teach any other slave, Negro or free person of color to read or write, either written or printed characters, the same free person of color or slave shall be punished by fine and whipping, or fine or whipping, at the discretion of the court; and if a white person so offend, he, she, or they shall be punished with a fine not exceeding $500 and imprisonment in the common jail at the discretion of the court." Virginia, in 1819, forbade ' 'all meetings or assemblages of slaves or free Negroes or mulattoes, mixing or associating with such slaves, .... at any school or schools for teaching them reading or writing, either in the day or night." Nevertheless free Negroes kept schools for themselves until the Nat Turner Insurrection, when it was enacted, 1831, that "all meetings of Negroes or mulattoes at any school house, church, meeting house or other place for teaching them read ing and writing, either in the day or night, under whatsoever pretext, shall be deemed and considered an unlawful assem bly." This law was carefully enforced. The other slave states had similar laws. To be sure, there were individual slaves who learned to read and write despite these prohibitions, and many of the house servants, who

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The Negro Common School

Beginnings of the Negro Common School

17

came in closer contact with the master class, came into pos session of the knowledge of these arts. Nevertheless at Emancipation the percentage of illiteracy among the colored population was probably about ninety per cent. The follow ing table gives the census figures for Negro illiteracy:
ILLITERACY BY PEE CENT
Negroc-, -0 years of age
STATES

and over

and fugitive slaves in the District of Columbia and the border states and to a more limited extent among the free Negroes of the South. By the time of the opening of the Civil War there were perhaps twenty schools for free Negroes in Wash ington, D. C., and about as many in New Orleans. In the country districts, on the other hand, where more than ninetenths of the Negroes lived, there were no schools for either free Negroes or slaves.
During the war the first complication that confronted the armies was the continual arrival of fugitive slaves within the Union lines. At first the commands were rigid against receiving them. "Hereafter," wrote Halleck early in the war, "no slaves should be allowed to come within your lines at all." Other generals, however, thot differently. Some argued that the confiscating slaves would weaken the South, others were imbued with abolition sentiment for right's sake. Twice attempts were made to free the slaves of certain localities by proclamation, but these orders were countermanded by the President. Still the fugitives poured into the lines and gradually were used as laborers and helpers. Imme diately teaching began and gradually schools sprang up. When at last the Emancipation Proclamation was issued and Negro soldiers called for, it was necessary to provide more systematically for Negroes. Various systems and experiments grew up here and there. The freedmen were massed in large numbers at Fortress Monroe, Va., Washington, D. C., Beaufort and Port Royal, S. C., New Orleans, La., Vicnsburg and Cor inth, Miss., Columbus, Ky., Cairo, 111., and elsewhere. In such places schools immediately sprang up under the army officers and chaplains. The most elaborate system, perhaps, was that under General Banks in Louisiana. It was established in 1863 and soon had a regular Board of Education, which laid and collected taxes and supported eventually nearly a hundred schools with ten thousand pupils under 162 teachers. At Port Royal, S. C., were gathered Edward L. Pierce's "Ten Thousand Clients." After the capture of Hilton Head in 1861 the Sea Islands were occupied and the Secretary of the Treasury designated this as a place to receive refugee Negroes. Mr. Pierce began the organization of relief societies in the North and established an economic system with schools. Eventu ally these passed under the oversight of General Rufus Saxton, who sold forfeited estates, leased plantations, received the camp-followers of Sherman's march to the sea and encouraged schools. In the West, Gen eral Grant appointed Colonel John Eaton, afterwards United States Commissioner of Education, to be Superintendent of Freedmen in 1862. He sought to consolidate and regulate the schools already established and succeeded in organizing a large system. 1
'Atlanta University Publication. No. 6, p. 22.

1870

1880
48.4 53.9 55.0 70.7 59.6 67.5 75.0 75.4 71.7 70.4 73.2 77.4 75.2 78.5 81.6 80.6 79.1 15.1 70.0

1890
35.0 41.7 44.5 50.5 50.1 49.5 53.6 52.5 54.2 55.9 57.2 60.1 60.8 64.1 67.3 69.1 72.1 14.3 57.1

1900
24.3 28.1 32.3 38.4 35.1 38.1 43.0 38.2 41.6 40.1 44.6 47.6 49.1 52.8 52.4 57.4 61.1 10.7 44.4

West Virginia.

District of Columbia . . Missouri . . Florida . . Maryland . . Arkansas .

Texas . . . Tennessee . _ Kentucky . Virginia ..... North Carolina . . Delaware .

Mississippi

South Carolina Georgia . Alabama . . . .

. .

Louisiana . .

70.5 72.7 74.4 84.1 69.5 71.3 81.2 88.7 82.4 83.8 88.9 84.8 87.0 81.1 92.1 88.1 85.9 18.5 79.9

Massachusetts . .

United States . .

It is probable that at present something over one-third of the Negro population of the United States is illiterate.
Section 3. Beginnings of the Negro Common School

The first school for Negroes so far as is known was the one established by Elias Neau in New York City in 1704. Anthony Benezet opened a school in Philadelphia in 1770. The free Negroes of Charleston had an established school as early as 1774. This school was taught by a Negro and was intended for free Negroes only, altho some slaves who hired their time managed to send their children there. The colored people of Boston began a school for themselves in 1798. From these beginnings private schools multiplied rapidly during the early nineteenth century among the free Negroes

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The Negro Common School

Beginnings of the Negro Common School

19

In the border states the development of the Negro schools was somewhat different. Missouri and West Virginia estab lished free schools about the time that the other states did and made provisions for Negroes. Tennessee was slower, while Delaware, Kentucky and Maryland refused to provide for colored children at first and for a long time granted them only the taxes raised among themselves. Not until 1880 were the colored children put on a legal footing with other children. The decisive reason for so doing, as given by one superin tendent was, "The elevation of this class is a matter of prime importance since a ballot in the hands of a black citizen is quite as potent as in the hands of a white one.'' The activities in the various states may illustrate the differing conditions:
GEORGIA. In December, 1865, the colored people of Savannah, within a few days after the entrance of Sherman's army, opened a number of schools, having an enrollment of 500 pupils and contributed $1,000 for the support of teachers. Two of the largest of these were in Bryant's Slave Mart. In January, 1866, the Negroes of Georgia organized the Georgia Edu cational Association, whose object was to induce the freedmen to estab lish and support schools in their own counties and neighborhoods. In 1867, 191 day schools and 45 night schools were reported as exist ing. Of these, 96 were reported either wholly or in part supported by the freedmen, who also owned 57 of the school buildings. ARKANSAS. After 1865 they established the first free schools that ever were in Arkansas. This they did at Little Rock, where, after pay ing tuition for a short time, they formed themselves into an educational association, paid by subscription the salaries of teachers, and made the schools free. FLORIDA. Among the various agencies engaged in the work of edu cating the freedmen of the South are two, consisting of colored people in the southern states, and known respectively as the African Civilization Society, and the Home Missionary Society of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Several schools were opened at Tallahassee and other places in Florida shortly after the close of the war. In 1866 the freedmen erected school houses at their own expense, besides contributing from their scanty means towards the support of teachers. They formed "school societies" and co-operated with the Bureau in furnishing school lots and erecting buildings.

KENTUCKY. After the war, the thirty schools which were estab lished, in spite of great obstacles, were mainly supported by the freed people themselves. NORTH CAROLINA. In 1867 the State Superintendent of Education reported that many instances had come under his notice where the teach ers of a self-supporting school had been sustained until the last cent the freedmen could command was exhausted, and where these last had even taxed their credit in the coming crop to pay the bills necessary to keep up the school.

The Freedmen's Bureau found many schools for freedmen already in existence maintained by tax commissioners, by Negroes and by the army. The original Freedmen's Bureau Act made no provision for Negro education; but notwith standing this the funds derived from the rent of abandoned property were used for education and government buildings were turned into school houses. Transportation was given to teachers and subsistence granted. By an act of 1866 the educational powers of the Bureau were greatly enlarged and co-operations with benevolent associations, teachers and agents were sanctioned, buildings were leased, etc. The sum of $521,000 was appropriated for school purposes and other sums provided by the sale and lease of property formerly belonging to the confederate government. The next year Congress voted $500,000 for schools and asylums, and during the next two years they made liberal provisions. The Bureau school system now assumed a more comprehensive and stable charac ter. Grading of city and village schools began. The number of Bureau schools still increased, and in November, 1867, they had a wide-reaching system. Higher schools then began to be established, and thus in many ways the Freedmen's Bureau fostered and organized the Negro school system. The Freedmen's Bureau published the following figures:
School report for the last six months in 1868:
Day schools .... Night schools . . , Total . . 1,198 228 1,426 $65,819 75 67,208 48 . $180,247 44

Tuition paid by freedmen . Expended by Bureau . . . Total cost. .

20

The Negro Common School

Schools sustained wholly by freedmen ... School buildings furnished by Bureau . . White teachers ........... Colored teacbers . . Total enrollment . . . Average attendance . Pupils paying tuition . . .
Schools sustained in part by freedmen . . . School buildings owned by freedmen .... 364 417 1,031 713

Beginnings of the Negro Common School

469 531

21

The Negro carpet bag governments may be said to have established the public schools:
Altho recent researches have shown in the South some germs of a public school system before the war, there can be no reasonable doubt but that common school instruction in the South, in the modern sense of the term, was founded by the Freedmen's Bureau and missionary socie ties, and that the state public school systems were formed mainly by Negro reconstruction governments. The earlier state constitutions of Mississippi from 1817 to 1865 contained a declaration that "Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good governments, the preser vation of liberty and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." It was not, however, until 1868 that encouragement was given to any general system of public schools meant to embrace the whole youthful population. In Alabama the re construction constitution of 1868 provided that "It shall be the duty of the Board of Education to establish thruout the state, in each township or other school district which it may have created, one or more schools at which all the children of the state between the ages of 5 and 21 years may attend free of charge." In Mississippi the constitution of 1868 makes it the duty of the legislature to establish "a uniform system of free public schools, by taxation or otherwise, for all children between the ages of 5 and 21 years." Arkansas in 1868, Florida in 1869, Louisiana in 1868, North Carolina in 1869, South Carolina in 1868 and Virginia in 1870 established school systems. The constitution of 1868 in Louisiana required the General Assembly to establish "at least one free public school in every parish," and that these schools should make no "distinction of race, color, or previous condition." Georgia's system was not fully established until 1873.

81,878 68,790 26,139

The summary for 1866-1870 was as follows:

INCREASE OF EDUCATION
DATE

Schools
. . ..... . . . . .

No. of Teachers
1,405 2/'87 2,295 2,455 3,300

Pupils 90,778 111,442 104,327 114,522 149,681

1866 .... 1867. 1868 . 1869. . 1870.

97E 1,839 1,831 2,118 2,677

EXPENDITURES FOR SCHOOLS Expended by

YEAR

Total Freedvnen's Bureau Benevolent Associations

$ 82,2"0 65,087 7('f\0~0 365,0(0 360,000 CO 01 00 00 00

The Freedme-n $ 18.EOO 17,210 360,000 190,0^0 00 00 00 00 $ 224,359 613,632 2,025,896 1,479,182 1,B3S,8E3 39 49 67 16 29

1866 . 1867. 1868. 1869 .... 1870 .... Total

$ 123.6EE E31,34E 965,8' 6 924,182 976,8E3

39 48 67 16 29

2on,roo oo

$ 78E.7CO 00

$ E.879,924 00

about the Fifteenth Amendment that we are apt to forget that in all human probability the passage of this amendment was decisive in rendering permanent the foundation of the Negro public school. If the Negroes had been left a servile caste, personally free, but politically powerless, it is not reasonable to think that a system of common schools would have been provided for them by the southern states. 1
'Atlanta University Publication, No. 6, p. 38.

The annual amount which the Bureau voted to school pur poses increased from $27,000 in 1865 to nearly $1,000,000 in 1870 and reached a total from 1865 to 1871 of $5,262,511.26. In July, 1870, there were 4,239 schools under their supervision with 9,307 teachers and 247,333 pupils. Notwithstanding this, of the 1,700,000 Negro children of school age in 1870 only about one-tenth were actually in school. So much has been said lately

The school systems established in the carpet bag period were of varied degrees of efficiency. There were speculation and ignorance, but notwithstanding, as time passed, they gradually improved. In Florida, for instance, a Negro, Jona than C. Gibbs, a graduate of Dartmouth, later State Superin tendent of Schools in Florida, succeeded in founding an ex cellent system of schools. In other states Negro officials worked hard. After the fall of the carpet bag governments, a period of doubt ensued, and for a while it was feared that the system would be paralyzed. Finally, however, the Negro school system was left standing. Too, the effect of these governments upon public education in general is worth noting:
The reorganization of their [the southern states] system of public education grew out of the complete enfranchisement of the colored race,

22

The Negro Common School

Enrollment

23

and became necessary in order to adjust their new political relations to this race under the amendments to the Constitution of the United States.'

As Albion Tourgee said of the Negro voters of reconstruc tion times: ' 'They instituted a public school system in a region where public schools had been unknown." Colonel Richard P. Hallowell adds: ' 'The whites had always regarded the public school system of the North with contempt. The freedman introduced and established it and it stands today a living testimony to his faith that education is neces sary to social welfare." 2
Section 4. Enrollment

From the reports of the United States Bureau of Educa tion come the following statistics:
COMMON SCHOOL STATISTICS, CLASSIFIED BY RACE 1899-1900

STATE

Average daily attendance Colored

Per cent o: persons 5 to 18 year s enrolled White

66.54 68.29 71.74 68.49 68.48 70.79 75.22 53.53 68.07 73.71 75.22 64.86 67.94 74.39 55.16 66.05 72.40 68.28 67.15

Colored
47.26 64.49 54.58 60.76 53.83 51.25 70.38 30.60 60.61 58.09 62.32 51.80 49.88 57.70 50.46 44.99 63.55 51.46 32.85

Alabama . ... Arkansas . Delaware ...... District of Columbia

Florida ..... Georgia . . Kentucky . Louisiana . Maryland ... . .

On January 1, 1866, the total enrollment as near as could be ascertained of Negro children in all colored schools was 90,589. In 1880, the total enrollment of Negro children, according to the report of the United States Bureau of Edu cation was 784,709, while in 1890 it was 1,296,959. The figure rose to 1,560,070 in 1900. The Negro school population (5 to 18 years of age) in the sixteen former slave states and the District of Columbia for the scholastic year 1908-9 was 3,038,710. Of this number, 1,712,137, or 56.34 per cent, were enrolled in the public schools. The average daily attendance was 1,116,811, that is 65.22 per cent of the total enrollment and 36.75 per cent of the total Negro school population. The enrollment of white children and colored children since 1890 is given in the following table:
YEAR

Mississippi . Missouri ....... North Carolina ... South Carolina Texas . . . Virginia .... West Virginia .
Tennessee ...

. . .

... . . ... . .
. .

. . .

99,342 52,656 2,947 11,611 28,736 119,276 43,' 74 56,136 22,989 1' 2,898 23,' 01 64,5T5 110,947 67,9 4 83,9 4 61,754 5,480 957,160 813,710

Total, 1899-1900 . Total, 1889-1890

1900-1901
Average daily attendance Per cent of persons 5 to 18 years enrolled

STATE

Colored
Alabama . . ........ .... 99,342 53,011 3,800 11,883 30,123 122,887 40,225 49,817 22,712 102,898 22,031 80,747 113,566 67,984 89,012 61,754 5,480 977,192 813,710

White
71.12 73.78 76.70 76.41 71.17 74.72 73.98 52.95 66.04 80.08 76.86 69.79 69.27 78.44 63.18 67.38 78.84 71.57 67.15

Colored
50.62 67.55 69.09 77.74 59.75 55.32 72.84 33.06 68.82 61.62 71.78 63.85 54.94 64.51 60.87 51.92 72.15 57.22 32.85

Common School Enrollment

YEAR

Common School Enrollment

White
1891-91 1891-92 K92-93 . 1893-94 . 1894-95 . 1895-96 . 1896-97 1897-98 . 1898-99 . 1899-i9:o 3,570,624 3,6 7,549 3,697,899 3,848,541 3,846,267 3,943,801 3,937,992 4,145,737 4,144,643 4,261,369

Colored
1,329,549 1,354,316 1,3)7,515 1,432,198 1,423,593 1,449,325 1,460,1-84 1,54'>,749 1,509,275 1,560,070 19"0-01 . 1901-02 . 19,2-03 19 3-04 . 19 -4-05 19 5-C6 l^g-'T. 1907-08 . 19 8-_9 . . . . . . . . . .

White
4,30 ',954 4,386,322 4,428,842 4,522,744 4,564,798 4,6 8,561 4,671,135 4,692,927 4,909,283

Colored
1,594,308 1,575,659 1,578,632 1,577,3;5 1,602,194 1,617,998 1,672,725 1,665,781 1,712,137

, . . , . . .

. . . .

Delaware .......... District of Columbia Florida .... Georgia ... Kentucky . Louisiana Maryland ... Mississippi . Missouri ...... North Carolina . . South Carolina .... Tennessee . . - . . Texas .... Virginia .... West Virginia . .

'Report of U. S. Bureau of Education, 1888. *Why the Negro was Enfranchised, p. 33.

Total, 1900-1901 ... Total, 1889-1890 .

24

The Negro Common School

Enrollment
COMMON SCHOOL STATISTICS, CLASSIFIED BY RACE 1903-1904

25

COMMON SCHOOL STATISTICS, CLASSIFIED BY RACE

1901-1902

STATE

Average daily attendance

Per cent of persons 5 to 18 years enrolled

STATE

Average daily attendance

Per cent of persons 5 to 18 years enrolled

Colored
Alabama . Arkansas . Delaware District of Columbia Florida . . Georgia .... Kentucky .... Louisiana ... Maryland Mississippi Missouri .... North Carolina South Carolina Tennessee . . Texas ... Virginia , . . West Virginia . Total, 1901-19P2 . . Total, 1889-1890 . . '_ \ 90,000 56,290 3,800 12,206 29,881 124,553 40,314 49,817 22,712 119,190 21,079 83,405 1C9.699 71,779 91,116 69,440 5,20"i 1,000,381 813,710

White
69.24 7598 76.70 76.64 70.59 76.56 73.11 51.85 66.04 E3.23 74.90 74.12 68.46 79.09 67.65 70.26 78.48 72.49 67.15

Colored
42.71 70.88 69.G9 77.90 57.00 56.39 71.84 32.36 68.82 64.69 68.22 66.31 49.58 67.61 63.41 54.11 68.65 56.97 32.85 Alabama . Arkansas Delaware ... .... District of Columbia . Kentucky ... Louisiana . Maryland Mississippi Missouri ....... North Carolina . . South Carolina Tennessee ..... Texas ... Virginia ... West Virginia Total, 19"3-1904 . Total, 1899-1900. Total, 1889-1890 . . .

Colored
90,000 58,177 3.800 12,565 32,338 120,032 41,116 53,605 14,420 118,096 20,173 1' 2,151 113,929 69,621 92,157 67,694 5,686 1,015,560 957,160 813,710

White
69.24 73.80 76.70 74.28 74.28 77.42 72.73 55.66 65.44 86.89 76.07 77.41 70.92 77.80 65.42 68.70 76.56 72.38 68.28 66.28

Colored
42.71 69.48 69.09 76.16 59.64 53.51 71.10 31.30 41.30 63.45 69.49 66.90 52.35 62.12 58.91 51.03 69.57 55.14 61.46 51.65

.'.'." '

1902-1903 1904-1905
STATE

Average daily attendance

Per cent of persons 5 to 18 years enrolled

Colored
Alabama . Arkansas .... Delaware .... District of Columbia Florida ... Georgia . Kentucky . Louisiana . . Maryland . Mississippi North Carolina South Carolina Tennessee . Virginia . West Virginia . Total, 1902-1903 . Total, 1889-1890 . ' ' ; 9:>,000 54,147 3,803 12,120 29,881 120,' 32 41,116 53,605 22,712 118,096 83,405 111,681 68,331 88.7J8 67,694 5,924 991,453 813,710

White
69/4 74.92 74.67 77.' 0 69.99 74.42 72.73 55.66 64.62 86.89 74.31 73.45 71.29 77.38 64.44 68.70 76.59 71.63 66.28

Colored
42.59 68.42 67.24 76.27 56.51 53.51 71.10 31.30 67.32 63.43 67.28 65.26 52.31 61.29 60.54 51/3 75.29 55.55 51.65

STATE

Average daily attendance

Per cent of persons 5 to 18 years enrolled

Colored
Alabama Arkansas. ... Delaware . . . District of Columbia . Florida .... Georgia . . .... Kentucky _ Louisiana Maryland .... Mississippi . Missouri .... North Carolina . . South Carolina . Tennessee. . .... Texas . _ . Virginia ...... West Virginia . Total, 1904-1905 . Total, 1899-1910 Total, 1889-1890 . . . . . . . . . 75/00 63,329 3,800 13,005 82,338 119,705 41,116 46,201 21,886 118,096 20,432 83,390 107,800 71,151 94,605 62,621 6,251 970,726 981,026 818,710

While
69.95 72.67 76.70 77.85 74.28 71.94 72.73 56.25 65.57 86.89 74.86 73.72 73.03 77.96 67.05 66.01 76.02 71.89 72.32 66.28

Colored
49.07 66.07 69.09 77.85 59.64 51.72 71.10 28.22 60.47 63.45 67.53 63.41 53.21 61.66 59.29 46.54 74.03 65.01 57.67 51.65

26

The Negro Common School

COMMON SCHOOL STATISTICS, CLASSIFIED BY RACE 1905-1906 Average daily attendance Per cent of persons 5 to 18 years enrolled
STATE

Enrollment
COMMON SCHOOL STATISTICS, CLASSIFIED BY RACE 1907-1908 Average daily attendance Per cent of persons 5 to 18 years enrolled

27

STATE

Colored
Alabama . . Arkansas . Delaware . . . District of Columbia Florida . Georgia .... Kentucky ... Louisiana ... Maryland ...... Mississippi . . , , Missouri ...... North Carolina South Carolina Tennessee . . Texas . . Virginia. ... West Virginia . Total, 1905-1906 Total, 1899-1910 Total, 1889-1890 [ 76,000 54,564 3,800 13,0"6 34,446 119,705 41,116 46,201 24/67 118,096 22,580 83,390 1)4,493 72,791 94,6P5 62,621 6,251 986,728 981,r26 813,710

White
69.95 73.56 76.70 7.7.86 74.47 71.94 72.73 56.25 65.<8 86.89 7661 73.72 74.95 77.12 67.05 66.01 76.02 72.18 72.32 66.28

Colored
49.C7 67.50 69.' 9 77.86 58.69 51.72 71.10 28.22 60.02 63.45 68.40 63.41 55.71 60.70 59.29 46.54 74.03 55.27 57.67 51.65 Alabama . Arkansas ..... Delaware .... ..... District of Columbia . . Florida .... -Georgia ......... Kentucky . Louisiana . . Maryland . Mississippi . _ Missouri .... .North Carolina South Carolina . Tennessee . . Texas ... Virginia .... West Virginia .

Colored
86,093 69, 87 4,069 14, 06 37,814 119,504 36.659 59,125 22,897 132,732 21,931 88,117 124,135 66,798 9 V277 65,758 6,745 1,035,747 981/26 813,710

White
69.34 76.39 76.90 77.42 72.22 7 .46 B9.79 64.72 66.95 86.81 69.43 75.40 72.89 76.16 67.91 66.96 74.19 70.34 72.32 66.28

Colored
39.91 68.76 69.02 77.72 57.31 49.64 61.96 32.3 B7.6S 72.10 60.30 61.82 S4.92 56.72 55.82 46.45 76.33 54.36 57.67 51.65

. \

. .

Total, 1907-1908 .... Total, 1899-1900 . Total, 1889-1893 .

1906-1907

1908-1909

STATE

Average daily attendance

Per cent of persons 5 to 18 years enrolled

STATE

Average daily attendance

Per cent of persons 5 to 18 years enrolled

Colored
Alabama Arkansas ... Delaware District of Columbia Florida . . Georgia . . Kentucky . Louisiana Maryland . Mississippi North Carolina South Carolina Texas Virginia .... West Virginia . . Total, 1899-1900 Total, 1889-189:) - . " ' ..'.'. 86/93 65,083 3,8,iO 14,031 36,032 119,160 41,116 58,692 23,199 150,2 11 22,193 88,795 118,885 94,186 62,333 6,491 1,045,698 981,026 813,710

White
70.24 71.73 76.70 77.08 71.35 71.91 72.73 56.54 66.26 81.08 74.28 73.45 72.78 74.51 66.43 66.23 74.95 71.42 72.32 66.28

Colored
40.42 65.22 69.09 78.82 58.16 50.84 71.10 31.01 58.98 76.57 67.23 62.62 54.56 67.94 59.90 46.28 75.46 55.49 57.67 51.65 Alabama . .Arkansas . -Delaware . District of Columbia Florida . . Georgia . . ^Kentucky . -Louisiana . Maryland . ^Mississippi Missouri .... North Carolina South Carolina , Tennessee . Texas . . Virginia . West Virginia . Total, 1899-1910 Total, 1889-1890 . .... . . . . .

Colored 9\930
59,597 4/69 14,098 39,876 145,856 38,521 57,386 24,522 145,153 24,205 95,091) 123,481 83,536 95/85 72,667 7,789 1,116,811 981,026 813,710

White
76.27 73.04 76.90 77.75 85.93 77.47 74.94 61.07 68.78 91.78 78.61 82.48 76.14 78.28 68.00 69.51 85.25 74.76 72.32 66.28

Co 1ored
44.46 67.95 69.02 77.18 68.16 56.07 64.52 32.1)1 59.25 66-11 64.54 68.96 57.30 59.83 55.97 47.59 93.57 56.34 57.67 51.65

. .

Total, ws-mg.

28

The Negro Common School The official reports give the following figures:

General Conditions

29

SCHOLASTIC YEAR

Negroes 5 to 18 years of age

2,510,847 2,705,142

Enrolled
1,296,969 1,560,070 1 7121137

Per cent of Daily Per cent of Number pereor'-s 5 of to 18 years attendance enrollment Teachers enrolled
51.65 57.65 813,710 981,026 1,116,811 62.74 62.88 65.22 24,072 27,313 30 334

1889-90 . . . ... 1899-1900 ...... 1908-09 .......

We find that in 1908-9 only 36.75 per cent of the Negro school population was actually in school and the proportion of teachers to children enrolled is less than it was twenty years ago. From these official figures it seems clear: ' 1. That the official statistics especially in the earlier years were poorly kept and hence are of very questionable reliability. This is proven by the internal evidence of the figures. 2. That there has been in recent years no marked increase in the average daily attendance of Negro children in the pub lic schools. 3. That the percentage of Negro children of school age (5 to 18 years) enrolled in the public schools has decreased in the last twenty years. 4. That without doubt the proportion of Negro school children in average daily attendance in the public schools has greatly decreased in the last decade and in the last two de cades.
Section 5. General Conditions

white people or few Negroes, they are very apt under this double system to be left entirely without schools. There are districts in Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and in the hill counties of the gulf states where the segregated Negro population is left practically without schools. The poor whites in the black belt and in the mountains are sometimes similarly neglected. First, with respect to school funds: The total school fund in the South is small as compared with that of the North and the following table for 1908-9 will illustrate this:
Total revenue Income of From other (including permanent From state From local sources, school funds tax or ap tax or appro state and balances on hand and priation and rent of propria local proceeds of school lands tions bond sales)
$ 13,446,826 1,082,421 285,1 11 3,328,278 7,04",129 1,710,987 $63,547,354 18,551,670 9,390,959 12.167,929 15,150,358 8,286,438 $ 288,642,500 114,456,578 14,191,928 16,195,256 116,450,435 27,348,303 $38,010,609 16,357,897 2,216,761 2,040,496 14,688,214 2,707,241 $ 403,647,289 150,448,566 26,064,659 33,731,959 153,329,136 40,052,969

GEOGRAPHIC DIVISION

United States . . North Atlantic Division . South Atlantic Division . South Central Division . .
North Centrsl Division . . Western Division .....

But even this does not tell the full story because there is open and acknowledged discrimination in the distribution of the school funds between white and Negro schools. If we consider the total cost of Negro schools, we may select these typical figures:
Cost of schools Persons of school age (5-18), 1908-9

The first fact that the student must notice concerning the public school system of the South is that it is a dual system and so necessitates a double set of schools. Such an arrange ment is costly and involves various peculiar difficulties. If the black and white population were evenly distributed or perfectly segregated, the double system school could bring no particular race discrimination or waste. This, however, very seldom occurs, and usually if there are in districts few

South Carolina, 1909 . $1,590,732.51 White. Negro. . 308,153.16 Alabama, 1909 $2,143,662.15 White . 287,045.43 Negro . North Carolina, 1908 White . . . $1,851,376.57 Negro. . . . . . 866,734.28

201,868 316,007 364,266 311,552 437,376 232,624

If the Negro schools of South Carolina had been equal to the white schools they would have cost $2,985,000 instead of $300,000. If the Negro schools of Alabama had been equal to the white schools they would have cost $1,833,000 instead of

30

The Negro Common School

General Conditions

31

$287,000. In North Carolina, if the Negro schools had been equal to the white schools they would have cost $984,000 instead of $367,000. There seems to be similar discrimination in Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Ar kansas. The discrimination is very nearly as large in Mary land, Kentucky and Tennessee. It is somewhat less in Texas and Missouri. The same conditions may be gotten at by considering the per capita cost of educating children. In South Carolina in 1899 the yearly cost per capita for educating white children was $4.98 and for colored children, $1.42. In 1909 South Carolina spent $10.34 on each white child and $1.70 on each Negro child. Further evidence of similar discrimination is found if we take the state county by county. In Charleston, for instance, the white children received $35.70 per head and the Negro children $2.55 a head. In Richland county the whites received $25.15 per head, while the Negroes got $3.21. There were six counties where the per capita expenditure for Negroes was less than one dollar a head. In 126 counties of Georgia the average monthly cost of tuition for white children was $1.16; for colored children, $0.66; in 19 counties, white, $2.05; colored, $0.66; in the other 56 counties of the state, white, $1.70; Negroes, $0.78. In Mississippi the per capita yearly expenditure for edu cating each white child was in 1909 $13.37; for each Negro child, $4.21. In the number and cost of schools there are great differ ences between the races: In South Carolina for 180,882 white children there were 2,712 schools; for 283,865 colored children there were 2,354 schools. The white schools ran 25 weeks; the colored schools, 15 weeks. White school houses built during the year 1909 cost $255,180.85; the colored school houses built in that year cost $7,061.80. For building and repairing the white schools and buying fuel, $1,590,752.51; colored schools, $308,153.16. In North Carolina the white school property was worth $4,282,255; Negro school property was worth $635,057. The

white rural schools each served a district of 9 square miles; the colored rural schools each served a district of 22 square miles: Georgia has almost equal numbers of white and colored school children. In 1909 the whites had 4,560 schools and the Negroes 2,803. In those schools there were 7,384 white teachers and 3,512 colored teachers. The various boards of education had furnished 3,116 school houses for the white schools and 400 for the colored schools. In Alabama, 1909, 381,460 white children had 4,360 schools; 305,938 colored children had 1,880 schools. Of these schools 1,190 of the white schools were graded and 257 of the colored schools were graded. The white schools had 6,147 teachers; the colored schools had 2,126 teachers. The average length of white schools was 128 days; of colored schools 98 days. Three thousand nine hundred and ninety-five (3,995) of the white schools continued five months or more; 1,065 of the colored schools continued five months or more. The public school houses of the whites were worth $4,217,045; of the Negroes, $374,835. The furniture of the white'schools was estimated to be worth $459,142; that of the colored schools $74,095. In Mississippi, 1909, there were reported 301,548 white children of school age and 410,089 colored children of school age. The white children had 4,238 schools and the colored children had 2,987 schools. During the year, 202 white school houses were built and 75 Negro school houses. One hundred and nine thousand, eight hundred and eighty-five (109,885) white children attended school on an average and 132,672 colored children. There were 5,089 white teachers employed and 3,236 Negro teachers. The wages offered white and colored teachers differed greatly: In South Carolina, the average salary of white men was $479.79, white women, $249.13. The total salary paid white men was $419,390.36; the total salary paid white women, $799,679.54. The average annual salary paid colored men was

32

The Negro Common School

Delaware

33

$118.17; colored women, $91.45. The total salary paid colored men was $100,948.26; the total salary paid colored women, $172,566.69. In North Carolina, 1908, the average annual amount paid each white teacher was $176.73; each colored teacher, $113.12. The average salary of teachers in 126 counties of Georgia: first grade, white, $45.47; Negroes, $26.37; second grade, white, $35.39; colored, $21.53; third grade, white, $28.31; colored, $17.33. In Alabama the average monthly salaries of teachers were: white men, $60.63; colored men, $27.18; white women, $45.65; colored women, $24. In Mississippi the average monthly salary for white teach ers was $41.49; colored teachers, $20.58. To this general discrimination there are local exceptions, especially like Washington, D. C., and to a less extent Balti more, Md., St. Louis, Mo., and the states of West Virginia and Texas. In the schools of the District of Columbia there is no discrimination in the pay of teachers or in the require ments for teachers or in the course of study laid down. In the expenditures for the white and colored schools the colored schools have often gotten poorer buildings but even here the discrimination is not glaring. The colored people of the Dis trict have representatives on the board of education and one assistant superintendent is a colored man, who has charge of the colored schools under the superintendent. In West Virginia, which is rather a western than a south ern state, the colored schools have been on the whole well treated, the only difference arising in parts where there are comparatively few colored children. Cities like Baltimore and St. Louis discriminated consid erably in the past against colored schools but have lately made amends. In St. Louis, for instance, a new colored high school costing $100,000 has recently been erected but only after a long fight made by the colored people. Baltimore is now ask ing for a new colored high school.

Texas, which has a large school fund from the vast endow ment of public land, is treating the colored schools with considerable fairness. There is no discrimination in the per capita amount of money appropriated to the white and colored children but there is considerable discrimination in the amount paid the teachers and in matter of school houses and supplies.
Section 6. Delaware

The early attempts at the education of the colored youth of Delaware were made by the Negroes themselves and it was not until 1875 that schools for Negroes had any recognition by the state. By personal taxes, tuition fees and voluntary con tributions these people were able to keep up the work of edu cation until the general assembly of the state assumed the responsibility in 1881. Since that date the work of educating Negroes has been a matter of public concern. The following table of school statistics for the state of Delaware is compiled from the annual reports of the United States Bureau of Education:
DELAWARE
School population. EnroU-ment Per cent colored
8.900 8,888 8,888 9,133 8,888 8,888 8,888 8,888 9,510 9,642

YEAR

Per cent of Daily attendance enrollment attending

2,947

1899-1900 1900-1901 . 1901-1902 1902-191)3 1903-1904 1904-1905 1905-1906 . 1906-1907 1907-1908 . 1908-1909

4,858 6.141
6,141 6,141 6,141 6,141 6,141 6,141 6,564 6,564

54.58 69.09 69.09 67.24 69.09 69.09 69.09 69.09 69.02 69.02

3,800 3,800 3,800

3,800 3,800 3,800 3,800 4,069 4,069

60.66 61.88 61.88 61.88 61.88 61.88 61.88 61.88 61.99 61.99

In 1900, thirty-three (33.84) per cent of the colored chil dren of Delaware were in regular attendance at the public schools whose average length was 141 days in the year. In 1909 the attendance had advanced to forty-two (42.2) per cent. It is reported that there is a decided improvement in the school facilities over what they were ten years ago, espe cially in Wilmington. Outside of Wilmington Negro public school education is reported to be considerably behind.

34

The Negro Common School

Maryland

35

The following summary of-school statistics is compiled from the report of the state board of education of Delaware for the year 1910:
New Castle County: Average salary of Negro teachers . Average number of days ...... Average attendance of students . Kent County:
Number of Negro students ..... Number of Negro teachers ......
1,272 29

i 31.20 142.31 70.7%

Number of Negro students . . ...... Number of Negro teachers ... . . Average salary of Negro teachers Average number of days ..... Average attendance of students . Sussex County: Number of Negro teachers ... Number of Negro students .... Average salary of Negro teachers Average number of days . . . Average attendance of students .......

1,864 38 ; 31.36 141.1 62.17% 39 1,920 > 33.69 145.45 52.07%

The revised law of 1872 directed that schools for Negroes be established in each county. It is said, however, that many of these schools, even where established, were not well pro vided for, so that the law was imperfectly carried out. The state board of education is composed of six members appointed by the governor. The schools in each county are controlled by a board of county commissioners. The county boards in turn appoint district school trustees. The school laws of Maryland contain the following clauses:
Section 42. In every school house district in each county, established as hereinbefore provided, there shall be kept for ten months in each year, if possible, one or more schools, according to population, which shall be free to all white youths over 6 and under 21 years of age. 1872, Ch. 377. Section 124. It shall be the duty of the board of county school com missioners to establish one or more public schools in each election district for all colored youths, between 6 and 20 years of age, to which admission shall be free, and which shall be kept open as long as the board of county school commissioners shall determine; provided, the colored population of such district shall warrant said board in establishing said schools. 1904, Ch. 584.

According to the census reports of the last four decades Negro illiteracy for Delaware has been as follows:
PEE CENT OF ILLITERACY 1870 Delaware .
71.3

The following table of school statistics for the state of Maryland is compiled from the annual reports of the United States Bureau of Education:
MARYLAND School population, Enrollment colored
77,29.1 70,121 7(',120 71,686 72,508 73,355 74,161 75,420 75,925 74,818 46,852 48,257 48,257 48,257 29,940 44,355 44,614 44,475 43,802 44,330

1SSO
57.5

1890
49.5

1900
38.3
YEAR

Per cent enrolled

60.61 68.82 68.82 67.82 41.30 60.47 60.02 58.98 67.69 59.25

Per cent oj Daily attendance enrolltf ift attending

22,989 22,712 22,712 22,712 14,420 21,886 24,067 23,199 22,897 24,622

Section 7.

Maryland

The report of the United States Commissioner of Education for the year 1870 says: Nothing was done during this year by the state [Maryland] for the education of colored children, but the colored people, aided by benevolent associations, par ticularly the "Baltimore Association," established schools of their own. The schools under the Baltimore Association made remarkable progress, having always trained teachers, who were subject to rigid examination before receiving their ap pointment. The revised law of 1870 required "that all the taxes paid for school purposes by the colored people of any county shall be used for maintaining schools for colored children.''

1899-1900 . . 19 0-1931 . . 1901-1902 1902-19 3 ... 1903-1904 19 4-1905 . 19^6-19, . . 1906-1907 . . 1907-1908 . . 1908-1989 . .

49.07
47.06 47.06 47/06 49.34 54.50 52.16 52.27 55.32

48:ie

In 1900, twenty-nine (29.74) per cent of the Negro children of Maryland were in regular attendance at the public schools whose average length was less than 188 days. In 1909 the attendance had advanced to thirty-three (33.77) per cent. The following summary of the school statistics is compiled from the report of the Department of Public Education, state of Maryland, for the year 1910:

36

The Negro Common School

MARYLAND 1909-1910

District of Columbia

37

Section 8.

District of Columbia

Expenditures Whites . . . Negroes. Total Number of Schools Whites. . Negroes . Total . Number of Teachers Whites. . Negroes . Total

Average Salary, all Teachers White and Colored . $ 51.93 ___ $4,060,341.29 1,952 522, 2,474 4,691 823 5,514 Length of Term Whites. Negroes
City of Baltimore Counties 10 Mos. 9.4 Mos.

6.9 Mos.

10 Mos.

Enrollment Whites. Negroes . Total Per Cent of Attendance Whites. . Negroes .

154,263 35,651 189,914 89 84

I
I

The following statistics for the Negro schools of Baltimore are compiled from the Eighty-second Annual Report of the Board of School Commissioners of Baltimore:
Negro Schools of Baltimore, Md., 1910

Total number of schools .

Teachers High school .... Training school. . Ward schools . .
24 2 175 201 508 88
8.078 8,674

. 15
Per Cent of Attendance
High school . Training school .

Public education in the District of Columbia is in the hands of a board of education, which appoints one superintendent of all schools with two assistants, one of whom is in charge of the Negro schools. Schools for Negro children in the District of Columbia were instituted under authority of an act of Con gress of 21 May, 1862, and amended in July of the same year; also acts of 25 July, 1864, and 23 J.uly, 1866, which provided for a board of trustees for the colored schools and directed that the pro rata of school monies should be apportioned to the Negro schools according to population. ' 'It was not until the year 1867 that these trustees obtained sufficient funds to undertake the establishment of any considerable number of schools. Previously to that time, for about three years, from 60 to 80 colored schools had been maintained at a large expense by various benevolent associations in the northern states."1 The following table of school statistics for the District of Columbia is compiled from'the annual reports of the United States Bureau of Education:
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA School population, Enrollment colored
25,110 20,041 20,428 20,660 21,030 21,370 21,370 22,054 22,362 22,935 15,258 15,580 15,914 15,758 16,017 16,630 16,630 16,791 17,379 17,703

YEAR

Ward schools . .
All schools . . ....

82
84

Per cent enrolled 60.76

77.74 77.90 76.27 76.16 77.85 77.86 76.13 77.72 77.18

Per cent of Daily attendance enrollment attending 11,611

11,883 12,206 12,120 12,565 13,005 13,005 13,039 14,006 14,098

Total . .

Average Enrollment High school ........

Training school ...... . . Ward schools

Night School
32 Number of teachers. 778 Average enrollment. 545 Average attendance . 70 Per cent of attendance . . Total cost Negro high schools ... $ 37,105.14 Per capita cost of Negro high and training school . 56.20

Total
Average Attendance
High school ... Training school . Ward schools . Total . :

1899-1900 1900-1901 1901-1902 . . . . . 1902-1903 1903-1904 1904-1905 . . . . . 19:::5-1906 1906-1907 . . . . . 1907-1908 1908-1909

76.09
76.27 76.70 76.91 78.45 78.20 78.20 77.65 80.59 79.63

6,696 7,271

According to the census reports of the last four decades Negro illiteracy for Maryland has been as follows:
PER CENT OF ILLITERACY 1870
Maryland . . . 69.5

1880
59.6

1890
50.1

1900
35.1

In 1900 forty-three (42.84) per cent of the colored children of the District of Columbia were in regular attendance at the public schools. In 1909 this attendance had advanced to sixtyone (61.46) per cent. The following summary of school sta tistics is compiled from the report of the Board of Education of the District of Columbia for 1907-8:
'Report of United States Commissioner of Education, 1870, p. 313.

38
Negro Enrollment Male. . . Female.

The Negro Common School

Virginia 770 1,048 1,818

39

7,712 9,667 17,379 14,006 108 415 .523

Night School Enrollment Male. . Female....... Total ....... Night School Teachers Male. Female. . Total. . 47 19 66 .

Total. ...... Average attendance Teachers Male. . Female. Total.

According to the census reports of the last four decades Negro illiteracy for the District of Columbia has been as fol lows:
PER CENT OF ILLITERACY

1870

1880
48.4

1890
35.0

1900
24.3

21 28 49

District of Columbia . .

70.5

Negro School Buildings Owned. ........ Rented. ...... Total

Section 9.

Virginia

The Conference has also been able to gather the following statistics for the District of Columbia:
APPROPRIATIONS FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND GROUNDSDISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
FISCAL YEAR

White
$ 221,800 243,080 173,000 180,3 !0 17P,( 00 150, ii 0 331,158 410,000 469,000 772,000 $3,120,258

Colored
$ 156,000 155,000 61,944 9,713 40,800 55,200 125,0:!0 122.0PO 35,000 $ 760,657

Colored per cent

41 39 26 5 21 14 23 21 4 20

1901 19-2 . . 1903 . 1904. . . 1905 . . 1906 . . 1907 . . 1908. . . 1939. 1910 ... Totals.

. .

WHOLE NUMBER OF PUPILS ENROLLED IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA DURING THE SCHOOL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1909
DAY SCHOOLS

The public schools of Virginia are under the control of the following: a state board of education, a superintendent of public instruction, division superintendents of schools and county and district school boards. The state board of educa tion consists.of the following: the governor, the attorneygeneral, the superintendent of public instruction and three experienced educators. These are chosen quadrennially. The division superintendent, together with the school trus tees of each county, including those in separate town districts, constitute a corporate, authoritative body, subject to higher authority. The public schools of the state of Virginia are supported by permanent fund, taxes, gifts and bequests of the state. The state has a compulsory school law. The following table of school statistics for the state of Vir ginia is compiled from the annual reports of the United States Bureau of Education:
VIRGINIA
YEAR

White
180 3,063 884 30,869 1,720 173 36,889 1,896 38,785

Colored
119 718 660 15,120 985 101 17,703 1,896 19,599

Total
299 3,781 1,544 45,989 2,705 274 54,592 3,792 58,384

Per cent colored

40 19 43 33 36 37 32 50 34

School population, Enrollment colored

. . . . . 260,320 225,600 227,940 232,144 232,144 236,503 236,503 241,272 243,472 246,797 117,129 117,129 123,339 118,463 118,463 110,059 110,059 111,677 113,102 117,471

Per cent enrolled

44.99 51.92 54.11 51.03 51.03 46.54 46.54 46.28 46.45 47.59

Per cent of Daily attendance enrollment attending

61,754 61,754 69,440 67,694 67,694 62,621 62,621 62,333 65,758 72,667 52.72 52.72 56.30 "57.14 57.14 56.89 56.89 55.81 58.14 61.86

Normal schools . High schools "_ Manual training. . Grammar and primary Kindergartens ... Ungraded schools . Totals ... Night schools . Aggregate

1899-1900 1900-1901 1901-1902 1902-1903 1903-1904 1904-1905 1905-1906 1906-1907 1907-1908 1988-1909

. . . . . . .

40

The Negro Common School

Virginia

41

ALBEMARLE COUNTY: Here the facilities are much improved. The colored people have been running an industrial school as well as supplementing the school term. In general the condition is poor but better than it has been. ELIZABETH CITY COUNTY: There are 17 colored schools, which have six months term in some districts and seven in others. The white schools have eight and nine months. The colored schools have only six grades while the whites have a full high school course, ten grades, to which all white children have access. There are 17 colored teachers and 49 white, the colored receiving $17 and the whites $45 per month. Sixty-seven thousand seven hundred and thirty dollars are spent annually, $4,348.90 going to the colored schools and $63,381.09 to the white. One thousand three hundred and eighty-five colored and 1,775 white chil dren attend school regularly. The school facilities for the colored are almost as poor as they possibly could be, but the reverse is true of the white. All the colored children attend the county school while all the whites except 470 attend schools in the towns, brot in by conveyances furnished by the town. For years the Negroes have supplemented the school funds in several of the schools. There is no private school now tho for eight or ten years there was a large denominational school. In general the condition of. Negro public school education is at the lowest possible ebb. No special part of the special school tax goes to the colored schools. HENRICO COUNTY: Nothing is wanted for the whites but the school facilities for the colored children are in need of attention. In general the Negro public school education is sadly deficient. PRINCE GEOKGE COUNTY: The colored schools have a term of three months and the whites a term of five months; 1,608 Negro children and 1,700 whites attended school regularly; 25 Negro teachers and 36 white for three Negro schools and five white; seven grades in each. Appropriation for whites annually $20,000, for the colored $10,000. Yet there is a marked improvement over ten years ago. Not much of the $1.00 per capita tax goes to the colored schools. In general Negro public school education here is above the average, and the teachers are well fitted for the work.

The following summary of statistics is compiled from the biennial report of the superintendent of public instruction of the commonwealth of Virginia for 1907-08 and 1908-09:
Expenditures Whites . Negroes Total Number of Schools Whites Negroes . . Total Number of Teachers Whites ........ Negroes ........ Total ....... Length of Term in Days Whites . . . Negroes . . . . . .
Enrollment
1906-7 1907-8 1908-9

$3,308,086.14 $3,648,615.00 $4,431,370.45 7,098 2,284 9,382 7,248 2,220 9,468 133.2 124.0 257,654 111,677 369,331 158,891 63,676 222,567 7,263 2,285 9,548 7,410 2,242 9,652 132.5 121.0 263,598 113,147 376,745 168,555 65,758 234,313 $ 43.45 29.37 7,570 2,340 9,940 7,754 2,339 10,093 133.3 122.6 276,836 177,577 394,413 185,057 72,667 257,724 $ 47.18 28.82

Whites . Negroes. . Total ....... Average Attendance Whites . Negroes Total .

Average Salary of Teachers . $ 41.75 Whites . 27.78 Negroes .......

In 1900 twenty-five per cent of the Negro children of Vir ginia were in regular attendance upon the public schools whose annual length was less than 119 days. In 1909 the at tendance had advanced to twenty-nine (29.44) per cent but the term length had increased only to 122 days.

According to the census reports of the last four decades Negro illiteracy for Virginia has been as follows:
PER CENT OF ILLITERACY 1870 Virginia 89.9 1880 73.2 1890 67.2 1900 44.6

42
Section 10.

The Negro Common School West Virginia

West Virginia

43

The schools of West Virginia are controlled by a state board of education, composed of the state superintendent and five commissioners chosen one each from the five districts of the state. The state legislature provides for county superin tendents and such other officers as are necessary to carry out the aims and purposes of free education. It is the duty of the board of education to establish one free school and more if necessary in any district for colored children where there are ten or more children and if possible where there are fewer children. School monies are divided between schools for white and colored children according to numbers of white and colored children enumerated. The state has a well administered compulsory school law. The following table of school statistics for the state of West Virginia is compiled from the annual reports of the United States Bureau of Education:
WEST VIRGINIA School population, Enrollment colored
12,760 11,240 11,487 11,951 12,155 12,385 12,385 12,743 13,057 12,288 8,110 8,110 7,886 8,998 8,456 9,168 9,168 9,605 9,836 11,130

Much improvement has been made in the white schools and some in the colored, but not nearly so much as in the white.

KANAWHA COUNTY:
Three hundred and twenty-two white and 23 colored schools. The , whites have a term of six months. Both the white and colored schools have eight grades. The colored teachers receive from $40 to $60 in the rural districts and $32 to $75 in the city. The whites receive from $40 to $150. Last year $123,221 was appropriated for teachers' fund; $16,979 for colored teachers and $66,744 for building fund for the entire county. The facilities have improved a great deal as to buildings, salaries, length of term, quality of teachers and equipments. Yet Negro public school edu cation here is not on a par with that of the whites. In general the condition of Negro public school education in West Virginia is very good, equal to or better than that of any state in the union.

YEAR

Per cent enrolled

63.55 72.15 68.65 75.29 69.57 74.03 74.03 75.46 75.33 90.57

Per cent of Daily attendance enrollment attending

5,480 5,480 5,200 5,924 5,686 6,251 6,251 6,491 6,745 7,789 67.57 67.57 65.94 65.84 67.24 ^8.18 68.18 67.58 68.57 69.98

1899-1910 190<-19)1 19 11-1902 19 2-19 3 1903-19 4 1904-1905 19 15-19 6 1906-19'J7 19D7-J908 1908-1909

In 1900 forty-nine (48.81) per cent of the Negro children of West Virginia were in regular attendance upon the public schools whose average annual length was 111 days. In 1909 the attendance had advanced to sixty-three (63.38) per cent. In 1910 the average annual length was 6.7 months. The following summary of statistics is compiled from the biennial report of the state superintendent of free schools of West Virginia for the two years ending June 30, 1910:
Expenditures Whites . Negroes . Total . . Number of Schools Whites . Negroes . Total . Number Teachers Whites . Negroes . . 1909 ..... .... wio . . .

. $4,341,972.00 $4,542,611.67 6,726 261 6,987 . 8,186 313 8,499 305.17 359.68 . 6.78 months 7,010 303 7,313 8,417 365 8,782 309.75 331.90 6.70 months

FAYETTE COUNTY:
There are 67 colored and 306 white schools in this county. The aver age term for both is six months. The students are taken as far as the eighth grade. There are 67 colored teachers and 306 white teachers. Almost all of the teachers, both white and colored, are educated in the state normal schools of West Virginia. All teachers, colored and white, receive salaries from $30 to $60 according to the grade of the certificate. A No. 3 certificate, $30; No. 2, $45; No. 1, $60. We have two funds in the county, the building fund and a teachers' fund. For the year 1910 there were $90,850.29 spent. The teachers' salaries, including white and colored, for the year 1910 amounted to $129,447.52. There are 1,870 colored and 9,740 white children in regular attend ance for the year 1910.

Total ...... Average Annual Salary of Teachers Whites. . ... Negroes .. ... Term Length All schools. .

44
Enrollment Whites . Negroes . Total

The Negro Common School

North Carolina

45

ALAMANCE COUNTY:
264,823 11,035 275,858 185,564 7,789 265,049 11,309 276,358 181,877 7,596

Average Attendance Whites . . . . Negroes . . . .

According to the census reports of the last four decades Negro illiteracy for West Virginia has been as follows:
PER CENT OF ILLITERACY 1870 West Virginia .
74.4

1880 55.0

1890

1900

44.5

32.3

Thirty-four colored schools, 90 white. The term of the colored schools ranges from 100 to 170 days and of the white from 150 to 170 days. There are 39 colored and 118 white teachers. The colored teachers receive $20 to $28, and the whites $25 to $35. Total amount spent annually on colored schools, $6,000, and on the white, $27,000. One thousand and nine hundred colored.and 4,950 white children attend school regularly. The school facilities for the whites are much improved over what they were ten years ago, but those of the colored are poorer, tho the taxes of the colored are increased from 150 to 300 per cent. There are large and commodious buildings for the white graded schools while the colored are conducted in old dilapidated structures, the only equip ments being what has been used by the white schools. The colored schools get from ten to fifteen per cent of the special school tax. The colored people do very little toward supporting schools aside from public taxes.

CALDWELL COUNTY:

Section 11.

North Carolina

The schools of North Carolina are under the control of a state board, consisting of the governor, the lieutenant gov ernor, the secretary of state, the treasurer, the auditor, the attorney general and the superintendent of public instruction, hence fully elected by the people. County boards and county superintendents manage affairs in the individual counties. The compulsory school law is left to the discretion of the county boards who act in accordance with the votes of the people. The following table of school statistics for the state of North Carolina is compiled from the annual reports of the United States Bureau of Education:
NORTH CAROLINA School population, Enrollment Per cent enrolled colored 260,970 221,120 225,900 228,526 231,507 234,693 234,693 238,373 244,473 232,624 130,005 141,180 149,798 149,798 154,884 148,821 148,821 152,4r O 151,141 160,427
51.8C 63.85 66.31 65.26 66.90 63.41 63.41 63.51 61.82 68.96

Twelve colored and 74 white schools, each having a term of 81 days, seven grades in each. There are 15 colored and 87 white teachers. The amounts appropriated for 1910-11 were: for the colored, $1,180, and for the white, $16,566. In general the condition of Negro education is much better than formerly, but there is room for improvement. The houses are comfortable, teachers fairly good.

CRAVEN COUNTY:

The colored teachers get from $15 to $30 and the whites from $25 to $75. The colored schools receive annually about $3,000 and the whites $10,000. In the country the school facilities are not even as good as they were ten years ago, but 300 per cent better for the whites. In the city they are about twenty-five per cent better. The colored schools receive about twenty per cent of the school tax. The colored people both sup.port schools of their own and supplement the public school terms. The gen eral condition of Negro public school education is very common indeed.

EDGECOMBE COUNTY:

YEAR

Per cent of Daily attendance enrollment attending 64,505 80,747 83, 4' 5 83,405 102,151 83,390 83,390 87,529 88,117 95,090
49.61 57.19 55.68 55.68 65.95 56.04 56.04 57.43 58.30 59.27

1899-1900 . . . 1900-19:11 . . 1901-19 2 1902-1903 . . . 1903-1904 , . 1904-1905 . . . 1905-1906 . . 19r6-1907 . . . 1907-19^18 1908-1909 . . .

There are 39 rural white and 35 rural colored schools, the terms being 154 and 103 days respectively. There are 64 white and 42 colored teach ers. Colored teachers having first grade certificates, 7; second grade, 28; normal training, 16; those having four years' experience, 35; those having college diplomas, 7. The colored teachers receive $129.50 for the whole school term and the whites $328.35.

HALIFAX COUNTY:
Thirty-nine colored and 50 white schools. White school population, 4,107; colored, 7,859. Colored school term, 108 days; white school term, 144 days. First grade teachers, 26; second grade, 30; those having nor mal training, 43; those having four years' experience, 49; those having college diplomas, 5. The white teachers receive $236.62 for term of 144

46

The Negro Common School

North Carolina

47

days and the colored $134.17 for term of 108 days. The total amount spent annually on colored schools is $8,820.96 and on the white $20,822.54. The average attendance of colored pupils is 2,402 and that of the whites 1,779. The enrollment of colored is 4,438 and of the white 2,697. The school facilities, buildings and equipments are very much better than they were ten years ago. In some places the colored people supple ment the schools. In general the condition is very good considering the facilities, but they ought to have closer and more helpful supervision. The colored people themselves are not using all of their opportunities'. They simply pay their school tax and seem to think they have done enough and show no interest whatever in repairs, etc.

GRAHAM COUNTY:
The intensity of the fight against Negro education seems to have been broken by the division of the dominant political party on county and state financial conditions. Yet the colored people cannot take full advan tage of these conditions since they are affected with so many moral cow ards posing as leaders. The average text book is poor, but the so-called school histories are "positive insults" to the colored teachers and pupils. GUILFOKD COUNTY: Here the colored teachers are paid about $25 a month and the whites $40. HERTFORD COUNTY: Thirty-three colored, 32 white. The colored teachers receive $25 andthe whites $30 per month. The total amount spent on colored schools is $3,076 and on the white $5,146. There are 3,235 colored and 2,165 white children of school age, with 1,311 colored and 754 whites attending school regularly. There is scarcely any improvement in the facilities of the Negro schools, but the white schools are about 100 per cent better than they were ten years ago. There are two separate town school systems for the whites. Special school tax has been levied in two districts, but for the whites only. The colored people give from $1,000 to $3,000 a year to help a normal school and they have one public school about four months in the year. In general the condition is poor with very inefficient teach ers and short terms; the best trained young men and women refuse to teach for the salary offered.

and the colored 90 days. There are 84 white and 41 colored teachers. Colored teachers having first grade certificates, 9; second grade certifi cates, 30; third grade certificates, 2; those having four years' experience, 32; college graduates, 5. The colored teachers receive $121.82 for 90 days and the whites $247.86 for 105 days. The white schools receive annually $27,264.71, while the colored receive only $5,846.66. There is an average attendance of 1,332 colored and 2,544 white children. The school facilities here are much improved over what they were ten years ago, but they are not yet adequate nor in any way equal to the whites. In some places the colored people pay a special school tax but they derive no benefit from it. In some places they supplement the school terms but only for a few weeks. In general the condition is very good considering the bad facilities most of the schools have. In some cases repairs have been made and the money paid for them was the regular appropriation for the teachers' salaries. Teachers put up with poor school houses because generally improvements mean a short school term.

WAYNE COUNTY:
There are 41 colored and 69 white schools. Except in four cases the length of the term in the colored country schools was four months. These four were given six months. In the town they had from eight to nine months. The county schools of the whites had from four to six months. In the town schools the grades run from the first to the eighth. The elementary white schools have seven grades, and there are four high schools. There are 85 white and 40 colored teachers. The colored teach ers receive from $20 to $25 per month and the whites from $25 up. One white teacher gets $100 per month. Twelve thousand six hundred and thirty-five dollars are appropriated annually for the white and $3,845.13 for the colored schools. Two thousand one hundred and eighty white and 1,308 colored children attend school regularly. There is a decided improvement in the facilities for both white and colored schools. Of the special school tax laid last year, the Goldsboro colored graded schools received for all purposes $3,796.40 and the white, $16,563.30. In general the condition of Negro public school education here is fair.

MECKLENBURG COUNTY:
The term for the colored school is four months and for the white six. The colored schools have only one grade and the white two. Colored teachers receive $20 and white $40 per month. In some instances the school facilities are slightly better than they were ten years ago, but on the whole they are very poor.

NASH COUNTY:
There are 54 white and 41 colored schools for school populations of 4,522 and 3,096 respectively. The whites have a school term of 105 days

In 1900 twenty-nine (28.61) per cent of the Negro children of North Carolina were in regular attendance in the public schools. In 1909 forty-one (40.83) per cent of the Negro children of North Carolina were in regular attendance in the public schools. In 1900 the average school term was 68.3 days a year but in 1910 the term had increased to 93.7 days a year.

48

The Negro Common School

I
1909-10

North Carolina

49

The following table of statistics is compiled from the biennial report of the superintendent of public instruction of North Carolina for the scholastic years 1908-09 and 1909-10:
1908-09

Superintendent J. Y. Joyner, in his biennial report oi! the public schools of North Carolina for 1908-09 and 1909-10 speaks as follows of the education of the Negro:
As the conditions have not changed since my last report and as I have seen no reason to change my views upon the subject of the educa tion of the Negro, I shall repeat here the views expressed in my preced ing biennial report, changing only the figures used in that report so as to conform to the correct figures of this biennial period. It would be easier and more pleasant for me to close this report without undertaking to discuss this most perplexing problem of the edu cation of the Negro, about which there are so many conflicting and di vergent views among my people. This is a part, however of the educa tional problem of the state and, in some respects, the most difficult part. It is, therefore, my duty to study it and to give to you and thru you to the general assembly and to the people my honest views about it. He is a coward that basely runs away from a manifest duty. In considering this question of Negro education it is necessary to lay aside so far as possible, prejudice on the one hand and maudlm senti mentality on the other. There has been too much of both * or an ex pression of my general views upon this question I beg to refer you to my report for 1900-1902, pages 6 to 12. I have seen no reason to change or materially to modify these general views. In iustice to the Negro and for the information of some of our peo ple who have been misled into thinking that too large a part of the taxes that the white people pay is spent for the education of the Negro, ,t may be well in the outset to give a brief statement of the facts m regard to the apportionment of the school fund. As is well known, under section 4116 of the School Law, the apportionment of the school fund in each county is practically placed absolutely under the control of the county board of education, the only restriction laid upon the board therein being that the funds shall be apportioned among the schools of each township in such a way as to give equal length of term as nearly as possible, having due regard to the grade of work to be done, the qualifications of the teachers, etc. The Constitution directs that in the distribution of the fund no discrimination shall be made in favor of either race. This report shows that in 1910 the Negroes of city and rural districts received for teachers' salaries and building school houses $373,390.55 for 238,0911 chil dren of school age. The whites received for the same purpose for 497,077 children of school age $1,924,704.40. The Negroes, therefore, constitute about thirty-two per cent of the school population and receive in the apportionment for the same purposes less than seventeen per cent ot the
^Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of North Carolina for 1908-9 and 1909-10, p. 54 et seg.

Total expenditures. . . $3,069,260.36 $3,178,950.50 Number of Schools 5,325 5,362 Whites. ........... 2,284 Negroes . 2,308 ............ Total ............ Number of Teachers Whites. . . . Negroes . Total .......... Salaries of Teachers Whites . . Negroes . . .... Length of Term in Days Whites ...... Negroes ....... Total School Population Whites . . . Negroes ....... Total Enrollment Whites . Negroes . Total . Average Attendance Whites . Negroes . ...... ..........
7,670

7,609 8,369 2,793 11,162 37.02 25.26 104.6 93.7 497,077 238,091 735,168 360,121 160,283 520,404 235,872 95,463 331,335 72.4 67.3

8,129 2,828 10,957 34.80 24.70 105.0 91.9 490,710 236,855 727,565 360,775 160,427 521,202 240,879 95,090

Total . . . 335,969 Per Cent of Total School Population Enrolled Whites . ... 73.3 Negroes . 67.7

According to the census reports of the last four decades Negro illiteracy for North Carolina has been as follows:
PER CENT OF ILLITERACY
1870 1880 77.4

1890
60.1

1900 47.6

North Carolina .

84.8

50

The Negro Common School

South Carolina

51

school money. This report shows that the Negroes paid for schools in taxes on their own property and polls about $163,417.89, or nearly one-half of all that they received for school purposes. Add to this their just share of fines, forfeitures and penalties and their share of the large school tax paid by corporations to which they are entitled under the Constitution by every dictate of reason and justice, and it will be appar ent that the part of the taxes actually paid by individual white men for the education of the Negro is so small that the man that would begrudge it or complain about it ought to be ashamed of himself. In the face of these facts, any unprejudiced man must see that we are in no danger of giving the Negroes more than they are entitled to by every dictate of justice, right, wisdom, humanity and Christianity. .... The Negro is here among us thru no fault of his own, and is likely to remain here. There are but two roads open to him. One is elevation thru the right sort of education; the other is deterioration and degradation thru ignorance and miseducation, inevitably leading to expulsion or extermination. We must help him into the first if we can. If we do not our race will pay the heaviest penalty for the failure. .... There is another phase of this problem of Negro educa tion worthy of the serious consideration of our people. It is manifest to me that if the Negroes become convinced that they are to be deprived of their schools and of the opportunities of an education, most of the wisest and most self-respecting Negroes will leave the state, and eventually there will be left here only the indolent, worthless and criminal part of the Negro population. Already there has been considerable emigration of the Negroes from the state. There is no surer way to drive the best of them from the state than by keeping up this continual agitation about withdrawing from them the meager educational opportunities that they now have. Their emigration in large numbers would result in a compli cation of the labor problem. Some of our southern farms would be compelled to lie untenanted and untilled. The experience of one district in Wilson county illustrates this. The county board of education found it, for various reasons, impossible to purchase a site for a Negro school house. Before the year was out the board received several offers from farmers m the district to donate a site. Upon inquiry by the chairman of the board as to the reason of these generous offers, he was told that when it was learned that no site for the school house could be secured and that the Negroes were to have no school in that district, at least one-third of the best Negro tenants and laborers there moved into other districts where they could have the advantages of a school. This is a practical S1de of this question that our people would do well to consider What happened in this district will happen in the entire state if we give the best Negroes reasonable grounds to believe that their public school privileges are to be decreased or withdrawn.

Section 12.

South Carolina

The Constitution of 1868 established the state school sys tem, providing for free schools regardless of race or color. For the next few years there was but slow progress in these schools. The year 1873, however, showed ' 'marked progress and improvement." The following table of school statistics for the state of South Carolina is compiled from the annual reports of the United States Bureau of Education:
SOUTH CAROLINA School IMypulatwn, Enrollment colored
. . . . . . . . . . . - . . , . . . . . . .

YEAR

Per cent enrolled 49.88 54.94

49.58 62.31 62.35 53.21 5571 54.56 5492 57.30

Per cent of Daily attendance enrollment attending

110,947 113,566 109,699 111,681 113,929 107,800 114,490 118,885 124,135 123,481

1899-1900 1900-1901 1901-1902 1902-1903 1903-1904 1904-1905 1905-1906 1906-1907 1907-1908 1938-1909

311,900
287,540 292,000 294,962 299,129 303,125 307,121

155,602 157,976 144,786

154,383 156,588 161,272 171,022 169,731 172,967 181,095

71.30 71.89
75.77 72.34 72.75 66.84 66.94 70.04 71.77 68.18

311,111
314,931 316,007

CHARLESTON COUNTY:

There 42 teachers in the Negro schools of Charleston city, forty of whom are white and two colored. In the county schools there are 59 colored teachers. The salaries of the two Negro teachers in Charleston are the same as those of the white teachers but the salaries of the Negro teachers in the county schools are always considerably less than those of the whites. For the scholastic year 1909-10 there were 2,426 Negro chil dren enrolled in the schools of the city of Charleston, while 5,073 were enrolled in the county schools. The school facilities seem adequate in the city. It is reported that all are accommodated who apply in the county, the enrollment reaching as high as 125 to 140 in single schools. This comes from the schools being not widely dispersed in some districts. The school buildings are very good in the city, fair in the county but with decided need of improve ment. Appropriate furniture is almost entirely lacking in all but a few instances. This state of affairs may be remedied to some extent by the efforts of the teachers in making demands of the trustees. The Negroes of the county help to support three or four parochial schools. The greatest need is for colored teachers in the schools. The build ings are good and the instruction equals that given the whites in the grammar schools; but until there are Negro teachers for Negro children

52

The Negro Common School

South Carolina

53

the very essential thing in the education of the Negro youth is lacking- inspiration. There is need of a public high school; the only high school in the community is Avery Normal Institute, supported by the American Missionary Association. NEWBERRY COUNTY: There are six Negro teachers in the city schools and 66 in the county schools. The average salary paid the male teachers in the county is $121 per year, for female teachers $105 per year. The average salary paid Negro male teachers is a little more than one-fourth that paid white male teachers, while the average salary of the Negro female teachers is not quite one-third that paid white female teachers. According to the report for 1909-10 the Negro enrollment was 5,329 for the county and 475 for the - city. Thus the average number of pupils per teacher is 81, a large num ber in itself not to mention the lack of facilities. It is estimated that at least 500 Negro children are unable to get into schools because of lack of facilities. It has happened in the city school proper and happens quite often in the different county districts that the Negro patrons have to supplement the fund allotted them to extend or in some cases even to run the school for the whole of the otherwise short school term. It is being done this year in some districts, while in some instances this year the school term has been greatly shortened. I consider it to be almost impossible for the schools in our community to do very effective work because of a lack of sufficient number of teach ers, many of them having 100 or more scholars. They have no equipment for modern school work. The Negro public schools in my community are doing in a little way much good in shaping the character of the Negro youth. I believe if more financial aid were given them, and to this employ competent teach ers who are prepared to teach intelligently, much more good than at present would be forthcoming. PICKENS COUNTY: There are 23 colored and 43 white schools here. Last year the term of the city schools for Negroes was from four to five months and of the rural schools from two to two and one-half months. In the city the term of the whites was from six to eight months and in the rural districts from four to six months. The colored schools have an average of six grades and the whites an average of eight. There are 23 colored and 63 white teachers. The colored teachers receive an average salary of $20 and the whites $40. The improvement in the school facilities is decidedly good, for ten years ago there was scarcely a colored school in this county. The colored schools are supposed to get the special tax collected from the colored people. Usually the colored people supplement the school term. There seems to be very little improvement in the condition of Negro pub lic school education here.

HIGHLAND COUNTY:
There are 55 colored and 49 white schools with 72 colored and 135 white teachers, the colored receiving from $143 to $196 a year and the whites from $394 to $576 a year. Fifteen thousand five hundred and ninety dollars and twenty-five cents ($15,590.25) are spent on the colored schools annually and $61,746.02 on the white. Five thousand three hun dred and ten colored and 4,584 White children attend school regularly. In a few instances the colored people supplement the school term. In gen eral the Negro public school education is poor. UNION COUNTY: The colored schools average five grades and the white seven. The colored teachers receive an average of $25 and the whites an average of $60. The general condition of Negro public school education is very poor. Many of the colored teachers of South Carolina are not at all pre pared to do the most elementary work. Many of the facilities are not so good as they were ten years ago but in a few cases they are better. The general condition of Negro public school education has been fair but it is going back.

In 1900 thirty-five (35.23) per cent of the Negro children of South Carolina were in regular attendance upon the public schools whose annual length was 75 days. In 1909 the attend ance had advanced to thirty-nine (39) per cent but the term length was only 70 days. Summary of facts as reported in the Forty-first Annual Report of the State Superintendent of Education of the State of South Carolina, 1909:
Whites, 5-17, 1900 . Negroes, 5-17, 1900 . 180,882 . 283,165
White Colored Public school houses . .........,,,,, 2,334 1,442 Private school houses . ................ 254 718 Public schools.......................... . . 2,712 2,354 Men teachers (white: 1st grade, 2,487; 2nd grade, 610; 3rd grade, 160); (colored: 1st grade, 347; 2nd grade, 377; 3rd grade, 170) .... 933 894 Women teachers: (white: 1st grade, 2,487; 2nd grade, 610; 3rd grade, 160); (colored: 1st grade, 638; 2nd grade, 775; 3rd grade, 389) . 3,247 1,802 Total teachers .......... 4,180 2,896 Pupils.... ' ' 153,807 181,095 Average attendance . ...... 107,368 123,481 Pupils to a school 55 77 Pupils to a teacher ............ . . 35 63 Average number of weeks of school ............ . . . 25.19 14.7 School houses built last year, (white: "wood, 117; brick, 17); (colored: wood, 49; brick, 0). ............... 134 49 Value of school houses built last year . . ..............$ 255,180.85 $ 7,061.80 School houses with grounds enclosed . . ............. 105 3 Districts that levy an extra tax ....... . 656 Districts that do not levy an extra tax . 1,177 ... Town schools . 282 193 Country school's ..'."' '..'...... 2,430 2,161

54
School Houses
Public ...

The Negro Common School

HOUSES, TEACHERS AND PUPILS . . . . . White Colored 2,334 1,442
71 R

South Carolina

55

Public schools ...

2,712

2,354

It is well to note here the per capita expenditures on white and Negro children for educational purposes. The following figures for the state cover the period from 1899 to 1909:
Per Capita Expenditure for South Carolina According to Enrollment
YEAR 1899 .........

Teachers
First Grade Women .... ......... Second Grade Men .......... Women .... ........ Third Grade Men ... ..... Women . ....... . . . . ... 2,487 186 610 75 1BO 74,034 79.773 55 35 25.19 33.63 $2,345,647.72 446.762.05 479 79 249.13 White
347

638 377 775 170 389 33.164 97,931 77 63 14.7

9. IQftl

White $ 4.98 5.55 5.82 6.01 6.88 7.49 7.33 7.93 9.00 10.34
6.11

Negro
$ 1.42 1.30 1.30 1.53 1.45 1.47 1.51 1.47 1.57 1.60 1.70

1900 ......... 1903. ........ 1904 .........

1QAK

.
-

Enrollment
Boys . . ......

. .

1906 . . ,."".. 1907. ... 1908 .

1909. .

Average number of pupils to teacher .... ... .... Total revenues (for both whites and Negroes) ..... Average yearly salary paid women teachers ....... Average salary paid teachers Total salaries paid teachers Building school houses . , Repairing- school houses Rent of school houses ...... EXPENDITURES .

13 5

Per Capita Expenditures for Certain Counties in South Carolina According to Enrollment, 1908=1909
COUNTY

White ...
% 18.59 31.86 14.89 35.70 13.26 11.05 12.14 25.35 $

Negro
0.89 3.09 0.53 2.55 0.78 0.97 0.95 3.21

11R 17

91.45

Bamberg . Beaufort

Colored $ 118.17 249.13 91.45 100,948.26 7,132.66 7,015.91 2,138.02

rnq nc

Charleston ... Fairfleld. ..... Lam-ens . .... Marlboro . Richland . .

799,679.54 . . _
. . . 141,144.02 43,816.37 2,747.54
97 7711! .7 on ATJC 9Q

The following summary of statistics is compiled from the annual report of the state superintendent of education of the state of South Carolina for the year ending June 30, 1910:
Expenditures ]1909 Whites . Negroes .
Total

118,703.02

6,826.01

Total . .

. .$1,590,782.51 $308,15116

21910

The following statistics are for Charleston county for school year 1908-09:
Whites ...
Negroes...

. $ 1,609,732 $1,684,796.85 ... 308,153 368,802.64

Enrollment ...... 11,778 30

52 82

Total ........ Number of Schools Whites ............. Negroes............. Total ............. Number of Teachers Whites ..... ....... Negroes..... .....'

Average Length of Term in Weeks Whites ..... ...... 34 Negroes... ......... 25 Average Yearly Salaries Whites Males .... . . $ 1,248
Females . . Negroes Males ... ... . . . $ 402 213

. .$1,817,335 $2,053,599.49 Number of Schools

.... . . 2,712 2,364 5,066 Number of Teachers 2,702 2,386 5,088

Salaries, Average Yearly H909 21910 Whites (male) . $ 480 $ 539.46 Whites (female) . 249 258.26 Negroes (male) ... 118 118.18 Negroes (female) . 91 94.34 Length of Term Negroes . Whites . Negroes . . . Total . . . 14.7 weeks 14.0 weeks Enrollment 156,051 . . 153,807 184,364 181,095 340,415 114,731 129,170

Whites . Negroes . Total . Whites . Negroes .

155

__ Total ............... 216 Average Number of Pupils to a Teacher Whites ..... 35 Negroes. 76

Females. . . .... . . . 184 Total Expenditures Whites . . . .... . $139,666 Negroes. . . . ... ... 20,100 Per Capita Expenditure (Enrollment) Whites .... ... $ 35.70 Negroes. ... ... 2.55

. .

4,180 2,696 6,876

4,352 2,616 6,968

Total . . . . .

...... 334,902 Average Attendance 107,368 Whites ...... 123,481 Negroes .

JEstimated school population of South Carolina for 1908-9 was: whites, 201,868; Negroes, 316,007. 2Census for 1910 gives the following figures for the total population of South Carolina: Whites. ......... 679,162 I Negroes ......... 835,843

56
t Whites ...... Negroes.

The Negro Common School

State Aid for Summer School 1909 ... 1910 $ 5,168 Nothing' Appropriations to Higher Education Whites . Colored 1908-09 . $ 355,994.88 - 12,000

Georgia

57

It is reported that
.... of the $20,000 appropriated last year [1909] by the state legislature to aid weak schools 256 white schools in 31 counties have shared in the appropriation but no colored. And of the $60,000 appro priated to aid rural high schools 131 white high schools were helped in 40 counties but no colored. Thus it will be seen .... that the colored schools of South Carolina do not share on an equality with the whites. The revenue re ceived from Negro property tax and Negro poll tax to say nothing about the money received from other sources more than pays for the running of Negro schools in this state. The Negro public schools are surely no burden to the white tax-payers here who are not interested in these schools which are being supported by the Negroes themselves.

general, the state school commissioner and four other persons appointed by the governor. The following table of school statistics.for the state of Georgia is compiled from the annual reports of the United States Bureau of Education:
GEORGIA
YEAR

School Per cent -population, Enrollment enrolled colored

380,970 363,050 363,050 376,445 376,445 387,166 387,166 387,166 406,948 393,638 196,276 200,848 204,706 201,418 201,418 200,238 200,238 200,238 201,512 220,699 61.25 55.32 56.39 53.S1 53.51 61.72 51.72 51.72 49.64 56.07

Per cent of Daily attendance enrollment attending

119,276 122,887 124,553 120,032 120,032 119,705 119,705 119,705 119,504 145,856 61.08 61.18 60.84 69.59 59.59 59.79 59.79 59.79 59.30 68.35

1899-1900 1900-1901 1901-1902 1902-1903 1903-1904 . . 1904-1905 1905-1906 1906-1907 . 1907-1908 1908-1909

According to the census reports of the last four decades Negro illiteracy for South Carolina has been as follows:
PEE CENT OF ILLITERACY 1870 South Carolina . . 81.1 1880 78.5 1891 64.1 1900 52.8

BIBB COUNTY: There are 20 colored schools and 35 white. Each has a nine months' term. The colored schools have six grades. The whites have high and normal schools. There are 58 colored and 144 white teachers. Three thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight colored and 8,874 white chil dren attend school regularly. The school facilities for colored children are about the same as they were ten years ago.

CHATHAM COUNTY:
Sectfon 13. Georgia There are 10 city and 12 county schools for the whites and 3 city and 28 county schools for Negroes. In the city the terms for both white and colored are nine months long, but in the county the colored have only six months. The grammar schools for both the white and colored have eight grades. In the city schools there are 129 white teachers and 43 colored, and in the county schools 15 white and 28 colored teachers. The salaries of the county white teachers are $40 and those of the colored $30. The total amount spent on all schools annually is $310,915; Negro schools, $19,413. Nothing for new buildings or improvements for the colored. The facilities for the colored schools remain practically the same as they were ten years ago. The whites have been provided with a new high school costing $135,000, three grammar buildings and large additions to several old buildings. On the whole the colored teachers are well qualified. Buildings and equipments for Negroes are poor. Two thousand and thirty-five colored and 4,284 white children attend the city schools, and 978 colored and 319 white children attend the county schools.

The Negro school system of Georgia started in the memorable con ference at Savannah in December, 1864, when Stanton, secretary of war, and General Sherman met five or six of the leading Negro ministers, and after a dramatic interchange of opinion, free schools were decided upon. An old slave market was bought, the bars which marked the slave-stalls broken and a school opened. The provisional government under the constitution of 1865 gave the legislature power to establish schools, but did not contemplate schools for Negroes. The new constitution of 1868 provided for schools for both races, but none were opened until the summer of 1871. In 1872 lack of funds compelled the suspension of the schools, but they were finally started permanently in 1873.'

The state board of education for the state of Georgia consists of the governor, the attorney-general, the comptroller'Atlanta University Publication. No. 6, p. 67.

58

The Negro Common School

Georgia

59

FULTON COUNTY:
Thirteen colored, 30 white schools. Term of each nine months with eight grades in both. Twenty colored and 75 white "teachers. The white teachers receive salaries from $45 to $75 and the colored from $20 to $40. There are 997 colored and 2,480 white children attending school. Thru the efforts of the Negroes conditions have been improved over what they were ten years ago. The Negroes do not pay a very large share of the school tax. The general condition of Negro education is growing bet ter.

The following extracts are taken from the printed report of the superintendent of schools of Fulton county, Georgia, for 1909, and show something of Negro self-help in public school education:
College Park. The Negroes of this town made a deed to a half-acre lot to the board of education and besides, met them half way in the building of a $1,200 house. Bethlehem.The following lines which appear in the School mid Home tell the tale of this building: This school, valued at $800, was constructed by a dozen Negroes of a community, 10 miles from Atlanta, none of whom owned more than $300 or $400 worth of property. There are hundreds of schools for white children in Georgia that would suffer by comparison. Pillsburg. Since the beginning of the last term the Negroes here, with the aid of only $75 from the county board of education, have bought a lot worth $200 and built a $1,800 house. It has been hard to get this accomplished, mainly, because of difficulties which they apprehended from the city extension movement, but it is done at last and this work reflects great credit on the teachers and community. Springfield..This building has been continually improved since it was constructed a year ago and it is now in very good condition. This is largely due to the leadership of the teacher. South Atlanta.~The house and lot cost $3,200 and was raised almost entirely by the Negroes of the community.

building material used has been given them, but they have met nearly all the expense connected with the new schools. GREEN COUNTY: Thirty-seven colored and 58 white schools. Term of colored schools five months and of white schools nine months. The colored schools have six grades and the white ten. There are 41 colored teachers and 66 white. The colored teachers receive from $15 to $20 and the white from $40 to $75. The total amount spent annually on colored schools is $3,485 and on the white, $26,730. One thousand and twenty-five colored and 1,650 white children attend school regularly. Two-tenths of the school tax goes to colored schools. The colored people support schools of their own. In general the system is very poor.

MACON COUNTY:
There are today 28 Negro public schools in the county. There are about three times as many for white children. For Negro children the average number of schools in each township is one. There are many country communities which do not boast of even one public school for Negroes. This part of Macon county has suffered so much for lack of public school facilities. The schools are few and far between, the chil dren often being obliged to walk five or six miles to attend school. It would seem that these few schools would be well provided for since there are so few of them, but this is not the fact. In the rural communities the same building serves for the double purpose of school building and church. The building is often built and kept up by the Negroes in that community who are members of that particular denomi nation. There are no desks in these buildings and no backs to the seats. The windows have no glass, but are opened and shut with wooden shut ters. In these rural communities there is an average of one teacher per school. At times the teacher may press into service one of the advanced scholars as an assistant. The assistant is sometimes given as much as $10 per month. In Macon county there is often no effort made by the county superin tendent to secure the best teachers. All one has to do to secure a posi tion in the rural schools is to "stand in with the authorities." Thus the county fails to secure efficient Negro teachers for the Negro schools. The salaries of the county school teachers range from $17.50 to $37.50. The county schools are taught for five or six months at a time. They have from one to five grades. Some of them do not seem to be graded at all. There are 40 Negro teachers in the county. The schools for Negroes in the towns and villages are somewhat better than those in the country districts, altho there is not enough difference to show any startling con trast.

By way of summary the report says:

Our Negro schools have done excellent work in the way of improve ment during the last year. But little help has been given by the county authorities, the Negroes for the most part desiring to own their buildings themselves Building plans are furnished them, together with much in expensive advice and insistence upon comfortable quarters for teachers and pupils. Here and there, as an incentive, some small part of the

60

The Negro Common School

Georgia

61
1910

The school buildings in the towns and villages often serve for both school and church purposes. The teachers in the town schools range from one to six, the smallest number of teachers being in the largest town in the county (Montezuma) and the largest number being in the smallest town in the county (Marshallville). These town schools have eight grades and they have a school year of nine months. The salaries of the teachers range from $20 to $40 per month. The Negroes themselves give no aid to any private schools for their chil dren. That is one thing they have not as yet been taught to do. In one town (Marshallville) the Negro children pay $0.25 per year into the town treasury for school purposes, but they pay nothing at all for the support of the private schools in the county. The number of children attending school in the county is 2,005. The number kept out of school on account of lack of facilities is said to be about 400. The number of students in each room in these schools is very large. There are at times as many as 150 in one class. Altho these Negro teachers have about twice as many children to teach, they get about one-third as much salary as the white teachers who teach the same classes. There is no high school for Negroes in this county. There are many for white children. The salaries of the white teachers range from $60 to $100 per month. The teachers in the Negro schools were educated in such schools as Fisk, Howard and the Atlanta universities, Talladega, Ballard and the schools of the county. The progress of these schools is very slow. The great need for the Negroes of the county is a high school. It would be an inspiration for the large boys and girs of the community. Many stop school for the reason .that they are obliged to work, others because they are ashamed to go to a school where there are so few large boys. The county is a good field for energetic young men who are willing to work.

RICHMOND COUNTY RURAL SCHOOLS:

Expenditures1

Whites ......... Negroes ........

Number of Schools Whites . Negroes. Total Number of Teachers Whites ..... Negroes . . Total Average Salaries Whites . Negroes . . $ 41.14 25.40 2g Jj
42

. $129,145.21
Length of Term

25 14

Whites . . Negroes. . Enrollment 2 Whites Negroes. Total

7.9 months 6.3 months 6,554

2,970 9,524

Average Attendance . 70 per cent Whites . . . See Note 3 Negroes.

City Systems
Atlanta (1910-11)

PUTNAM COUNTY:
There are 25 colored and 15 white schools. Term of colored school 5 months and of white 7 months. The colored schools are not graded. Ten grades in white schools. There are 26 colored teachers and 24 or more white, the colored teachers receiving from $12.50 to $22.50 per month and the whites from $35 to $50. The annual report of the county school commissioner, March 20, 1911, says: "By the local tax plan the Negroes get exactly what they pay in and no more." The school population of the county shows 688 white and 3,172 Negro children of school age. The expenditures were $8,842.35 for white schools and $1,641.34 for colored schools.

The city of Atlanta has eleven public schools for Negroes. Five of these schools are suburban schools and have only recently been incorpora ted into the city system by the extension of the city limits. Since 1890 but one public school for Negroes has been added to the list, tho the school population has steadily increased. A new school is now being built for Negroes. The Negro enrollment in the city system is 5,122. There are 80 teachers. The attendance in these schools is good, averaging about ninety-two per cent. This is accounted for in part by the fact that irregularity in attendance results in the loss of one's seat, for almost every one of these eleven schools has its waiting list of those who are desirous of attending but are unable to do so because of lack of school facilities. The work of the teachers is good, for the greater part of them have had excellent training. The schools for higher education in Atlanta have trained these teachers for efficient service. Atlanta University alone has trained about seventy-five per cent of the public school teachers of the city. At least 250 pupils who apply for admission each year are turned away for lack of seats. Hundreds do not apply at all because of the crowded condition of the schools, and still others do not concern them1 The figures for expenditures for whites were taken from the Thirty-ninth Annual Report of the Department of Education of Georgia for the year 1910. The figures for expenditures of Negro schools do not appear. 2 Thirty-ninth Annual Report of the Department of Education of Georgia, page 261. Among the Negro schools the enrollment is generally large, several schools having 50 to 60 Pupils on roll, five or six as many as 40 pupils and the smallest among them not less than 30. We generally estimate that a little more than half the Negro children in the rural districts are in school. Annual Report of Public Schools of Augusta and Richmond County, Georgia, 1910, page 70.

62

The Negro Common School

Georgia

63

selves. Many are enrolled in the private schools of the city and many are taught in the afternoon sessions provided by the Gate City Free Kindergarten Association, an organization supported by Negroes. Usually the first four or five grades of the Negro public schools are running dou ble sessions. The same teacher has two sets of children, usually 60 in a set, one coming in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Thus the children are doing about half time in school, an injustice to both the teacher and the students. The salary of the colored teachers, even of those doing double session work, is considerably less than the salary of the white teachers doing the same grade work. The teachers' salaries in the public school system of Atlanta are shown by the following schedule: 1
Salary Per Year White Principals^ eight grades: First year ....... Second year . . Third year. . Fourth year . Fifth year Sixth year ... Seventh year . . Eighth year. ... Ninth year ... Tenth year . . Assistant PrincipalsSecond year . Third year . Fourth year . Fifth year. . Sixth year . . Seventh year Grade Teachers: First year. . . Second year . Third year . Fourth year . . Fifth year. . . Sixth year ... Seventh year Eighth year . . Ninth year Tenth year . . Eleventh year
670.00 715.00 725.00 770.00 780 00 825.00 3 558.50 584.00 610.00 636.00 661.50 687.50 713.50 721.50 730.00 738.50 $ 1,066.50 1,075.00 1,116.50 1,125.50 1,166.50 1,175.00 1,216.50 1,225.00 1,266.00 1,300.00

Negro
$ 666.50 675.00 675.00 675.00 716.50 716.50 725.00 725.00 750.00 758.50

Negroes paid taxes on property assessed at $1,028,290. It would seem that almost all of the tax raised on the property went to the support of white schools while the Negro schools got simply the state tax. Not long since the city voted $600,000 for additional school houses and repairs. The board of education apportioned $35,000 of this amount for one new Negro school building. The Negro school buildings are in bad condition and sorely in need of improvements. Some of them could be improved as they now stand. Others should be razed to the ground. All are in need of better equip ment. One of these schools has a curious environment: On one side stands an orphan home, beyond is the city stockade, on a third side is a slaughter pen, while a pest house occupies the fourth. A recent observer remarks that, notwithstanding these conditions, every Negro school building in the city is as neat and tidy as possible under the circum stances. Since this study began a new public school has been built for Ne groes, the only thoroly modern building devoted to them. The work done in the Negro common schools of Atlanta is of the same grade as that done by the white schools thru the eighth grade. The whites have two public high schools, one for boys and the other for girls, but the city makes no provision for the high school education of its black children. The whites have also a night school. Under adverse circumstances the Negro public schools of Atlanta are doing a great work, not only for black Atlanta, but for the city as a whole.
Augusta

5CO.OO

310.00 310.00 336.00 836.00 361.50 361.50 387.50 387.50 413.50 413.50 439.00

In 1908 Atlanta had a school fund of $395,730.89. Of this fund $65,492.24 came from the state. The rest was raised by local taxation.
'From the Atlanta Constitution, 25 March, 1911. [Since this study was made an increase of 5 per cent in all salaries has been reported.] 2 Principals are paid $25 a year extra for each grade above eight. 3 Grade Teachers: First half of the first year $40 month (rate, year $400), $55 month ($550 year); increase $15 month. Second half of first year, $45 month (rate, year $450), $55 month ($550 year); increase $10 month.

There are 4 public schools for Negroes in the city of Augusta with 30 teachers. The total enrollment in these schools is 1,479. Fully 1,000 Negro children are unable to get into the public schools because of lack of facilities and in addition to this about 500 are on half time. The city has 5,736 Negro children between the ages of 6 and 18 years. The white schools have eight grades and in addition two high schools are provided. The Negroes have seven grades and no provision for public high school work, the eighth grade having been abolished in order to introduce domestic art and domestic science. Salaries: The white principals receive $1,500 per year. Two Negro principals receive $802 per year; four less than $600, i. e. from $580 down. As for other teachers, the lowest salary for the white teachers is $46 per month, while the lowest salary for Negro teachers is $27.50. The highest salary for whites, except those doing special work, is $85; for Negroes, including those doing special work, $40 per month.
Columbus

The first public school for Negroes in Columbus, Ga., was established 111 the early seventies. Today they have three well-kept buildings, two

64

The Negro Common School

Georgia

65

owned and one rented by the city, and all under the control of the Colum bus public school system. The value of these buildings according to the assessors' valuation for 1910 is $35,000. The value of the equipment for the three schools (one rented) is estimated at $4,200. Especial mention must be made of the Fifth Avenue school for colored people which was completed in 1908. This school was built in place of the Sixth Avenue school which was sold by the city. It is a handsome twostory brick structure, having a basement which is used for industrial work and modern improvements and conveniences. The value of this building alone is $20,000 and the estimated value of its equipment is $2,400. In commenting upon this school one correspondent said: "Our Fifth Avenue school is among the best in the city, white or colored, having shower baths and other conveniences for cleanliness." In short, the common answer as to the condition of the Negro public school build ings in Columbus is "very good." There are enrolled in these schools 1,225 children between the ages of 6 and 18 years. Each child upon entering school pays a fee in accordance with his grading. From first to the fourth grade inclusive his fee is $1.50 per year. From fifth to seventh inclusive, $3.00 per year. From the eighth to ninth inclusive, $6.00 per year. For this fee the school fur nishes each child with all books, paper and pencils that he needs thruout the year. There is no delay in supplying the needs of any child. On the day^that school opens every^child sits at his desk which is fully supplied. The school term is nine months. These schools have nine grades, the eighth and ninth grades going into high school work for a little way. Besides the academic work enough industrial work is offered to give each child a practical turn of mind. The industrial work as well as the aca demic work of the first, second, third and fourth grades is done by the grade teacher. Above these grades special teachers have charge of the work. The boys spend one hour per day in carpentry and blacksmithing on alternate days. For instance, those boys who spend one hour in blacksmithing today, spend one hour in carpentry tomorrow. The girls spend equal time cooking, sewing and laundering. When a class leaves the academic department it is divided, one part taking cooking, another sewing and the other laundering, and the next day the classes change occupations. Thus each child receives five hours of industrial work for five years. As to the number of Negro children unable to get into school because of lack of school facilities, the answers received vary from twenty-five to almost thirty-five (35) per cent. According to the catalog of the Columbus public schools, 1910, seventeen (17.35) per cent of the school population was out of school. Therefore, I should say that a little over twenty (20) per cent of the Negro children are kept out of schools because of lack of school facilities. There are 5 male and 22 female teachers. These teachers were educated at Morris Brown College and Atlanta Uni-

versity, Atlanta, Ga.; at Haines Institute, Augusta, Ga.; Tuskegee In stitute, Alabama; Fort Valley High and Industrial School, Fort Valley, Ga.; at Ballard Institute, Macon, Ga., and at the Columbus public schools. Their salaries range from $22.50 to about $85 per month, which is about fifty (50) per cent of what the white teachers receive. Only seventy-four (74) per cent of the school population of Columbus is enrolled in the public schools. About nine (9) per cent is enrolled in private schools. Among the colored people there are three or four such schools which are helping to supplement the work of the public schools. The work in such schools can be bettered, but it well illustrates the fact that the Negroes are eager for an education. The value of schools to a community and the work done by them can best be estimated from the comments of the people of that community. One sums up his opinion in the terse statement, "Best in the South." Another says, "My opinion of the Negro public schools in my community is that they are very good. Much stress is being placed on the industrial features, which are proving to be very helpful in the early training of the youth." Says a third, "We have about the average teachers and I believe we are doing some of the best work." Still another says, "It is said by some of the best people that the public school system in Columbus, Ga., ranks second of those in the United States, Philadelphia coming first."
Macon

There are eight public schools for Negroes in the city of Macon with 47 teachers. The total enrollment in these schools is 2,852. Fully 800 Negro children in the city are unable to get into the schools because of lack of facilities. The white schools have seven grades and a high school. The Negro schools have but six grades and no high school. The Negro school buildings are kept up very well and are fairly comfortable. Salaries: The white principals receive $1,000 per year. The Negro principals receive $62.50 per month. The lowest salary for white teach ers is $45 per month, while the lowest salary for Negroes is $30 per month. The salary of the white teachers is increased $5 per month every two years up to $60 per month, while that of the Negroes is increased $2.50 per month every two years up to $37.50.
Savannah

The following school statistics are taken from the fortysixth annual report of the public schools of Savannah:
Number of Teachers Whites Negroes Total 129 43
172 Average Number Belonging

Whites . Negroes. Total . Average Daily Attendance Whites . . . . . . Negroes. ... Total .

4,736 2,152

Number of Pupils Enrolled Whites . . . . . ... 5,328 Negroes. . . 2,365 Total . 7,693

f 335 L.9U 6,827

66

The Negro Common School

Per Cent of Daily Attendance

Florida Section 14.

91 93 92

67

Florida

Whites . . Negroes. . Total ....

.... .
Sylvester

... . . ...

Sylvester is a small town with about 2,000 inhabitants, about sixty per cent white. The colored people have a two-story framed building, the upper story used as an auditorium and the ground floor as class rooms of which there are four. This school is run by the city govern ment, the school site having been donated by the colored people at a cost of $300. Three teachers are supplied for nine months at a salary of $20 to $50 each. The rural schools are not so good. Terms about four months with poorly prepared and poorly paid teachers. Salaries from $15 to $20. No school houses but unfinished church houses are used. The colored people are buying and building nice homes in city and country districts.

In 1900 twenty-nine per cent of the Negro children of Georgia were in regular attendance upon the public schools whose annual length was less than 117 days. In 1909 the attendance had advanced to thirty-seven per cent. The following summary of school statistics is taken from the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth annual reports of the Department of Education of the state of Georgia:
Expenditures 1909 1910

The public school system of Florida is controlled by the state board of education, consisting of the governor, the sec retary of state, the state treasurer, the attorney-general and the state superintendent of public instruction. There are also county superintendents, county boards of education and district trustees. The impetus to public school education in Florida was given by the ' 'carpet bag'' government in its act of 30 January, 1869. Jonathan C. Gibbs, a Negro graduate from Dartmouth, was state superintendent of public instruction during the years 1873-1874, and under his administration the schools of the state became well established. The following table of school statistics for the state of Florida is compiled from the annual reports of the United States Bureau of Education:
FLORIDA
Per cent of School Daily population, Enrollment Per cent attendance cnroUtnent enrolled attending calored
77,640 75,160 75,812 78,121 78,121 88,456 88,456 88,659 78,506 41,797 42,843 42,843 43,538 46,668 48,992 48,992 50,812 53,512

Whites . Negroes. Total .

Average Salaries (Systems) 1910 1909

YEAE

449,235.40

. . $4,005,324.65 $4,417,695.88 Number of Schools 4,805 . . Whites . . 4,891 3,023 Negroes . 3,055 7,946 Whites . Negroes. Number of Teachers 8,408 . . 3,823 8,714 3,911 12,625 59.56 39.28 45.90 26.96

12,231 ..... Total . Average Salaries (Counties) $ Whites (males) ... $ 58.34 37.48 Whites (females) . 26.37 Negroes (males) . 19.55 Negroes (females) .

$ 117.40 $ 104.32 Whites (males) . 49.34 47.76 Whites (female). . 45.90 45.53 Negroes (male) . . 26.69 25.83 Negroes (female) . . Lengt h of Term in Days (Coun ties) 121 Whites . 123 106 Length of Term in Days (Syst< 5ms) ITS 171 Whites . 162 156 ... Negroes. Enrollment 316,315 . . Whites 334,994 220,800 213,386 Negroes . Total . . . . . 529,701 555,794

1899-1900 1900-1901 1901-1902 1902-1903 1903 1914 1904-1905 1906-19% 1906-1907 1907-1908 1908-1909

, . ..... . . . . ..... . . . . . . . .

E3.83 59.75
57.00 56.51 59.64 59.64 58.59 58.59 57.31 68.16

28,736 31,123
29,881 29,881 32,338 32,338 34,446 34,446 37,814 39,876

68.75 69.12 69-75 69.75 69.44 69.44 70.31 70.30 74.42 74.52

CLAY COUNTY:
This county has 6 colored and 22 white schools, 10 grades in the col ored and 12 in the white. The salaries of the colored teachers range from $25 to $60 per month; those of the whites from $45 to $100. Seven thousand five hundred dollars per year are spent on white schools, while the colored receive only $2,400. Three hundred colored children attend school and 600 whites. The school facilities are very much better, better school houses, longer terms and better equipment for teaching. The colored people supplement the school term. In general the condition of Negro public education here is hopeful.

According to the census reports of the last four decades Negro illiteracy for Georgia has been as follows:
PEE CENT OF ILLITERACY
1870 1880 81.6
67.3

1900 52.4

Georgia . .

92.1

68
LEON COUNTY:

The Negro Common School

Alabama

69

There are 35 white and 41 Negro schools here. Both the white and colored schools have five grades, with 201 pupils in the higher grades of the colored and 466 pupils in the higher grades of the white. The salaries of the colored teachers are: male, $32.60; female, $25; and those of the white teachers, male, $76; female, $42.80. The average term of the white schools is 116 days and of the Negro schools 93 days, with an average daily attendance of white children of 769 and of colored children 3,862. The amount spent annually on colored schools is $11,861.48 and on the white $24,303.84. There is no decided advance in school facilities except that made by individual teachers themselves. The status of the county schools, espe cially the Negro schools, remains almost a constant quantity. There are several night schools and several private schools for Negroes and they have supplemented the school term in several instances. The general condition averages a little above the typical county con ditions for the following reasons: 1st, the county has one of the four high schools for Negroes; 2d, the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College sends teachers into the county; 3d, the only training school for teachers is conducted in this county. However, the county does not provide ade quately for Negro public schools.

According to the census reports of the last four decades Negro illiteracy for Florida has been as follows:
PER CENT OF ILLITERACY

1870 Florida ... 84.1

1880 70.7

1893 60.6

1900 38.4

Section 15.

Alabama

In 1900 thirty-seven (36.59) per cent of the Negro children of Florida were in regular attendance upon the public schools whose annual length was 87 days. In 1909 the attendance had advanced to thirty-nine (39) per cent in schools whose average annual length was 90 days. The following table of school statistics is compiled from the biennial report of the superintendent of public instruction for the state of Florida for the two years ending June 30 1910:
Whites . Negroes . Expenditures 1008-09 1909-10 . ?1,469, 436.94 $1,521,778.49 245,501.44 . 257,369.11 Whites Negroes . Total . Whites . Negroes . School Population 1908-09 136,773 1(4,877 . . . . 241,650 Enrollment 88,416 . . 53,512 1909-10 125,343 86,187 211.530 92,834 55,255

The public school system of Alabama was established by the state constitution of 1867 and organized in the following year. Owing to a continual lack of funds and non-payment of local taxes, as well as other opposing conditions, the schools were stopped altogether in 1873-74. The following year, however, the system was resumed and since that day the schools have been at work. The public schools of Alabama are today under the control of the following: 1. The state superintendent of education. 2. County superintendent in each county. 3. District trustees in each school district. 4. County board of education in each county. The following table of school statistics for the state of Alabama is compiled from the annual reports of the United States Bureau of Education:
ALABAMA

YEAR

School population, Enrollment Per cent enrolled colored

301,300 281,348 295,250 296,136 295,250 305,663 305,663 305,663 319,461 311,552 142,423 142,423 126,116 126,116 126,116" 150,000 150,000 150,000 127,480 138,533 47.26 50.62 42.71 42.59 42.71 49.07 49.07 49.07 39.91 44.46

Per centoj Daily enrollment attendance attending

99,342 99,342 90,000 90,000 99.0CO 75,000 75,000 75,000 86,093 90,930 69.75 69.75 71.36 71.36 71.36 50.CO 50.00 50.00 67.53 65.64

Total . . . . $1,714,938.38 $1,779,147.60 Number of Schools Whites . 1,819 . . 1.848 Negroes . 724 .... 714 Total Whites . 2,543 Number of Teachers 2,912 3,878 2,562 3,338 1,131 4,469 110 days 96 days

Total . . . 141,928 148,089 Average Daily Attendance Whites . . Negroes . 39,876 40,649 j.uooyi Salaries Whites (male) . $ 66.40 Whites (female) 48.20 Negroes (male) . . 33.80 Negroes (female) 29.40 S> 68.13 55.80 33.68 30.18

1899-19DO 1901-1911 . 1901-1902 1902-1903 1903-1904 ... 1904-1905 . . . 1905-1906 1906-1907 . . . 1907-1908 . . 1908-1909

Total . .-..-. Whites Negroes .

Length of Term 90 days

f TALLADEGA COUNTY:

The colored schools vary from three to six months per year and run [ to the fourth or fifth grades, while in the white schools there are twelve

il

70

The Negro Common School

Alabs

71

grades. The salaries of the colored teachers are from $20 to $30, some times less. White teachers receive from $40 upward as a rule.' As a rule the school facilities for the colored are poorer than those for the whites. Negro public school education in this county seems not to have advanced for the past twelve years. WILCOX COUNTY: There are in this county 60 colored schools and 57 white. Last year the colored schools had a term of only 80 days, while the white schools had 140 days. The colored schools seem to be ungraded. The white schools have seven grades. There are 50 colored teachers and 73 white the colored teachers receiving a salary of $18.75 and the white $66.80. Thirty thousand six hundred and twelve dollars and seventy-five cents are spent annually on the white schools, while the colored schools receive $3,339.70.
Number of colored children in county . Number of white children in county Enrollment colored children . Enrollment white children Average attendance of colored children Average attendance of white children . 10,758 2,000 2,983 1,772 1,948 1,452

whose annual length was 98 days. In 1910 the annual length for Negro schools was reduced to 90 days. Prof. Harry C. Gunnels, state superintendent of education in Alabama, says in his annual report for 1910:
So far as this office is aware, there is no reason to justify the short ening of the term for the Negro schools the past year over the year before. 1

The following summary of school statistics is compiled from the annual report of the Department of Education for the state of Alabama for the scholastic year ending Septem ber 30, 1910:

The colored people support a few schools of their own and almost in all cases supplement the school term. The general condition of Negro education in this county is very poor indeed. Were it not for six United Presbyterian and two or three Baptist schools education would be at a low ebb.

Expenditures
Whites Negroes. Total . . ...

1908

1909

1910
$2,417,378.57 329,094.83 $2,746,473.40

Number of Schools
Whites . . Negroes. . Total .....
4,217 4,360

1,813
6,020 5,740 2,023
7,763

4,424 1,965

6,240 6,147 2,136 6,434 2,243 8,677 $ 60.63 45.65 27.18 24.00 61.12 46.41 30.14 2481

Number of Teachers
Whites . Negroes. . . Total .....

The following summary of statistics is compiled from the annual report of the Birmingham public schools for the year ending June 30, 1910:
Public Schools of Birmingham, Ala., 1910
Expenditures
Whites -

Salaries of Teachers
Whites (male) . . Whites (female). Negroes (male) . Negroes (female)
$ 67.03 43.85 28.23 23.37

Average Membership
.$ 220,598.69

Length of Term
in g7o ^646

Negroes. Whites . Negroes. Total

35,467.98

Whites . Total

Negroes.

..,.,''''.'.
.... ...... .

Whites . Negroes...

123 days 95 days

127,480 386,478 162,937 249,030

128 days 98 days

271,910 133,316 405,226 176,600 89,000 265,600

131 days 90 days 279,982 142,813

422,795 176,562 89,008 265,570

Enrollment
Whites . . Negroes. . Total . . .

Number of Schools 36
20 55

15,525 10>080 3,982 14,062

Average Daily Attendance

Whites .... Negroes. Total

Average Attendance
Whites . . Negroes. .
Total .

Number of Teachers

Whites . . Negroes. Total

Actual Enrollment

Length of Term

f-JJ

Whites -T Negroes.

........

178 days

178 days

Average Annual Salaries

Whites -.. 13jg70

6>ggo

. .$

448.01

Whites . .
Negroes.
Total

... ..... .

According to the census reports of the last four decades Negro illiteracy for Alabama has been as follows:
PER CENT OF ILLITERACY 1870 Alabama . .
1880 80.6 1890 69.1 1900 57.4

Tota| Va(ue of School Property

20,260

Negroes. ' .

$1,374,002.87 81,680.51

In 1909 twenty-nine (29.18) per cent of the Negro children of Alabama were in regular attendance upon the public schools

Annual Report of the Department of Education of Alabama, 1910, page 6.

Il I I

72
Section 16.

The Negro Common School Mississippi

Mississippi

73

II

The public school system of Mississippi was established in accordance with a clause of the state constitution of 1868 which made it the duty of the legislature to establish "a uni form system of free public schools, by taxation or otherwise, for all children between the ages of 5 and 21 years." Many difficulties were encountered in the early life of Mississippi's school system and its progress was naturally slow. Objections to Negro education were early apparent. The school report of 1873 says: "Again it is objected that a general tax compels white men of the state to educate the children of the Negro. But as the Negro forms a majority of the entire population of the state, and in an eminent degree a majority of the producing classes, as such classes of every population the laborer, tenant and consumer indirectly bear the burdens of taxation, it follows that an assessment upon the property of the state would be principally paid by the Negro and, therefore, the ground of complaint, if any, against a general tax is with the colored people and not with the white." The following table of school statistics for the state of Mississippi is compiled from the annual reports of the United States Bureau of Education: MISSISSIPPI
YEAR

month. The colored receive $15,000 annually and the white $25,000. Pour thousand colored children and 1,000 white attend school regularly. The general condition of Negro public school education is poor. By sup plementing the school terms the colored people have been able to extend several schools to six or eight months.

WARREN COUNTY:
The terms for both the white and colored schools are eight months in the country and nine in the city, each having eight to nine grades in the country and twelve in the city, also special departments such as music, drawing, etc. The colored teachers receive from $23 to $33 and the whites $55. There is in the city some improvement in the school facilities over what they were ten years ago, but none in the country. In general the condition of Negro public school education is poor. This, however, does not apply to the schools of our city (Vicksburg). Aside from buildings, they are very good. Our curriculum embraces ten grades and two years in what is known as the high school department. While we have no high school building, these two classes are taught by the two principals of the colored public schools. We are supposed to have the highest curriculum of any separate school district in the state.

In 1900 thirty-eight (38.27) percent of the Negro children of Mississippi were in regular attendance upon the public schools whose average annual length was less than 101 days. In 1909 the attendance had advanced to forty per cent. The following summary of school statistics is compiled from the biennial report of the state superintendent of public education of Mississippi for the scholastic years 1907-08 and 1908-09: Mississippi 1908=09
Expenditures Whites . Negroes. Total $2,756,082.45 Term Length Average number of days excluding separate districts ......... Average number of days including separate districts ........ School Population Whites . Negroes. Total Enrollment 6,099 3,552 Whites . Negroes. Total Average Attendance Whites . Negroes. Whites . Negroes. 138,813 145,153 221,392 238,639 460,031 301,548 410,089 711,637 123 163

School population, Znroll'ment Per cent enrolled colored 331,330 312,400 322,073 332,141 332,141 332,141 332,141 353,471 358,806 330,925 192,493 192,493 208,346 210,766 210,766 210,766 210,766 270,659 258,697 238,639 58.09 61.62 64.69 63.45 63.45 63.45 63.45 76.57 72.10 66.11

Per cent of Daily enrollment attendance attending 102,898 102,898 119,190 118,096 118,096 118,096 118,098 150,201 132,732 145,153 53.45 53.45 57.21 56.03 56.03 56.03 56.03 5549 51.31 60.83

1899-1900 1900-1901 1901-1902 1902-1903 19-3-1904 1904-1905 1905-1906 1906-1907 1907-19J8 1908-1909

. . , . .

. . . . .

Number of Schools Taught Exclusive of Separate Districts Whites . ......... 4,238 Negroes. ..... 2,987 Total Number of Teachers Whites Negroes. Total . 7,225

. .

BOLIVAR COUNTY:
One hundred and ten colored and 35 white schools. Both the white and colored schools have eight grades. There are 160 colored and 39 white teachers, the colored receiving an average of $25 and the white $50 per

... . . 9,651 Average Salaries i n Separate Districts Whites . . . $ 58.84 Negroes. ... ... 29.57 Average Salaries Exclusive of Separate Districts . . . $ 41.49 20.31

Per Cent of School Population Enrolled . ?

Whites . Negroes.

74

The Negro Common School

Mississippi
Claiborne County

75

The Conference has been able to compile the followingtables of school statistics for eleven typical counties of the state of Mississippi for the year 1908-09:
SCHOOL STATISTICS FOR ELEVEN TYPICAL COUNTIES IN MISSISSIPPI, 1908-09
COUNTY

White Number of districts established . . Number of school houses built ........ ^ r r

Average monthly salary paid teachers ....... $ 30 29 40.14 1 d 2.61

Colored
41 $ 1 19.77 n 97 0.62

Total Enrollment White Colored 3,491 10,627 3,761 5.147 479 2,2r-2 406 4,016 6,330 6,387 7,633

Total Attendance White 2,580 740 584 2,095 1,024 160 2,404 815 730 402 1,238 Colored 2,047 6,366 1,591 2,730 398 1,835 195 7,324 4,970 4,114 3,428
Copiah County

Attala. . Bolivar .

...... ,.,,..

Copiah . ....... Greene ....... Issaquena ...,.,. Noxubee ... Washington . . Yazoo .... ...

3,693 1,217 947 3,356 1,787 185 3,792 974 1,022 555 2,800

White Number of districts established .,.-..

Average monthly salary paid teachers ... $ 76 41.00 7.43 11.90

Colored 71
$ 18.09 2.51 0.59

Per capita each child in average attendance . .

Greene County

COUNTY TREASURERS' REPORTS Receipts Attala. Bolivar. . Claiborne . Copiah . Greene. . . Issaquena .
. .$24,794.48 . . 40,992.82 36,850.23
43,505.48

White . . . . . $18,107.38 26,205.05 32,529.44 58,643.12 53,131.93 Number of schools taught ... Average monthly salary paid teachers . Per capita each child enrolled ....... Per capita each child in average attendance ...
Issaquena County Number of Educable Children

Colored 13 13 $ 28.80 4.59 5.51

. 24,233.17 16,883.03

Itawamba . Madison . . . Noxubee. . . Washington . Yazoo

48 48 2 $ 43.58 9.22 15.10

Attala County

Total Receipts and Disbursements

White Number of districts established . Number of schools taught .... Average monthly salaries paid teachers , . . . Per capita each child in average attendance ...
Bolivar County Number of Educable Children

Colored
54 54 S 16.68 1.74

White Negro

101 101
$ 31.40 5.48

. 191 .3,634

Total receipts .... Total disbursements White Negro 2,202 1,835 28 28 $ 20.00 1.00 2.00

. $16,884.03 . 11,530.76 Total

2,387 1,995 48 48 $ 33.00 4.00 4.00

Total Receipts and Disbursements

White . Negro .

. 1,360 . 10,707

Total receipts .... Total disbursements . White Negro

. $40,992.82 31,999.12 Total 11,844 7,106 144 143 $ 30.67 1.81 3.02

Number of pupils enrolled ..... Number in average attendance .... Number of districts established . . Number of schools taught .... Number of school houses built . . Average monthly salaries paid teachers . . Per capita each child enrolled . . Per capita each child in average attendance . .

185 160 20 - .
20 1 $ 55.00 30.00 31.00

Itawamba County

Number of pupils enrolled ... . Number in average attendance . .....! Number of districts established . Number of schools taught Number of school houses built ...... Average monthly salaries paid teachers ... .... . Per capita each child enrolled . . Per capita each child in average attendance

1,217 740 38 38 $ 49.13 7.26 11.95

10,627 6,366 106 105 $ 24.28 1.18 1.98

White Number of districts established Number of schools taught . . Number of school houses built ..... Average monthly salaries paid teachers .... Per capita each child in average attendance ...
$

Colored 8 8 $ 21.00 3.50

72 72 4
35.80 3.76 5.65

76

The Negro Common School

Madison County White Colored
64 64 $ 21.26 0.18 0.33

Mississippi
Macon (Separate Town District in Noxubee County) White Average daily attendance . . Teachers employed . Number of days taught .
$ 195 180 10 180 69.92 22.61 24.47 $

77

Negro 475 410 4

30 21 4.09 4.72

Total 590 14 Average $ " 50.31 13.35 14.59

. . $7,403.15 7.179.94

Number of districts established . Number of schools taught ..... Average monthly salaries paid teachers . . Per capita each child enrolled .... Per capita each child in average attendance ... . $

44 44 2 49.30 2.22 2.66

Noxubee County Total Receipts and Disbursements Number of Educable Children White . . . 1,528 Total receipts .... . $ 32,529.44 Negro . . . 13,048 Total disbursements . 30,219.39 White Number of pupils enrolled .... ... Number in average attendance . Number of districts established . . Numb..: of >h ols taught ...... Average ii mthly salaries paid school teachers . Per capita each child enrolled .......... Per capita each child in average attendance ... . . . . . . 1,022 730 55 55 7 $ 43.62 14.08 21.09 Negro
6,330 4,970 61 61

Per capita each child in average attendance . Receipts. . . . Disbursements ..... . . ...

Shuqualak (Separate Town District in Noxubee County) White Average daily attendance . Teachers employed . 111 ...
$ 85 3 65.00 15.81 20.65 o

Total 7,352 5,700 116 116 7 $ 32.26 7.88 11.61 Negro 135 3
20 00

Total
220 6 Average
9.45 12.37 . $2,613.07 2,685.81

286

$' 2o!9i 1.69 2.14

Per capita each child in average attendance . Washington County Receipts White Number of districts established . Number of schools taught ........ Average monthly salaries paid teachers . . Per capita each child in average attendance Yazoo County White Number of districts established Number of schools taught ..... Average monthly salaries paid teachers . Per capita each child in average attendanae . .
$

3.09
4.00

.....

Colored
82 82 1 32.91 2.50 3.84

. $

32 32 59.13 12.29 21.50

$

According to the census reports of the last four decades Negro illiteracy for Mississippi has been as follows:
PER CENT OF ILLITERACY 1870 1880 75.2 1890 60.8 1900 49.1

Colored 89 89
$ 22.49 4.08

Mississippi

87.0

67 67
42.72

Section 17.

Louisiana

19.02

Brooksville (Separate Town District in Noxubee County) White

Enrollment . ....

Negro
172 143 3 $ 21.11 3.32 3.32

Total 214 6 Average

$ 48.24 13.36 13.36 259

Average daily attendance . . Teachers employed .

...

87 71 3 180
$ 75.37 23.40 23.40

Average salaries paid . . ... , . ........ Per capita each child enrolled ....... ..... Per capita each child in average attendance . . . Receipts .... Disbursements . . .

. $ 3,531.32 3,108.89

The public school system of Louisiana was made a state institution by the constitution of 1868. All children were admitted to the public schools regardless of color and in fact the law provided for compulsory mixed schools. This condi tion prevailed until 1877. The public school system is at present under the control of a state board of education composed of the governor, the state superintendent of public instruction, the attorney-general and eight others. Parish superintendents have charge of the schools in the various parishes.

'I

1'

78

The Negro Common School

Louisiana

79

The following table of school statistics for the state of Louisiana is compiled from the annual reports of the United States Bureau of Education:
LOUISIANA
School -population, Enrollment colored
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242,590 222,730 227,500 230,830 230,830 238,827 238,827 247,331 250,896 257,058 74,233 73,624 73,624 72,249 72,249 67,387 67,387 76,703 82,367 82,286

ORLEANS PARISH:
There are 14 colored and 70 white schools (elementary). The school term for both the white and colored is nine months. The colored have six grades and the white eight. There are 115 colored teachers and about 1,000 white. The colored teachers receive from $40 to $60 and the white from $45 to $70. The white principals receive much higher salaries than the colored. The amount appropriated annually for the salaries of white teachers is $717,240 and for the colored $53,703.95. The average attendance of the colored children is 4,222 and of the white 21,523. The educational facilities are very little better than they were ten years ago. The colored people support many schools of their own and in many cases supplement the school term by three or four months. The city is doing very little toward bettering conditions of Negro education. Were it not for the denominational and private schools the educational facilities for Negro children would be meagre indeed. SABINE COUNTY: There are 27 colored and 80 white schools. The term of the colored schools is from three to six months and of the white from four to eight months. Both the white and colored schools have eleven grades. " There are about 41 white and 150 colored teachers, the colored receiving from $30 to $55 and the white from $40 to $125. The general condition of Negro education is fairly good compared with other counties.

YEAR

Per cent enrolled

30.60 33.06 32.36 31.30 31.30 28.22 28.22 31.01 32.83 32.01

Per cent of Daily attendance enrollment attending

56,136 49,817 49,817 53,605 53,605 46,2 1 46,201 53,692 59,125 57,386 75.62 67.66 67.66 74.19 74.19 68.56 68.56 70.00 71.78 69.74

1899-1900 1900-1901 1901-1902 1902-1933 1903-19^4 1904-1905 1905-1906 1906-1907 1907-19 8 1908-1909

. . . .

EAST BATON ROUGE:

There are 23 Negro and 29 white schools. In the rural districts the term of the colored schools is only four months but in the city it is nine months, the same as the white schools. The colored schools have seven grades while the white have eleven. There are 20 Negro teachers and 84 white. There are 11 Negro teachers with first grade, 6 with second grade and 3 with third grade certificates, and 79 white teachers with first grade and 5 with second grade certificates. The amount spent annually on white schools is $42,800 and on the colored, $3,700. Nine hundred and thirty Negro children and 1,829 white attend school regularly. In general the condition of Negro public school education is very poor.

GRANT COUNTY:
The length of the colored school term is two months; of the white from nine to ten months. The colored schools run to seven grades. The white schools run thru the high school course. There are 5 colored and 75 white teachers. The salaries of the colored teachers run from $25 to $35 and those of the whites from $40 to $150. Only $1,000 are spent annually on the colored schools, while the white schools receive from $60,000 to $80,000. Five hundred colored children attend school regularly and from 1,500 to 2,000 whites. The school facilities for the colored are the same as they were ten years ago with one exception, where the improvement has been made by the colored people themselves. The white schools are much better with regard to equipment and the addition of high schools and colleges. The colored schools receive no part of the school tax. In a few cases there are private schools for the colored which are inefficient, and in only one case do the colored people supplement the school term. The general condition of Negro public school education is very poor indeed.

In 1900 about one-fifth of the Negro children of Louisiana were in regular attendance upon the public schools whose annual length was reported as six months. In 1909 the at tendance was twenty-two (22.32) per cent and the annual term length was 92.6 days. The following summary of school statistics is compiled from the biennial report of the state superintendent of public education of Louisiana for 1908-09:
Louisiana
Expenditures Whites .... Negroes. . Total
Whites Negroes .

1908

1909

$3,604,992.63 $3,932,939.20

3,178 1,119
. . . 4,297 5,269 1,287

2,315 897 3,212 4,865 1,185

Whites .....

Negroes . . . - . . . Total

172,694 82,367 265,061

176,479 82,367 258,846

Total Whites Negroes .

Number of Teachers

Per Cent of School Population Enrolled 64.51 62.8 . . Whites . 32.64 37.1 Negroes . Whites . Negroes. Average Attendance 120,188 . . 59,125 . . 111,166 54,724

6,556 .... Total . . Average Monthly Salaries $ . $ 78.89 0 es (male) ... 54 52 Whites (female) . 29.75 Negroes (male) . . 26.34 Negroes (female) . . .

6,050 75.01
51.84 32.84 28.13

80

The Negro Common School

Value of all school houses, sites

Louisiana
Value of School Property
and furniture, white ..... $6,503,019.57 Value of all school houses, sites and furniture, colored.. . . . 273,147.50 Value of all school libraries, white ...... ... . 104,500.68 Value of all school libraries, col ored. . ........... 2,503.90 21,624.95 15,270-25

81

The following school statistics are taken from the official report of the Department of Education of the state of Louisiana for the year July 1, 1909, to July 1, 1910. The census popu lation of Louisiana for 1910 was:
Whites .
Negroes. School StatisticsLouisiana
July 1, 1909=July 1, 1910 Disbursements
Teachers' salaries, white .... $2,404,062.54 Teachers' salaries, colored . . . 202,251.13 Total number of teachers employed, white male . . . ........ 921 Total number of teachers employed, white female ...... . . . . 4,080 Total number of teachers employed, colored male .... ... Total number of teachers employed, colored female . , . . , . . . . 426 859

Approximate value of sixteenth sections owned by parishes . . $ 867,966.00 Total value of school property, white ............. 7,539,145.45 Total value of school property, colored . . 266,281.40 Total value of all school prop erty . . . ... . $7,805,926.85

. 941,125 . 713,874

Value of all school wagonettes in

the state, white ........ Value of all office fixtures in the state, white ........

School Houses
1,559 Schools having one teacher, colored .. l,f 05 School- havinp two teachers, white . . 367 Schools [ia " ig two teachers, colored . 87 Schoc1 h " IT three teachers, white . 99 Schoolshavingthreeteachers, colored . 15 Schools having four tea 'ier . \ 'late. 64 Schools having four teach rs: colored . 8 Schools having five or more teachers, white ..... .......... 211 Schools having five or more teachers, colored .... ......... 12 Brick school houses owned by parishes, white ................ 111 Brick school houses owned by parishes, colored ............... 3 Frame school houses owned by par ishes, white .... ........ 1,717 Frame school houses owned by par ishes, colored ..... ..... 156 Houses rented by parish boards, white. 34 Houses rented by parish boards, col ored ........ 13 Houses furnished free to parish boards, white ..... . ........ 435 Houses furnished free to parish boards, colored ....... ... 672 Houses used this session, white. 2,352 Houses used this session, colored . 1,043 Houses built this session, white . 141

Schools having- one teacher, white

Certificates Issued bv Virtue of Examination

First grade, white . Second grade, white Third grade, white . 511 605 429 Second grade, colored. Third grade, colored . 127 3K4 546 2,091

Total number of certificates issued, first, second and third . . 1,545 First grade, colored . 35

Total number of certificates issued, first, second and third ......

Total number of certificates issued to

white and colored . .

Average Monthly Salary of Teachers White, male . . White, female . . Colored, male . . Colored, female . . $75.29 50.80 34.25 28.67 Average salary of white teachers, both male and female . ... .$56.16 Average salary of colored teachers, both male and female,. .' . . . 29.87

Houses built this session, colored. 10 Cost of sites and houses, including furniture, built this ses~ sion, white ... .......$ 631,403.53 Cost of sites and houses, including furniture, built this session, colored. . ....... 4,272.96 Expended for libraries this ses sion, white ... ...... 10,047.73 Expended for libraries this ses sion, colored.... , . . . 80.00 Total number of volumes in all libraries, white ........ 203,912 Total number of volumes in all libraries, colored ... ... 3,755 Total number of volumes bought this session, white ..... 19,348 Total number of volumes bought this session, colored ...... 258 Number of school houses supplied with patentdesks, white. 1,826 Number of school houses supplied with patent desks, col ored . . .......... 72 Number of school houses not supplied with patent desks, white. ....... .... 530 Number of school houses not supplied withpatent desks, colored. ...... . . 749

Enrollment and Attendance Average length of session of high schools, in months. . ...... Average length of session of elemen tary schools, white ........ Average length of session of elemen tary and high schools, white . . . Average length of session of elemen tary schools, colored... . Enrolled in high schools, male Enrolled in high schools, female . . Male and female. . . 8.82 7.64 8.23 4.6 4,142 5,629 9,771 89,632 85,352 174,984 Per cent of educable children enrolled, white ..... . ........ Per cent of educable children enrolled, colored .... .......... Per cent of children attending school, based on enrollment, white ..... Per cent of children attending school, based on enrollment, colored Per cent of children attending school, based on educables, white . . ... Per cent of children attending school, based on educables, colored ..... 75.9 45.3 70-3 68.3 53.1 36.8

According to the census reports of the last four decades Negro illiteracy for Louisiana has been as follows:
PER CENT OF ILLITERACY 1870 Louisiana .
86.9

1880
79.1

1890 72.1

1900 61.1

Enrolled in elementary schools, white male. ... ........... Enrolled in elementary schools, white female . . Male and female . .

Section 18.

Texas

Enrolled in high and elementary schools, white, male and female. . 184,755 Enrolled in elementary schools, col ored, male . . 36,800

Average monthly cost of each child, based on average attendance, white. $ 2.90 Average monthly cost of each child, based on average attendance, col 1.21 ored ................. Average monthly cost of each child, 2.00 based on enrollment, white ..... Average monthly cost of each child, .82 based on enrollment, colored

The constitution of Texas, adopted near the close of 1869, provided that the legislature shall "make suitable provisions for the support and maintenance of a system of free public schools for the gratuitous instruction of all the inhabitants of this state, between the ages of 6 and 18 years." It also pro-

82

The Negro Common School

Texas

83

Ill

vided the basis of an ample school fund and for district taxa tion for school purposes. The difficulties encountered by this free school system were many. The report of the United States Bureau of Education for 1880 says:
The free school system instituted in 1870 under the constitution of 1868 encountered the strong prejudices then prevailing in the South against northern methods and laws that bore traces of their northern stamp. These prejudices were especially intense against including the Negro population among those entitled to free schooling by the state, and against local taxes for the maintenance of any schools. Hence there were in the first years, besides the burning of the school houses for col ored people and a social ostracism of the teachers, efforts to prevent, by legal processes, the collection of the local tax for educating either white or colored youth. In spite of these hindrances the new school officers worked on. A better feeling on the part of many of the people soon came to aid their efforts, and the record of the first three years showed a substantial gain. For the next two years there was a superintendency, more of the soil, and hence in better favor with the people, under which some advance was made. But opposition was not silenced, and in 1875, 1876 and after wards it showed its strength by breaking down the reconstruction con stitution of 1868, by the obliteration of the school system founded on it, and by the institution of a wholly new one, which made the opening of schools in any community entirely voluntary; made attendance on them, if established, likewise wholly so; did away with the supervision of educated officers; shortened from twelve years to six years the ordinary time for free schooling by the state; allowed this to be shortened still more by permitting communities to use a year's school funds for a school house instead of for teaching; and, except in cities and towns, made no provision for allowing even those who wished to do so, to tax themselves for the extension of their educational advantages beyond mere elementary studies and a four months' annual term of school. This is the system that in 1880 still existed, but which had so demonstrated its inherent weaknesses that the' chief state officers were urging its improvement.

All available public school funds of this state shall be appropriated in each county for the education alike of white and colored children, and impartial provisions shall be made for both races. 1

The following table of school statistics for the state of Texas is compiled from the annual reports of the United States Bureau of Education:
TEXAS
School Per cent of Per cent Daily "population, EnToll-ment enrolled attendance enrollment colored attending
250,860 224,350 227,660 234,655 240,689 246,490 246,490 252,301 264,208 271,579 126,538 136,556 144,362 142,075 141,805 146,161 146,161 142,416 150,121 152,038 50.46 60.87 63.41 60.54 58.91 59.29 59.29 56.44 56.82 55.97 83,904 89,012 91,016 88,718 92,157 94,605 94605 91,229 90,277 93,035 66.28 65.18 63.05 62.44 64.99 64.73 64.73 64.73 60.14 62.50

YEAR

1899-1930 .
1900-1901 1901-1902 19 !M903 1903-1904 1904-1905 1905-1906 1906-1907 1907-1908 1908-1909 . . . . . . . . . . .

BEXAR COUNTY:
The general condition of Negro education here is poor because of short terms, poor buildings and poor equipments. In the city it is in ex cellent condition.

BRAZOS COUNTY:
There are 1 Negro town school and 40 county schools. Six teachers in the town and 41 in the county. Salaries vary from $40 to $80, from a third to a half lower than those of whites. About 400 enrolled in the city, over 1,200 in the county schools. None unable to get in on account of lack of facilities. Eleven grades in city, five to eight grades in country school. The building in the city is good; in the county the buildings are fair. In some cases the country schools are taught in the Negro church houses. Negroes in the county have contributed money for the purchase of school sites and the building of school houses. Under the supervision of an efficient county superintendent our schools have taken on new life and are partly fulfilling the purpose for which they were established. They are introducing as rigidly as possible the modern features of the best schools in the country.

Finally, a system was organized which gave the state a commendable educational scheme. At present the state board of education consists of the governor, the comptroller, the secretary of state and the state superintendent of public instruction. The state has a large school fund from the vast endowment of public land. The school law provides as fol lows:

HARRIS COUNTY:
There are 45 districts, many of which have two or three schools; many of the white schools having two or three teachers. As a rule the white schools have eight months and most of the colored six. Some of the colored schools have been known to have no term at all. Very little
1 School Laws of Texas. Section 66.

84

The Negro Common School

Texas

85

attention is paid to the grading of the colored schools, but the whites fare better as more teachers are allowed them. The colored teachers receive from $25 to $60 per month and the whites from $45 to $70. Principals of both races get more. There is great im provement in the facilities of the white schools but the colored schools show very little improvement. Aside from a few feeble private schools the colored people have only Houston College, they do not supplement the school term. MILAM COUNTY: There are 40 Negro schools with 50 teachers. Salaries $40 to $65, which is about two-thirds the salary of the white teachers. The city schools have twelve grades and county schools seven grades. Buildings in town are fair but poor in the country. The Negroes help to support a private school and have contributed money to extend the school term in this county.

VICTORIA COUNTY:
There are 1 city and 9 county schools. Eleven teachers in the town and 9 in the county. Salaries range from $30 to $70. Five hundred and forty children are enrolled; none unable to get in because of lack of facilities. Eleven grades in the city and seven in the county. The Negro school at Victoria is a two-story brick building with ten rooms and com pares favorably with the best Negro school building anywhere. The Ne groes in this county help to support private schools. WILLIAMSON COUNTY: There are 13 Negro schools and 22 teachers. The average salary is $40, about two-thirds that of the whites. About 1,300 children enrolled. About twenty-five per cent of the scholastic population unable to get into school because of a lack of facilities. Ten grades where graded. Build ings in the town fair or good, in the country poor. Negroes have con tributed to buy a school site and build a house. The Negro schools in this county need improvement: better buildings, furniture, salaries, effi cient teachers. City Systems
Dallas' Scholastic Census, May, 1910 Whites . . Negroes. . Total Enrollment Whites . Negroes. Total Average Number Belonging Whites . Negroes. Total . . 10,670 . 2,511 . 13,181 8,700 1,944 . 10,644 Whites . Negroes. Total . Number of Teachers Whites . . Negroes. Total . . 294 61 12,890 8,706 . 16,596 Average Daily Attendance Whites . Negroes. . Total 8,000 1,703 9,703

NAVARRO COUNTY:
The white schools have a term of six months and the colored schools about five. There is a considerable improvement in the white school. The colored schools are not doing much.

TARRANT COUNTY:
There are 15 colored and 80 white schools. The colored schools have a term of from three to six months and the whites four to ten. Both have eleven grades. The colored teachers receive an average salary of $40 and the whites an average of $75. The annual appropriation ranges from $5.50 to $6.25 per capita. The facilities are fifty per cent better than they were ten years ago. Under the separate school system the Negro schools may be considered as doing as good work as the system will permit. TRAVIS COUNTY: The average length of the school term is seven months and the schools of both races run to eleven grades. The white teachers are generally well educated and the colored teachers generally have second or third grade certificates. An effort is being made to compel all to have first grade certificates. The colored teachers receive $40 or less per month and the whites from $75 to $100. The annual appropriation is about $80,000. Two thousand four hun dred colored and 6,400 white children attend school regularly. The school facilities are much improved. The colored schools receive practically none of the special school tax. In general the Negro public school edu cation is at a low ebb because while the value of education is recognized few are willing to tax themselves. They support with some enthusiasm the church schools.

Number of Schools
19 6

Salaries, White Principal high school ........ . . (a) $2,400, (t) $1,800 Principal grade schools . . . $1,200 to 1,800 Teachers high school ... . 1,200 to 1,800 Supervisor of music ........... ... 1,500 Supervisor of penmanship and drawing . 1,500 Teachers Elementary Schools One year's experince . . Two years experience Three yearL experience . And so on to a maximum . Probationary teachers . . .$55 . 60

'Compiled from the Thirteenth Biennial Report of the Public Schools of Dallas, Tex.

86

The Negro Common School

Salaries. Negroes Principal of high school (who shall be also inspector of ...... $135 ... Negro schools) ....... 80 . Prin ipal of Wright Cuney School. . Principal 01 Booker T. Washington School ......*. 95 ... 100 Principal of Fred Douglass School .... 80 Principal of Pacific Avenue School ... ... 80 Principal of Ninth Ward School.... -.875 to 85 ........ High school teachers. . ... ... 85 Supervisor of penmanship, drawing and music . Teachers in Elementary Schools One year's or less experience . Two years' experience . Three years' experience ... And so on to a maximum of ... Probationary teacher Length of session . . . Per Capita Cost ... White high schools . . . . Negro high school . . ... White elementary schools .... Negro elementary schools........ Value of School Property Whites . Negroes. Total. Houston . $ 1,115,030 70,985 . $ 1,186,015 .$ 40 43 46 70 30 180 days . $47.00 360.0 . 26.00 . 19.00

Texas

87

The following extracts are taken from a recent report of the superintendent of schools for the city of Houston:
The superintendent feels that this report would not be even measura bly complete if it were to be closed without some special reference to the work done in our colored schools. So many and so varied opinions are held on the subject of the education of the Negro, that the public is enti tled to have a clear report as to the results being obtained from it. On the principle that the best way to judge the quality of a carload of apples is to taste a number of apples selected at random from the car, it is my purpose to tell some four or five true stories of the work done in our colored schools and let you judge of the schools by these examples. First story. This is the story of Nicodemus: Readers of our local papers are familiar with the name of Nicodemus, or used to be. He was not exactly a headliner, but his name was formerly good for a few inches of space in the police columns almost any day. By the time he was twelve years old he was a professional jail bird. He was a petty thief, housebreaker and general juvenile offender. Incidentally he didn't know A from B. He was too young to send to the penitentiary and too bad to leave out of it. Our juvenile court law had gone just far enough to make it impossible to do anything with him. He had been arrested repeatedly, jailed and turned loose again. The officers were hopefully awaiting the time when he would be old enough to send to the penitentiary.

While matters were in this condition it came about one day that the School became interested in Nicodemus. They teachers of the asked why he did not go to school. He told them that he had once tried to enter one of our colored schools and had been refused admittance on account of his general record as an undesirable. They told him that the School would be glad to take him and to keep him so long as he behaved himself. Nicodemus decided that the experiment might be worth trying; at any rate he didn't see how it could make matters much worse with him. The result was that he secured a primer and entered the low first grade along with the little tots who were just starting. They knew as much as he did, about books at any rate. He not only started but he stuck. It caused a mild sensation among colored circles when it was learned that Nicodemus had been in school a month and had not burned the school house down or stolen it. The man for whom he did odd jobs, in return for which he was given a place to sleep, was one of the first to notice the change and to comment upon it. The superintendent heard of it and began to take a little friendly interest in Nicodemus. He sent word that when the boy could read every lesson in the book he would give him another. That book was soon called for and was delivered with the word that when this was finished there would be another one sent. Soon after the superintendent heard him read the last lesson in this book and gave him another with the inscription: "To Nicodemus. As a reward for good conduct.'' This inscription seemed to please Nicodemus tho the idea was rather a novel one to him. It was probably about the first time he had ever been told that his conduct was good. He spoke of these books as "the ones the boss man gave me." When Nicodemus was forced on account of sickness to be absent a day from school he anxiously sent word as to the cause lest his teacher might think he had gone back to his old ways. In one year's time he has been transformed from an incorrigible thief and jail bird to an indus trious, hard-working Negro boy. One excellent feature is that he is not proud of his past record. He has even dug up another name which he says is his right one. He refuses to be known any longer as Nicodemus. I do not give his new name because it is not right that he should be embarrassed by his past. I predict that he will make a useful, intelli gent, industrious man of his race. .... If our colored schools can work such changes with boys like Nicodemus, they are worth all we are paying for them and more. Incidentally, it may be added, that the money the state would have paid out in trying Nicodemus, convicting him, sending him to the penitentiary and keeping him there off and on thruout the term of his natural life would pay the expense of maintaining the School for quite a time to come. Story Two. This is the story of Lettie Smith. I do not know that I can tell it better than by quoting the exact words of a personal letter

88

The Negro Common School

Texas

89

III

which I received last winter from a Houston lady of culture and refine ment: "I think that as superintendent of the Houston schools you would perhaps be interested if I were to tell you some of the things I have noticed about Lettie Smith, the little colored girl who now works for me as nurse and house girl. She is a pupil of the high third grade at the School. "My attention was first called to her school work by the respectful manner in which she spoke of her teacher and her childish longing for school. Next I found her recognizing the portraits of Longfellow, Whittier and other American poets, which she saw on the walls of our library. She would tell little stories of their childhood which she said she had read at school. She noticed some raffia mats that I have and readily told how and of what they are made. She often sings little patriotic songs to the baby and tries to teach her rhymes and memory gems. She usually gets good grades on her report cards, and she says she can't bear to hear children 'mouth' over their reading. "She has evidently had a good, earnest, sensible teacher. It is remarkable to me that the public schools are doing so well for the colored children. .... I think that Lettie compares at least fairly well in advancement with the average white child of her age and grade." The fact that an educated Houston woman, a housekeeper and the wife of one of Houston's good citizens, thot it worth while to write the superintendent this letter speaks well, not only for her own kind heartedness and appreciation, but also for the work our colored schools are doing. ********** Story Four. This also will be told only in briefest outline. It is about one of our colored teachers, who told me that she expected to raise $100 to help establish some form of industrial work at her building. The climax of the story is that after continued effort she raised it. She did so by a number of concerts, musfcal entertainments, etc., gotten up chiefly with the help of the children, given for an admittance fee of ten cents. It takes quite a time to raise $100 in ten-cent sums, but this Negro woman accomplished it. It must have been a cause of heaven helping them who help themselves. She remarked to me last year that if the school board would, next year, give her enough equipment to teach laun dry work she would be glad to teach it. I most heartily recommend that the equipment be provided. Such stories as these could be continued indefinitely. I could tell of the woman who teaches Latin in the colored high school. In order to pre pare herself better for her work some years ago she resigned her position, went abroad and used the little money she had saved up in spending a year in Rome and studying. How many white teachers could or would have accomplished this feat?

Of course there is another side to this picture. Not all of our Negro teachers are as intelligent or as faithful as those mentioned. Some of them hold low grade certificates and are not deeply interested in their work. It is impossible to obtain all of high grade. There are not enough of this kind to go around. Even the best of them work under marked disadvantages. . . . . It is my firm opinion that our Negro teachers, working under many very adverse circumstances, are doing faithful, earnest work, are making an honest effort to help their race and are reaching results that are abundantly worth all that is paid for their schools.
SalariesGrade Teachers

Whites
First year Second year. . . Third year..... Fourth year .... Fifth year. . Sixth year . . . Seventh year . Eighth year . . Ninth year . . . Supernumeraries . $ 45 50 55 60 65 75
80

40 45 50 50 50 56 60 15

85 20

Ward Principals-White Schools

In buildings of less than six rooms the salary is set by the board in each instance. In buildings of six or seven rooms the principals are paid for their first, second and third years $1,000, $1,100 and $1,200, respectively. In buildings of eight rooms and more the principal is paid $1,200 for the first year, $1,300 for the second, $1,400 for the third and $1,500 for the fourth year, $1,600 for the fifth year and each year thereafter.
High School PrincipalWhite School

The high school principal is paid $2,200 for a year of nine months. Women teachers are paid $85 a month for the first year and thereafter are raised $5 each year until the fourth year, when they receive $100, which is their maximum. Heads of departments in the high school receive $300 a year in addi tion to these rates.
Ward PrincipalsNegro Schools $ g5 Two-room building . 75 - |our-room building . 80 feix-room building. ........ * or each additional room, per year ... 15 High School-Negro Principal .... Vice-principal. . First assistant. . Second assistant. . . . . . . $105 .75 . 70 60

In 1900 thirty-one (30.88) per cent of the Negro population, 5 to 18 years of age, were in regular attendance upon the Public schools of Texas. In 1909 the attendance had advanced to thirty-four (34.25) per cent

! Ill
90 The Negro Common School

Arkansas

91

The following table of statistics is compiled from the seventeenth biennial report of the Department of Education of the state of Texas:
Total Expenditures 1908-09 Whites . Negroes . . . . $9,938,993.41 $10,85.0,923.27 9,894 . 2,464 . 12,348 10,072 2,409 12,481 18,062 3,215 21,277 Whites . Negroes . Total Whites . Negroes . Total . Whites . Negroes . Total . 1909-10 Whites Negroes . Salaries 1908-09 1909-10 ...,....$ 61.25 $ 62.07 46.34 ..... 48.09 Scholastic Population . . . 727,257 . 187,371 . 914,628 Enrollment . . 625,132 . 145,653 770,785 Average Attendance .... 423,398 . 89,460 . 512,858 756,770 192,236 949,006 664,804 156,827 821,631 664,804 156,827 821.631

Number of Schools
...... Whites . Negroes . ..-...-.. Total . Whites . . Negroes . Total . White. . Negroes . . . . .

Number of Teachers . . . . . 16,893 3,205 ..... . 20,098

Length of Term . 135.20 days 138.82 days . 132.05 days 135.07 days

According to the census reports of the last four decades Negro illiteracy for Texas has been as follows:
PER CENT OF ILLITERACY 1870 Texas . 88.7 1880 75.4 1890 62.5 1900 38.2

superintendent of public instruction, and third, a county school commissioner for each county. Its weakness was a limitation to the white children and the tax limitation to two mills on the dollar. " l The reconstruction constitution of 1867 made it obligatory upon the General Assembly to establish and maintain a system of free schools for all persons in the state between the ages of 5 and 21 years and provided for an unlimited levy upon the taxable property of the state for the support of these schools. Thus the limitation was removed from Negro children. 2 Mr. J. C. Corbin, a Negro graduate of Oberlin, was state superintendent of public instruction for Arkansas from 6 January, 1873, to 30 October, 1874. The following table of school statistics for the state of Arkansas is compiled from the annual reports of the United States Bureau of Education:
ARKANSAS School population, Enrollment colored 130,740 125,066 127,120 128,458 130,148 131,871 133,594 135,317 137,124 145,325 84,317 84,481 90,109 87,895 90,437 87,125 90,185 88,255 94,292 98,755 Per cent enrolled 64.49 67.55 70.88 63.42 69.48 66.07 67.50 65.22 68.76 67.95 Per cent of Daily attendance enrollment attending 52,656 53,011 56,290 54,147 58,177 53,329 54,564 55,083 59,087 59,597 62.45 62.75 62.47 61.60 64.33 61.21 60.50 6141 62.66 60.35

YEAR

Section 19.

Arkansas

Several special laws for the establishment of schools in Arkansas were passed between 1840 and 1843. In the latter year a general law was passed, entitled "An Act to Establish a System of Common Schools in the State of Arkansas." In 1866 the state legislature passed the first law for free schools based on taxation of the people. This law provided thall all white children between the ages of 6 and 21 years should be entitled to the provision of the law, thus excluding Negro children. 1 Another section provided for the election of a superintendent of public instruction. "The gain of this law of March 1,1867. was: first, schools based on the taxed wealth of the state; second, the state
1 Twentieth Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Arkansas, p. 2Y..

1899-1900 1900-1901 1901-1902 1902-1903 1903 1904 1904-1905 1905-1906 1906-1907 1907-1908 1908-1909

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

PHILLIPS COUNTY: There are about 150 colored schools and 40 white. The average length of the term of the colored school is six months per year and the white schools eight months. The rural colored schools have five grades and those in the villages eight. There are four eight grade schools. All the white schools have seven grades and one or two nine. There are 160 colored teachers and 40 white, the colored teachers receiving an average salary of $40 and the whites $60 per month. The class of work seems higher than it was ten years ago. The length of the terms and the salaries are about the same.
1 Twentieth Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Arkansas, p. 32. ''Ibid, p. 32.

92

The Negro Common School

Tennessee

93

A special school tax is laid of which the colored people pay about one-half, altho the ratio of white children to colored is about 1 to 5. In the uplands the school system is good. The village schools there are carefully graded and are doing splendid work. At Trenton, Marvell, Helena and Poplar Grove pupils finish yearly from the seventh or eighth grade, and the majority are able to make the second grade teacher's cer tificate which requires an average of seventy-five per cent on nine English branches. In the lowlands the prospect is not so good. The schools in their general management are controlled often by those unfriendly to intellectual training for the Negro; the selection of teachers, etc., is less a matter of care, with the resulting conditions.

Section 20.

Tennessee

f ,5

In 1900 thirty-seven (36.77) per cent of the colored children of Arkansas, or less than two in every five, were in regular attendance upon the public schools whose average annual length was less than 70 days. In 1909 the attendance had advanced to forty-one per cent and the annual length to 94 days. The following summary of school statistics is compiled from the twentieth biennial report of the superintendent of public instruction of the state of Arkansas:
Expenditures Whites Negroes. Total Whites . Negroes. Total . . 5,714 5,411 6,681 1,616 8,297 Number of Teachers 6,462 Whites . . 1,651 Negroes . Total .......... Average . 8,113
1907 1908

The public school system of Tennessee was firmly estab lished by an Act of 1873. At present the system is under the control of a state superintendent, nominated by the governor and confirmed by the senate, county superintendents elected by the county courts, and district officers. The state board of education consists of the governor, the state superintendent and six members appointed by the governor. The following table of school statistics for the state of Tennessee is compiled from the annual reports of the United States Bureau of Education:
TENNESSEE
School Per cent population, Enrollment enrolled colored Per cent oj Daily attendance enrollment attending
67,904 67,904 71,779 68,331 69,621 71,151 72,791 72,791 66,798 83,536

YEAR 1899-1900 1900-1901 1901-1902 1902-1903 1903-1904 1904-1905 1905-1906 1906-1907 1907-1908 1908-1909 . . . . . .... . . . . . . . . .

174,510
156,103

167,885 161,919

Salaries
Average. . . . .$

1907

1908
38.80

38.02 $

163,926 165,881 167,836 167,836 171,801 167,532

100,705 100,705 106,747 99,234 101,811 102,288 101,863 101,863 97,453 100,248

57.70 64.51 67.61 61.29 62.12 61.66 60.70 60.70 56.72 59.83

67.42
67.42 67.24 68.86 68.39 69.56 71.46 71.46 68.54 24.15

$2,413,767.85 $2,537,122.43 Number of Schools

Scholastic Population Whites . . - . . . 381,779 Negroes . . . 152,044 Total . . Whites . . Negroes. . Total . Whites . Negroes. . Total . . . . 533,843 Enrollment . 258,614 . 89,538 . . 348,152 Average Attendance . . 165,638 . 55,083 220.621

386,976 157,543 544,519 271,762

94,292
366,054

GILES COUNTY: There are 39 colored and 74 white schools, each having a term of six months. Each has five grades in the rural districts and eleven in the city. There are about 50 colored and 100 white teachers. The colored teachers receive from $25 to $30 per month and the whites from $30 to $112.50. About $35,000 is spent annually for all schools and only one-third of that amount goes to the colored schools. The total number of pupils attending schools is 11,500, and of colored 4,543. The facilities are fifty per cent better than they were ten years ago. About one-third of the special school tax goes to the colored schools. The colored people support a small private school by paying tuition where about 20 pupils attend.

Length of Term . 93.32 days 93.95 days

173,583 59,087 232,670

According to the census reports of the last four decades Negro illiteracy for Arkansas has been as follows:
PER CENT OF ILLITERACY 1870 Arkansas . - . 81.2 1380 75.0 1890 53.6 1900 43,0

HAMILTON COUNTY:
There are 17 county schools for Negroes with 39 teachers. The school term is eight months. Average salaries of these teachers are: male $68.43, female $44.21, about three-fourths those of the whites. There are 1,770 Negro children enrolled in the county schools. The buildings are in good condition.

94

The Negro Common School

Chattanooga

Missouri

95

p' fl

Chattanooga has three Negro schools with 45 teachers. The term is 9 months long. About 2,263 Negro children are enrolled. The teachers' salaries are: Negro principals $85 to $135 per month, white principals $100 to $200; Negro high school teachers $50 to $80, white high school teachers $65 to $100; Negro primary and grammar teachers $30 to $55, whites $35 to $75. The buildings are good.

In 1900 forty-one (40.9) per cent of the Negro children of Tennessee were in regular attendance upon the public schools whose average annual length was 89 days. In 1909 the at tendance had advanced to fifty (49.86) per cent. The following table of school statistics is compiled from the biennial report of the superintendent of public instruc tion of Tennessee for the scholastic years 1909 and 1910:
Expenditures 1909
Whites. . Negroes . Total. Whites . Negroes . Total . . . $3,404,555.17 $4,402,574.40 5,821 1,422 , 7,248 8,466 1,820 10,286 Average Salaries .$ 39.05 $ 54.27 . $ 40.75 $ 39.25 55.00 40.90 Number of Schools 5,683 1,406

general assembly shall establish and maintain free schools for the gratuitous instruction of all persons in this state between the ages of 5 and 21 years." The first general act upon the subject was passed in 1824 and improved in 1835. The next few years saw several new laws and revisions. The constitution of 1865 and the enactments of the following year made good schools possible for both whites and Negroes, and the movement was strengthened by the new constitution of 1874. The report of the United States commissioner of education for 1870 says: 1
This state has a larger proportion of schools for colored children than any former slave state. .... Opposition to the education of the colored people is rapidly disappearing. Their rapid improvement and good conduct help to disarm prejudice.

1910

Term Length (All Schools) 1909 1910 Counties . . 120 days 121 days Cities . . .178 days 180 days General average .... 128 days 130 days Scholastic Population 578,287 . . . 587,088 Whites 188,562 .... 184,646 Negroes . Total . 771,734 766,849 423,947 97,806 521,753 293,487 70,466 363,953

The report speaks as follows of Lincoln Institute, a school for the training of Negro youth: 2
Lincoln Institute owes its origin to the liberality of colored soldiers enlisted from Missouri. In the spring of 1866 a subscription of $4,000 was made by the enlisted men of the Sixty-second United States colored infantry, to aid in the foundation of an educational institution in Missouri for the especial benefit of the colored people. Afterward another colored Missouri regiment added to it the sum of $1,325; and $2,000 were subse quently received from the Freedmen's Bureau.

. . 7,089 Number of Teachers 8,763 Whites . ......... . . 1,687 Negroes . ..,,.. Total Counties . Cities .

Enrollment
Whites . Negroes ...... Total Whites . Negroes . Total 411,910 - . 100,248

....... 512,158 Average Attendance 274,377 . 68,358 342,735

General average .

According to the census reports of the last four decades Negro illiteracy for Tennessee has been as follows:
PEE CENT OF ILLITERACY 1870 Tennessee . . 82.4 1880 71.7 1890 54.2 1900 41.6

The school laws of Missouri provide for the education of all the children and require that the school privileges accorded the colored children shall be equal those enjoyed by the white children.
The establishment of a colored school in some old tumble-down shed of a building, with little or no furniture, and situated in a remote and inaccessible part of the district, while the white children in the same district are provided with a comfortable well-furnished school building, does not comply with the spirit of this law. Instances have been reported in which it is claimed that the enumerator returned a false enumeration in order to avoid the establishment of a school for the colored children. In doing this, the enumerator not only violated his oath of office, but is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of $100. s
^Report of United States Commissioner of Education, 1870, page 202. '''Ibid, page 204. 8 Revised School Laws of Missouri, 1909 and 1911, page 24, note.

Section 21.

Missouri

The constitution of Missouri declared that "A general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, the

r 'I
96
'if, 1

The Negro Comrnon School

Cost

Missouri
1910 Salaries (Principals and Teachers)

97
. $ 1,578,949.05 117,778.66 . . $ 1,696,727.70

The law further provides that the expense of maintaining colored schools shall be paid in the same manner and out of the same funds drawn upon for the maintenance of the white schools. The supervision of public instruction in Missouri is vested in the state board of education, consisting of the governor, the secretary of state, the attorney-general and the state superintendent of schools. Local matters concerning educa tion are under the control of county superintendents and dis trict directors. The following table of school statistics for the state of Missouri is compiled from the annual reports of the United States Bureau of Education:
MISSOURI
YEAR

White . Negro . Total cost... . .

. . $ 2,247,517.51 171,562.12 . . . . $ 2,419,079.63

187,886 8,080

Whites . Negroes . Total.

Scholastic Population

Whites .... ........ ...... Negroes . ....... Total .... Enrollment (Day Schools) Whites ............. Negroes ...... .... . . Total ............. Number of Teachers

195,966 91,844 6,698

98,542 2,010

Average Membership per Teacher High School 23 .... White . District School White ... Kindergarten White. . Negro ....
TT Ti^ltnl. no

. .

- t . ,

84

.
H-v f\f

Total .

2,182
Columbia

enrolled ............ .9 48.78

School population, Enrollment colored

. . . . . . . . . . . . 55,420 45,295 45,971 46,459 47,121 47,736 48,350 48,965 49,647 47,131 34,540 32,511

Per cent enrolled

62.32 71.78 68.22

Per cent of Daily attendance enrollment attending 23,001

22,031

Columbia has two schools for Negroes, enrolling during the last year 418 pupils under nine teachers. The salaries of the teachers vary from $40 to $65 for the assistant teachers and $100 for the principal. The schools are doing a good work.
Kansas City

1899-1900 1900-1901 1901-1902 1902-1903 1903-1904 1904-1905

31,360 31,257
32,745 32,234 33,070 32,796 29,937 30,406

1905-1906

67.28 69.49 67.53

68.40

21,079 20,191 20,173

20,432 22,580 22,190 21,931 24,205

67.76 67.22
64.60 61.50 63.39 68.28 68.28 73.26 4.88*

66.59

1906-1907 1907-1908 1908-1909

67.23 60.30

64.54

"Evidently an error.

Should be 79.60.

St. Louis

The city of St. Louis is offering excellent advantages to its Negro children. There are nine district schools and also a high school. The high school is a new building of excellent construction and modern equip ment. Its contract price was $297,827 and its equipment is listed at $69,307.91. Negro teachers are paid according to the same schedule as the white teachers. As a means of holding the children in school, a scheme of scholarship aid has been in use for four years. The scheme provides for the pay ment of a weekly wage to the parents of the child whose services are needed in the support of the family, upon a satisfactory report of the teacher regarding the child's attendance, scholarship and conduct during the week. In granting this scholarship aid "there is no discrimination on account of creed or color." l

Kansas City, in keeping with other Missouri towns and cities and in accordance with the spirit of the state, is making large provision for the education of its colored children. The city provides twelve ward schools and one high school for Negroes, also an evening school. During the scholastic year ending June 30, 1911, 3,521 Negro children were enrolled in the public schools of the city under 72 teachers. The Negro high school has graduated twenty-five classes, the total number of graduates being 384. The average cost per pupil in the Negro high school, not including permanent improvements, was $94.16, which is an excellent showing; for the average cost per pupil in all high schools of the city was $76.15. The average cost per pupil in the Negro ward schools ranged from $27.56 to $42.66.!

The following statistics are taken from the Report of the Board of Education of St. Louis for 1909-1910 :
Report of Board of Education, St. Louis, 1909-1910, page 191.

In 1900 twenty-eight per cent of the Negro children of Missouri were in regular attendance upon the public schools whose annual length was 141 days. In 1909 the attendance had advanced to fifty-one (51.33) per cent. The term length in 1910 averaged 155 days.
'From the Fortieth Annual Report of the Board of Education, Kansas City, Missouri, 1911.

98

The Negro Common School

Kentucky
KENTUCKY School population, Enrollment Per cent enrolled colored 98,490 86,399
87,654 88,580 88,580

99

The following table of school statistics is compiled from the sixty-first report of the public schools of Missouri for the school year ending June 30, 1910:
Expenditures Whites . . Negroes . , . Total. Whites . Negroes. . . Enrollment . .$13,905,188.80 677,469 29,562 707,031 Number of Teachers . . . . . Whites ... . . ........ . . Negroes. Total ............... Number of Schools . . . . Whites .... ... ... Negroes. 17.682 783 18,365 10,416 406

YEAR

Per cent of Daily enrollment attendance attending 43,074 40,225 40,314 41,116 41,116 41,116 41,116 4L116
36,659 33,521

1899-1900

69,321 62,975 62,981 62,981 62,981 62,981 62,981

58,319 62,934

1901-1902 . 1902-1903 . . . 1903-1904 1904-1905 . . 1905-1906 1906-1907

1900-1901

70.38 72.84
71.84 71.10 71.10 71.10 71.10 71.10 61.86 64.52

88,680 88,680
88,580 94,128 90,353

Total ............. Average Length of Term All schools ............. 155 days Average Yearly Salaries ... , . . J 442.49 All teachers. .

Total ............... 10,824 Average Dally Attendance 490,374 . .... All schools. .

1907-1908 1908-1909

. . . . . .

58,301

62.14 63.92 64.02 65.28 65.28 65.28 65.28 65.28 62.86 57.50

According to the census reports of the last four decades Negro illiteracy for Missouri has been as follows:
PER CENT OF ILLITERACY
*

1870 72.7

1880

1890 41.7

1900 28.1

Missouri ...

53.9

I
Section 22. Kentucky

fl

The schools of Kentucky are under the control of the state board of education, while local officials have charge of local educational matters. The law provides that graded schools shall be established for all white children within the common school age whenever at least ten legal voters who are tax payers in the school district shall petition for the same. In like manner colored graded schools shall be organized when at least ten colored legal voters make a petition to that effect. No school shall be deemed a common school or be entitled to any contribution out of the school fund unless it has been actually kept or is under contract to be kept for six or more months. The state has a compulsory school law. The following table of school statistics for the state of Ken tucky is compiled from the annual reports of the United States Bureau of Education:

FRANKLIN COUNTY: School term eight months for both white and colored. Both the white and colored schools have eight grades. There are nine colored and fifty white teachers. The salaries of teachers depend on the number of pupils. Teachers are graded according to the class certificate they hold. The schools are classed as 1st, 2d, 3d, according to number of pupils in the district: 1st class, 75 pupils or more; 2d class, 55 to 74; 3d class, not exceeding 54. Example: If a district has one hundred pupils and the per capita is $4.00, 400-^-8=$50.00 per month. The amount spent annually on white schools is $11,180.40, and on col ored schools, $1,446.96. One thousand two hundred and forty white and 136 colored children attend school regularly. School facilities are a great deal better than they were ten years ago, both as to buildings and equipments. Each school district receives its pro rata of school tax according to the number of children of school age. The fund is divided according to the number of each race. The general condition of Negro education is much improved, the grades have been extended from five to eight and the grading has been systematized. HANCOCK COUNTY: Tho much improved over what they were ten years ago there is vast room for improvement in the school facilities. The general condition of Negro education is not good owing to the domination of a set of com paratively ignorant trustees. Dishonesty, bribery, unfairness in a large measure have been practiced in many cases where Negroes are in charge, but on the whole conditions are improving. WARREN COUNTY: Both white and colored teachers receive from $50 to $67 per month. The average amount spent annually on colored schools is $7,000 and on the white $23,000. Nine hundred colored children are enrolled and 450

100

The Negro Common School

Superintendents and Teachers

101

attend regularly. There is an enrollment of 4,050 white children with a regular attendance of 2350. The school facilities are 60 per cent better than they were ten years ago. The general condition is above the aver age.

In 1900 forty-five (44.59) percent of the Negro children of Kentucky were in regular attendance upon the public schools whose annual length was 115 days. In 1909 the per cent of Negro children in regular attendance upon the schools was but thirty-seven (37.1). The following summary of school statistics is compiled from the biennial reports of the department of education of the state of Kentucky for 1908-9 and 1910-11:
Expenditures 1908>9 1907-8 Whites. . . . Negroes. . . Total. Whites . Negroes. Total
Whites . . .

1909-10

1910-11

$5,779,739.59 $6,150,768.06 . $3,081,616.10 . . Scholastic Population 648,073 652,183 521,609 521,892 85,749 87,723 65,551 . 65,470 587,160 586,862 Enrollment 404,803 381,984 44,026 44,108 448.829 . 426,092 Average Attendance
. . . . 233,389 24,054 257,443 739.906 442,710 54,064 496,774 199,907 25,650 225,557 733,822

Negroes. . .

501,825 65,218 567,043 245,777 27,783 273,560

Total - . Whites . - . Negroes. . . Total - .

According to the Census reports of the last four decades Negro illiteracy for Kentucky has been as follows:
PEE CENT OF ILLITERACY 1870 Kentucky . 83.8 1880 70.4 1890 55.9 1900 40.1

ern states, notably the District of Columbia, West Virginia, Kentucky and Texas, is there any attempt to give the colored people any voice in the direction of the colored school system, either as members of the boards of trustees or as assistant superintendents. On the whole, then, the colored schools are apt to be neglected. In addition to this, in many cases there is positive hostility on the part of the school authorities to ward the Negro schools. For instance, in a meeting of coun ty commissioners in south Georgia in 1906, this resolution was introduced: That whenever two or more colored teach ers apply for the same school., it should be the policy of the county commissioner to give the school to the least compe tent. This resolution did not pass but it was discussed and strongly supported; and indeed it is the working policy in many of the country districts of the South. The alarming neglect of and discrimination against the Negro schools are plainly evident to any one who reads the reports of educational officers in the southern states. For instance, in the state of Mississippi where there were 410,089 educable Negro children and 301,548 educable whites, the re port of the state superintendent of education for 1907-8 and 1908-9 makes absolutely no mention of the Negro school sys tem in his narrative report and recommendations. About the same time (1908) the school superintendent of Butts county, Georgia, said:
So far as I have been able to ascertain every white boy and girl within school age, except three, was enrolled some time during the last year.

The superintendent of Jones county, in the same state, said:

From our experience we are assured it is useless to try to have a longer term than five or six months for the Negroes. In this county there is no town for them to congregate in; they are entirely agricultural and need their children to chop and pick cotton and will not send regularly longer than the time mentioned. But we propose to run the white schools full nine months.

Section 23.

Superintendents and Teachers

One of the great difficulties in the dual public school sys tem of the South is seen in the lack of intelligent superin tendence for the Negro schools. The superintendents are usually elected by white voters. In only a few of the south-

The report of Pike county in the state report of Georgia for 1910 says:

102

The Negro Common School

Superintendents and Teachers

103

We have twenty-nine white schools wholly in the county, besides the public school system in Barnesville, and several line schools in adjoining counties to which some of our children go. We employ in these twentynine schools about forty white teachers for the common school grades at an average salary of $50 per month. There are twenty-seven Negro schools with an average attendance of forty pupils each. We pay them an average salary of $20 per month. ..... All of our white schools have been supplied with blackboards, charts, maps and globes.

Mr. W. K. Tate, state supervisor of elementary rural schools of South Carolina, says in the forty-second annual report of the department of education of the state:
It has been my observation that the Negro schools of South Carolina are for the most part without supervision of any kind. Frequently the county superintendent does not know where they are located and some times the district board can not tell where the Negro school is taught.

In 1909, the official report of Houston county in Georgia showed the division of school funds as follows:
Children Negro. . White. . .
3,165 1,044

Teachers 63 33

Amount received $ 4,609.25 10,678.28

The report of the state superintendent of public instruction of Alabama for 1910 shows that in Wilcox county there were 10,758 Negro children of school age and 2,000 white children. During that year the school expenditure in that county was $33,952.45, of which $3,339.70 was spent on the 10,758 Negro children and $30,612.75 was spent on the 2,000 white children. The expenditure for the Negro children in the county was according to these figures less than 32 cents per capita, while for the white children it was about $15.30 per capita. The report further shows that in the seven counties surrounding and touching Wilcox county there were 64,285 Negro children of school age, for whom $47,719.24 was appropriated. These same counties reported 21,841 white children of school age, for whom $224,842.32 was appropriated. The following tabu lated report indicates the distribution of this money:1
Negro Children
COUNTIES

White Children

Population Apportionment Population Apportionment .... Monroe . . Dallas. ....... Butler . ,,.... 5,107 15,860 11,633 6,919 6,054 10,060 9,462 64,285 $ 3,605.08 14,567.10 8,694.94 4,800.00 4,584.12 3,945.60 7,522.60 $47,719.24 3,568 2,629 1,304 5,088 4,323 2.742 2,239 21,843 $24,309.12 45,734.58 28,371.20 84,000.00 27,706.06 39,380.54 25,340.54 $244,842.32

It is true that many reports can be cited showing better treatment of the Negro schools. But certainly the cases simi lar to the ones quoted here are alarmingly plentiful. The situation, moreover, is often a good deal worse than the pub lished reports would indicate. For instance, when Wilcox county in Alabama in 1909 reported 10,000 Negroes and 2,000 whites there were reported fifty-five schools for whites and forty-eight schools for Negroes. Even with this official re port, reliable Negro citizens of the county declared that they had absolutely no knowledge of more than six schools for colored people taught in that county during the year, and that the public school system for Negroes in that county had practically been given up. In those six schools the teachers received from $16 to $18 per month. In that county the United Presbyterian Church had established six private schools for Negroes and in presenting their statistics the school au thorities of the county counted these private schools. In order to study the city schools for Negroes from the superintendents' point of view, the Conference addressed a questionnaire 1 to the superintendents in two hundred and sixty-two (262) cities in fourteen southern states, the cities being chosen on the basis of population. The questionnaire asked, among other things, if the Negro teachers in these city systems were efficient; and the answers are in the main encouraging. The following summary of answers is selfexplanatory:
Best I ever saw Very good Yes .......... In the majority of cases . The average good 1 . 3 .71 . 14 , 1

Perry. ....... Total . ...

1 From "The Crisis," Vol. Ill, No. 6, p. 229.

'The questionnaire to city superintendents appears on page 13 of this putlication.

104

The Negro Common School Fairly. ."...................,.. 13 Satisfactory ......................1 ...............1 .. Yes, in low grades. 1 Moderately well 1 Half. ........... 1 Comparatively. .... 1 Fair; some excellent. .... ...... , 1 Reasonably 1 Yes, for Negroes ....... 1 Some, but nearly all are earnest 10 Some . .

Superintendents and Teachers

105

The Anna T. Jeanes Fund, which is doing excellent work in many ways and is proving an educational blessing to many a rural community in the South, experiences great difficulties in its work as the resultant of local school conditions. It is not surprising then that some curious results are evident. A statement of the work in Brookland district, Henrico county, Virginia, for 1910-11, will bear out the point:
No. of teachers Average Average at in school monthly daily tendance roll
Money Raised 1910-11
INDUSTRIAL WORK DONE OUTSIDE THE REGULAR STUDIES

Few. .......... No. .

Not altogether..........

.......

4 . 1 . 1

The superintendents in many places, however, criticize these teachers. Their first criticism is indeed strangely naive: thirty-five of them complain of "lack of education," "lack of broad learning," "lack of culture," etc., on the part of the Negro teachers. This is undoubtedly a just criti cism. But what is the cause of this condition? The cause may be stated as follows: 1. The Negro public schools of the South are so curtailed in curriculum that they are less and less providing students for the higher schools. 2. The graduates of the higher private schools are not usually desired by the school authorities because: (a) These authorities put especial stress on technical teaching. Twenty-two superintendents ask for more manual training to replace other work. One wishes all to be indus trial work after the fourth or fifth grade, one after the fourth grade, and one wants Negro schools to be "almost wholly industrial." For this reason, teachers are employed who can teach cooking and sewing, while but little attention is paid to their other qualifications or their qualifications in other lines. Small wonder that, as one superintendent complains, the work in domestic science is "good" but the "regular" school work is unsatisfactory! Moreover, strong outside pressure is being applied to im prove the industrial work while very little and in many places practically nothing is said about learning to read and write and cipher.

88

65
40.27 34.53

Planted flowers, laid a walk around side of school, whitewashed fence, purchased two lamps, clock. tables, dishes, kitchen articles; cooking, sew ing, carpentry, preserving, canning. Taught sewing, woodwork, paper cutting, gar dening. Garden plot 30x16 feet. Sewing, paper cutting, cardboard work. Put pic tures on walls. Helping fix kitchen. Gave shells to beautify yard. Taught caning, basketry, paper folding, sewing. canning and preserving. Taught cabinet making from boxes, sewing, pa per folding. Pictures donated by Dr. King, of the Virginia Union Univ. A rented building. Taught sewing, basketry and woodwork. Built woodhouse and improved interior of building. Cement walks and improved toilets. Made work bench and cooking table. Improved grounds. Taught sewing, canning, preserving, box furni ture making.

1 1 1

qq

17 21
21

e 09 cc

26 27

$17.01

$40.00

43

SB

53

41

$50.00 60.00

Painted building, laid cement walks, planted hedge and flowers. Taught cooking, sewing. canning, preserving and raffia work. Bought curtains for school and flag. Taught pa per cutting, sewing, raffia and woodwork. Taught cooking, sewing, woodwork and basketry. Bought flag, water coolers and individual drink ing cups, shades, curtains, tools. Set out hedge and whitewashed trees and fences. Built woodhouse. Repaired outhouses. Taught sewing, raffia, paper cutting and wood work. Whitewashed trees, planted flowers and helped keep yard clean.

$102.00

67

47
14.66

When one considers this work there are certain things plain. These teachers have enough to do in nearly all cases if they teach the children to read and write and cipher. If in addition to that they do this other work well in all proba bility the regular work of the school will suffer. It is asking

106

The Negro Common School

School Superintendents* Answers

107

too much of one to teach common school branches to thirtyfive or forty children each day and in addition raise money, repair the school house and teach sewing, canning and pre serving, etc. We have the word of the district superintendent that the industrial work was unusually well done. One can not feel so sure concerning the efficiency of the regular school work. When now the layman objects to such a system he is by no means an enemy of industrial and manual training. Most of the industrial work done here is good in itself and well worth doing. But when it is done at the expense of teaching children to read and write and cipher well, it would seem that the system is not the best. It is quite natural, then, that there should be and is a demand for a larger teaching force and a longer school term. (b) Broadly trained Negro teachers are feared by many school authorities because they have "too much egotism" or "individuality" and because they can not be depended upon "to teach the Negro his place." The result is that many su perintendents and trustees will, therefore, hire a half-trained graduate of an industrial school who can teach a few indus tries and then complain that the teacher lacks education and culture.1 3. The colored graduates of colleges and normal schools of high grade cannot afford to teach in most of the public schools of the South because of the wretched wages paid. Teachers from outside of the community often find it abso lutely impossible to live on these wages. In many of the larger towns of the South the pay of Negro teachers is so small that many of the best teachers are being forced into other lines of work.
institu !The following is a reprint of a note received by the principal of a private Negro teacher's tion in Georgia from a colored teacher of the largest school in the county. This salary is $14 a month and she teaches more than one hundred children:

In addition to the question concerning the efficiency of the colored teachers in the city schools, the superintendents were asked their opinion of the work done by these Negro city schools. Some of the answers are printed here:
School Superintendents' Answers Alabama Birmingham. Opinion: Far from satisfactory. Gadsden. Defects: Lack of experience and more training. Opin ion: When we can pay more and hence enable them to improve we will get fine results. Huntsville. Defects: Lack of enthusiasm for the work and indiffer ence to further preparation and thoro self-improvement. Methods are poor in many instances. Opinion: Our school is far above the average. The work is very satisfactory. Mobile. Defects: Lack of scholarship; overcrowded grades; lack of vital interest in the welfare of the child. Salary the chief concern. Need of better teachers. Opinion: Work is good considering the salaries paid to inexperienced teachers and the irregularity of the attendance. The average colored teacher does not realize the responsibility resting upon her. New Decatur. Defects: Lack of education, positiveness and person ality. Opinion: Some good accomplished. Very good considering the opportunities. Manual training needed. Selma. Defects: Lack of scholarship, individuality. Too much imitative work. Opinion: Have no fixed opinion. Talladega. Opinion: Gradually improving. Teachers more efficient than they were ten years ago. A large element of Negroes improving. Tuscaloosa. Defects: Lack of suitable preparation; indifferent nat ural ability. Opinion: In clerical and memoriter subjects the quality is quite good. Florida Oak. Defects: None. Opinion: They are the best things to Live help make better people of the Negroes. Ocala. Defects: None well defined. Opinion: Probably most are doing good work and some are trifling away time. The worst feature that we have to handle is that of tardiness. Georgia Opinion: The work is unusually good. In addition to liter Albany. ary work, cooking and sewing is taught all the older girls and woodwork to the boys.

my 12, 19011.

early Prof. I drop yo this card to let yo know that i will be in on that train munday morning tell mrs. markos to meet the train.

yours

108

The Negro Common School

Americus. Opinion: Excellent. Athens. Defects: I do not know that they have any defects that would differentiate them from other teachers. Opinion: Under the cir cumstances they are doing very well. Columbus. Opinion: We are doing efficient work for the Negro. Dalton. Defects: Lack of technical training. Opinion: Often the education received by Negro children is such as to unfit them for useful lives. Dublin. Defects: Inability to use their time most advantageously. Opinion: Unusually good here. Macon. Defects: In a small percentage, indifference, laziness, lack of conscientiousness. Opinion: They are doing excellent work. On the whole the teachers are capable, conscientious, and earnestly striving to uplift their race. They are teaching the Negro youth to adapt them selves to conditions and environments. Marietta. Defects: Each has his own. One in general is too great a tendency to become mechanical. Opinion: Good beyond a doubt. Newnan. Defects: The teachers are good enough for the salary paid. Opinion: They do good work for their race. Savannah. Defects: Broader scholarship is needed. Teachers work under adverse circumstances. Opinion: I think it is very good. I have very little trouble with them. Thomasville. Defects: Common to all teachers. Opinion: Com pares favorably with the work of whites.
Kentucky

School Superintendents* Answers

109

Maysville. Defects: Lack of progressive ideas and willingness to put such ideas into effect. Lack of sympathy for each other. Poor schol arship. Opinion: Our schools are doing good creditable work. Middlesboro. Defects: They possess fewer of these than any faculty of Negroes I ever had. Opinion: Ours is doing fine work, but so far as I know, we are an exception to the rule. Industrial training very beneficial. Newport. Defects: Characteristic of the general defects of the race. Opinion: The work is fairly good and the progress of the pupils satisfactory thru the primary and intermediate grades. In the higher intermediate department and in the high school subjects, the results show a greater difference between the colored pupils and white pupils of the same department. At the point where reason and judgment are required the colored child falls behind the white child in degree very much more noticeable than in the primary and intermediate departments. Owensboro. Opinion: Fairly good. Paris. Defects: A knowledge of what it means to be a teacher. Genuine interest in the race and its improvement. Opinion: It is doing much good. No educated Negro has been in jail or fined in police court.
Louisiana

Ashland. Opinion: Considering the amount of work the teachers are doing, I think the results from our colored schools are very favora ble. Bowling Green. Defects: Their race and blood are against them. They lack originality and initiative. Opinion: They are doing some good, but not an amount commensurate with the time and money. They should have more training in agriculture, manual and domestic sciences. Covington. Defects: Lack of accurate scholarship and professional courtesy. Opinion: In upper grades more attention needs to be given to the industrial and vocational, less to the purely academic. Henderson. Defects: Too mechanical; lack of originality; lack of ambition. Opinion: Doing good work, especially when the handicap under which they have to work is considered the indifference of a num ber of Negroes. Lexington. Defects: Lack of initiative and broad learning. Opin ion: Very good considering opportunities. Louisville. Opinion: Good.

Baton Rouge. Defects: Lack of scholarship; lack of professional training. Opinion: Rather unsatisfactory. New Orleans. Defects: Lack of education and moral instruction. Opinion: Should be vocational after fourth grade. There should be reg ular high school and college opportunities for teachers and other leaders of the race.
Maryland

Annapolis. Defects: Disposition to ape white people's ways and instill them into their pupils. Opinion: In the city they are doing very satisfactory work, but in the country it is very hard to follow them as they have no efficent supervision owing to the schools being scattered over such a large area. Cumberland. Defects: The properly educated Negro teacher can accomplish much by persistent effort and personal detachment. The most prominent obstacle in the way is the desire to claim acquaintance with the higher studies and disinclination to all that tends to local effi ciency. Mississippi Columbus. Defects: Their defects are' not so great as their lack of opportunity to do good work. Opinion: The schools are doing good work. Lack of appreciation on the part of adults and the consequent poor at tendance prevent schools having a fair chance. Negroes are not produc tive enough to keep their children in school.

110

The Negro Common School

School Superintendents' Answers

111

Corinth. Defects: Lack of education and professional training, and race development. Opinion: Of very little value both as to efficiency and results. Greenville. Defects: Hunger for the dollar instead of benefit to the children. Opinion: The Negro school is essential to qualify the Negroes for manhood and womanhood, and the results are encouraging. Hattiesburg. Opinion: Very good. Laurel. Defects: Lack of sound scholarship. Opinion: Fairly good. It is our intention to introduce domestic training. Natchez. Opinion: Very good. Vicksburg. Defects: Lack of education; lack of power to govern except by brute force. Missouri Boonville. Opinion: Some of the work is of a high order. Cape Girardeau. Opinion: Work should be almost wholly industrial. Carthage. Defects: Lack of critical knowledge of the subjects they have to teach. Opinion: Not satisfactory. Lack of harmony between the work of the school and the life of the Negro people. Chillicothe. Opinion: Work as good as in the schools for white. Clinton. Defects: Restricted scholarship. Opinion: Rather poor. Independence. The defects are a matter of detail. Opinion: Schools are doing good work. Jefferson City. Opinion: Schools are doing good work considering the handicap of such a small number of well-ordered homes. Lexington. Defects: Indifference. Lack of sympathy with the people. Lack of creative power as teachers. Opinion: Too much time spent on things that are not practical. Need of more industrial training. Opinion: Individual defects not general. Marshall. Defects: Doing good work. More industrial training needed. Maryville. Defects: Inexperience; ineffective teaching. Opinion: Stronger teachers and more industrial work needed. Mexico. Defects: Do not read enough. Opinion: Good under con ditions. Poplar Bluff. Opinion: Doing just as efficient work as the white schools. Springfield. Defects: Haven't any. Opinion: Excellent. St. Joseph. Opinion: Most of them are faithful and sincere, others do not regard the calling of much importance. Better support from pa rents needed. Trenton. Defects: Too much rote work. Opinion: Work as well done as one could expect with one teacher for all grades.

Warrensburg. Defects: Not sufficiently interested in the culture of their race. Opinion: Slowly improving. Webb City. Opinion: Only ten Negro children of school age out of three thousand six hundred and sixty-six school children. These are sent to Joplin schools.
North Carolina

Asheville. Defects: Lack of thoroness, breadth of view and train ing in methods. Opinion: Doing fairly good work which is improving every year. Compulsory attendance is helping greatly. Burlington. Defects: Chief trouble lies in the parents. They are ignorant and do not appreciate the school. Opinion: Until this year the teachers were not efficient, thus making the work very unsatisfactory. At present the work is progressing. Charlotte. Opinion: Very good. Kinston. Defects: Lack of thoro preparation. Opinion: They are doing good work. Newbern. Defects: Initiative. Opinion: Work is very creditable. Attendance irregular. Should have more practical training, manual training. Salisbury. Defects: Lack of sympathy. Opinion: More manual training and domestic science should be given. Washington. Opinion: Work very satisfactory, some excellent. Winston-Salem. Defects: Lack of preparation. Opinion: Very good.
Oklahoma

Chickasha. Defects: Morality and discipline. Opinion: Efficient, considering conditions a few years back. Room for vast improvement. El Reno. Defects: Inability to put into execution suggestions. Fail ure to realize the importance of small matters. Opinion: Quite effect ive. Our school is doing much for the Negro of this community. Enid. Defects: Egotism. Opinion: They are successful teachers. Guthrie. Defects: None. Opinion: The Negro schools in this city are not excelled anywhere. My teachers are gentlemen and ladies and they are developing the boys and girls along this line. The colored chil dren are crowding the whites for supremacy. McAlester. Defects: Lack of system, defective education. Opin ion: The schools should furnish industrial training but do not. Ponca City. Opinion: The work is good. Shawnee. Defects: Lack of academic education and professional training. Opinion: Domestic science department doing good work. Reg ular work of the grades unsatisfactory, due to poorly prepared .teachers.

112

The Negro Common School

School Superintendents' Answers

113

Tulsa. Opinion: It is not as good as the rest of the work on the whole and yet two or three of the teachers are doing a high grade of work. The rest of the work is fair to good.
South Carolina

Abbeville. Defects: Lack of discipline and preparation. Opinion: The Negro schools would accomplish more if domestic science were intro duced, even at the expense of high school work. Anderson. Opinion: Not perfect but good. Newberry. Opinion: They attempt to do too much with the classics instead of those studies which increase the earning capacity of the race and make them better citizens. Union. Opinion: A very high grade of work. Tennessee Chattanooga. Defects: Lack of education; parrot-like adaptation of what they are taught; lack of individuality. Columbia. Defects: Lack of ambition as to character building; aversion to the various avocations, and stressing too strenuously the year of Jubilee. Knoxville. Defects: Lack of practicability. Opinion: Not up to standard of white. Work inclined to abstract. Nashville. Defects: Lack of broad scholarship; poor judgment. Opinion: The work on the whole is fair. More manual and less literary work should be given.
Texas

Austin. Defects: Difficult matter to write out defects of a teacher. Opinion: To prepare the children for best citizenship. Beaumont. Defects: Tactful discipline. Opinion: The work is ex cellent and Negroes are uplifted thru these schools. Belton. Defects: Lack of sufficient funds renders work of teachers defective. Opinion: Work compares favorably with that of other schools of the state. Bonham. Defects: Lack of scholarship; lack of native capacity; lack of energy. Opinion: Results far inferior to the average white school. Brownwood. Opinion: Doing a good work and a good thing for the colored people. Corpus Christi. Opinion: Doing good work and are well thot of by the white population. Corsicana. Defects: Such as are peculiar to their race. Opinion: The work is fairly satisfactory considering all the difficulties. The atten-

dance is irregular, co-operation of parents not good, pupils not well pro vided with books, clothing, lack of refinement in the home. Denison. Defects: Lack of experience; lack of ability; lack of per sonality. Opinion: The work should consist largely of the industrial and the mechanical. Denton. Defects: Just being Negroes. Opinion: Our schools im prove the morals of colored children. El Paso. Defects: Lack of application; lack of self control. Opin ion: Not enough attention paid to practical work. This is being obviated by the introduction of manual training and domestic economy. Gainesville. Opinion: Good. Galveston. Defects: They will compare favorably with white teach ers of the same educational advantages. Greenville. Opinion: There, should be more industrial work in the high schools. ' Hillsboro. Defects: Superficiality. Opinion: After the fourth and fifth grades the schools should be largely industrial. Marlin. Opinion: The schools should be such as to help the Negro to live cleanly and make an honest and sufficient living and do good unto his race. Marshall. Defects: Lack of thoro knowledge of subject matter and of correct methods. Laziness. Lack of pride in work. These de fects are not universal. Opinion: Some of the work is good, but there is not enough preparation for making a living. The children get good moral training. Navasota. Opinion: The work should be more vocational than the public schools are. Orange. Opinion: Too much superficiality. More practical courses needed and better preparation of teachers, also industrial training. Palestine. Defects: Lack of culture and professional training. Opinion: More good would come to the individual and to the state if agriculture, domestic science and vocational subjects were added, these to be determined by local conditions. Paris. Opinion: Doing good work. More practical work needed. Negro children do not attend school regularly. San Antonio. Defects: Lack of scholarship; deficiency of morals; lack of regard for merit. Opinion: The character of the work is good. Taylor. Defects: Too much "pedagoguery," too little "practical ity. '' Opinion: ' 'The education of the Negro should give him high moral ideals and train him to strive after their realization; moreover, it should fit him for the work he must do to make a livelihood and a good citizen. What we now offer them does not do much of this."

114

The Negro Common School

Disfranchisement and the Public School

115

Terrell. Defects: Lack of scholarship and professional training. Opinion: Very good. Texarkana. Defects: Politics. Opinion: They do very well. Victoria. Opinion: The work is good, and whatever fault there is is with the plan of work. Waco. Defects: Not enough earnestness. Opinion: Excellent work in every respect. Waxahachie. Defects: Lack of discipline. Opinion: Not good. There should be more manual and less literary instruction. Weatherford. Defects: Lack of scholarship and personality. Opin ion: Fairly good. Virginia Alexandria. Defects: I think our colored teachers are above the average. I am in favor of individual training of Negroes. Opinion: I am of the opinion that we have too little domestic science and manual training in our colored schools. Am making every effort to carry out my ideas along this line but am very much handicapped by lack of funds. Charlottesville. Opinion: Work splendid. Danville. Defects: They hold themselves aloof. It is not a defect in teaching but of the government of the schools. Opinion: The work in our Negro schools is very good. We have manual training and domes tic science in which they excel. We have no white teacher in Negro schools. Norfolk. Defects: They are well qualified, enthusiastic and efficient. Opinion: The work here is very satisfactory, the spirit is good and the attendance excellent about 93 per cent. Portsmouth. Defects: Imitation without discretion; roughness toward pupils. Our schools show good results in scholarship and man ners, and we hope in morals as the teachers stress this. While the atten dance is fair there is a vast number of absences, cases of tardiness, with numberless truancies. Opinion: We feel here that the work is good and the results satisfactory. Compulsory education and free text books might secure very much better results. Radford.- Opinion: One of our schools is doing good work. It is taught by graduates of Hampton. They give a good school and so far as I can see teach the Negro public and practical service. Richmond. Opinion: Negro schools are doing good but we need more industrial work so that the Negro may realize the dignity of ser vice. Staunton. Opinion: The work of the Negro schools is good.

West Virginia Bluefield. Defects: Poor disciplinarians; weak scholarship; teachers talk too much themselves; some teach for money and not for the good they may do. Opinion: As yet the work of the majority of the Negro schools is below the average. Too often the teachers lack in scholarship and too often politics tend to keep that class of teachers in as they can be used for political purposes. The Negro schools in this state are im proving fast. Moundsville. Defects: Lack of discipline. Opinion: It is very good and ranks fairly with the same work of the white schools. Parkersburg. Opinion: The course of study should allow quite a selection and provide manual training and domestic science. Wheeling. Defects: Lack of professional interest. Desire for ease. Opinion: The work at present is of good quality. This is mainly due to the principal who is a very capable man and maintains a high standard of effort for his teachers and his school. Section 24. Disfranchisement and the Public School

Since 1890 five and a half million Negroes, over half of whom can read and write and who own fully $150,000,000 worth of property, have been practically deprived of all voice in their own government. The restrictions by which this has been accomplished are eight in number: 1. Illiteracy: The voter must be able to read and write. 2. Property: The voter must own a certain amount of property. 3. Poll tax: The voter must have paid his poll tax for the present year or for a series of years. 4. Employment: The voter must have regular employment. 5. Army service: Soldiers in the Civil War and certain other wars, or their descendants, may vote. 6. Reputation: Persons of good reputation who understand the duties of a citizen may vote. 7. "Grandfather" clause: Persons who could vote before the freedmen were enfranchised or descendants of such persons may vote. 8. Understanding clause: Persons may vote who understand some selected clause of the Constitution and can explain it to the satisfaction of the registration officials. The states have adopted these qualifications apparently as follows:1
This table is but approximately accurate as the laws are often obscurely drawn and not easily understood in some cases.

116

The Negro Common School 1890 Mississippi (1 or 8)+3. 1895 South Carolina 1 or 2 or 8. 1898 Louisiana (1+2) or 7. 1901 North Carolina (1+3) or 7. 1901 Alabama (l-J-4) or 2 or 5 or 6 1902 Virginia (1+3 or 5) or 8 or 2. 1909 Georgia 1 or 2 or 5 or 6.

Disfranchisement and the Publir School

117

To illustrate the immediate effect of these disfranchising laws, the following statistical tables are given:
LOUISIANA White 1900 1900 Males 21 years or over ..... ...... Illiterate 1908 Registered voters . .
729,612 178,595 146,219 32,376 152,135

Negro

. . . .

...

147,348 90,262 1,748

LOWNDES COUNTY, ALABAMA Males of Voting Age Whites . Total, 1900 . . Illiterate .... Total registered 1902 . Total registered 1906 . . . . . ... 1,138 81 1,067 1,097 1,142 Negroes 6,455 4,667 1,788 39 52 7,593 4,748 2,845 1,136 1,194 Total

From the latter table we may conclude that nearly ninetynine (99) per cent of the Negroes in Lowndes county, Ala bama, 21 years of age and over have been disfranchised and over ninety-seven (97) per cent of those who can read and write. Taking these two cases as typical and considering the general movement of disfranchisement, the question arises: What effect has this had on the Negro public schools ? After the disfranchisement laws were passed, the next step which the radical South wished was the overthrow or distinct curtailment of Negro schools. The argument, of course, of the better South had always been: If you take the Negro out of politics you will leave us free from the fear of Negro domination and put us upon our honor to treat this de pendent race with fairness and good will. The better South,

however, forgot to reckon with its masters. Its masters are the mass of white voters who come more or less into economic competition with the Negroes and who are the historic ene mies of the black man. In order to get the votes of these white workingmen, the better class of the South has not hesitated to cater to their anti-Negro bias, and the southern demagogs have done more than cater to it they have distinctly encouraged it. The result is that since disfranchisement it has been quite impos sible for the best class of southerners to stop the wave of de termination to curtail the facilities for Negro education. A very frequent argument in the South to induce the whites to better themselves is to point out the shameful consequences of allowing Negroes to surpass them in any respect. And this, instead of resulting in increased efforts on the part of the whites to excel, is apt to result in increased determina tion to keep Negroes down. This determination is voiced in various ways. Sometimes it is evidenced by sheer physical force. For instance, the county school commissioner of Pulaski County, Ga., reports for 1909 that during one year "five school houses for colored children, with their contents, have been burned. All of these fires are reported to be the work of the incendiary.'' During the last few years the burning of Negro school houses, churches and lodge houses by white neighbors has been frequent in the gulf states. Further than this, delib erate effort has been made by school authorities to cut down school appropriations. In the rural schools of North Carolina, for instance, the colored teachers were paid $224,800 in 1907 and $221,800 in 1908; during this same time the amount paid white teachers in the rural districts was increased by $50,000. In South Carolina the per capita increase of school money spent on Negro children has been less than twenty per cent, while that for whites has increased over one hundred per cent. In Alabama the average length of the public school for Negroes was cut from 95 days in 1908 to 92 days in 1909 and to 90 days in 1910, while the average salary paid Negro school teachers was also decreased. At the same time the private

n ii i

118

The Negro Common School

Disfranchisement and the Public School

119

schools for Negroes, supported largely by northern benevo lence, were reduced thirty-four per cent. In spite of these three facts the state school superintendent, evidently with his eyes simply on the whites, says that it is "interesting to note the increased efficiency of the Alabama school system." While there were in 1908-9, 647,914 more white children in school in the South than there were in 1899-1900, there were only 152,067 more Negroes and the percentage of enrollment for the total school population had decreased among the Negroes from fifty-seven (57.67) per cent to fifty-six (56.34) per cent; the percentage of enrollment in average daily attendance had de creased for these years. In North Carolina the average term of the colored schools decreased during that year and so had the average monthly salary of the teachers. Not only has the general enrollment and attendance of Negro children in the rural schools of the lower South and to a large extent of the city schools been at a standstill in the last ten years and in many cases actually decreased but many of the school authorities have shown by their acts and in a few cases expressed declaration that it was their policy to eliminate the Negro schools as far as possible. Another phase of the situation presents itself. Using the official reports of about the same time, if in Mississippi you take eleven counties where the white children are receiving $20 or more per capita for their education you find that these counties are in every single case counties where the black children are in large majority. On the other hand, taking the thirty-three counties where the white children are receiving less than $10 a head, one finds that in all but eight of these counties the white children are in the ma jority, and in three of the eight the numbers of white and black children are about the same. This means, of course, that in the black belt of Mississippi the counties draw their share of the state money according to the number of white and black children and then that money is spent almost exclusively upon the white children, giving them a per capita as high as $50 a head in one county. On the other

hand, in the white belt of Mississippi where there are more white children and fewer blacks the white school fund sinks to from $3 to $5 a head. Now the white children of the black belt are largely children of rich land owners, while those of the white belt are the children of the poor whites. If, how ever, the white belt objects to this per capita distribution of the school money, immediately the black belt threatens to let black folk vote, and to give them schools; and as much as the white belt desires education for itself, it hates education for blacks enough to refrain from radically changing this peculiar situation. In other words, we have here in the cen ter of the South a peculiar result of disfranchisement anal ogous with the increased power of the white voter of the South as compared with the white voter of the North. Thus the situation is so anomalous that it explains much of the bitterness of Mississippi politics. There is a distinct endeavor to curtail the facilities of edu cation which the Negroes already possess. This can be seen in the persistent campaigns carried on in the North and directed toward the North which say in effect, that the Negroes' edu cation as carried on by northern philanthropists has been a mistake, that it is an interference with the local conditions in the South, and that the stream of benevolence ought to be stopped. There is no doubt but that this argument has had tremendous influence upon the benevolent public. Again there has been a continual effort to curtail Negro education by reducing the number of grades in the Negro pub lic schools. Macon and Augusta, Georgia, and New Orleans, Louisiana, are typical in this connection. The lack of public high schools for Negroes is one of the greatest drawbacks of the southern school system. This, however, is spoken of else where in this study. The only remedy for this state of affairs and for discrimin ation, retrogression and paralysis of the whole school system of the South is democracy- the putting into the hands of all men of the South the weapon of self-defense which will not leave them merciless beneath the blows of prejudice and ignorance.

120
Section 25.

The Negro Common School The Cost of Negro Schools

The Cost of Negro Schools

121

What do the Negro schools of the South cost and who pays for them ? It is frequently charged that Negro education is a burden on the white tax-payer of the South; similarly it is urged that only such amounts should be expended on the Negro schools as are collected from Negroes in the way of taxes. Such is the reply, alike to the student who seeks to investigate the condition of public education in the South and to the Negro citizen who asks for more and better facilities for the training of black children. It is difficult to secure exact statistics of expenditures according to race. However, such data as the Conference has been able to present in this study are worth while and give evidence of the fact that the Negroes are bearing, and that in a larger way than is generally supposed, a considera ble share of the expense of public education in the South. Mr. Charles L. Coon, for some time superintendent of schools in Wilson, North Carolina, has made a study of public taxation and Negro education. We quote freely in the follow ing pages from his "Public Taxation and Negro Schools," a paper read before the twelfth annual conference for educa tion in the South, held in Atlanta, Ga., in April, 1909, and published by the Committee of Twelve for the Advancement of the Negro Race:
I shall confine this paper to the investigation of the question, "Is the Negro public school in the South a burden on the white tax-payer, and if so, to what extent?" For the purpose of this investigation, 1 shall include the eleven, southern states which, in 1900, contained 7,199,374 of the 8,840,789 Negroes then living in the United States, or 81.4 per cent of the Negro population of the country. These states are Virginia, North Caro lina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and Tennessee. In these eleven states the total popu lation in 1900 was 18,975,665, of which 11,776,391 was white and 7,199,374, or 40.1 per cent was Negro. First. In order to find out whether the Negro public school is a burden on the white tax-payer in these states, it is necessary, first of all, to ascertain what these states are spending for public schools, both white and colored. The latest reports of the several departments of education indicate that these eleven states are now spending about $32,068,851 for

elementary and secondary public education. This sum represents every item of expense. ... Second. The South is spending $32,068,851 on her public schools, both white and black, but what part of this sum is devoted to Negro public schools, which must serve at least forty per cent of her school population? It is not possible to answer this question with absolute accuracy. But it is possible, from ,the several state reports, to find out the whole amount spent for teachers, and, in all the states except Arkansas, what was spent for white and Negro teachers separately. The aggregate amount now being spent for public school teachers of both races in these eleven states is $23,856,914, or 74.4 per cent of the whole amount expended. Of this sum not more than $3,818,705 was paid to Negro teachers, or twelve per cent of the total expenditures. And here let me call your attention directly to the fact that nearly three-fourths of our total public school expenditures are for teachers, but that Negro teachers receive only twelve per cent of the total expended, while white teachers receive sixtytwo (62.4) per cent. It is also evident that the amount spent for Negro teachers is by far the largest item of expense of the Negro public schools.
EXPENDITURES FOR TEACHERS AND TOTAL COST OP NEGRO SCHOOLS o g 3 g STATE AND YEAR 1 I Virginia, 1907 .... North Carolina, 1908. . South Carolina, 1908 . . ... (Georgia, 1907 . Florida, 1908 . . Alabama, 1908 . . Mississippi, 1907 . . Louisiana, 1907 Texas, 1906 ... Arkansas, 1907 ... Tennessee, 1907 . Total .
2,958,160 1,595,986 2,850,211 1,584,043 2,195,325 2,631,790 3,481,276 6,344,739 2,413,768 2,705,457 k
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14.7 13.6 17.3 17.7 14.9 12.4 21.9 8.6 14.5 10.8 18.2

$ 3,308,086 $ 1,761,264 $ 389,945 53.2 11.7 $99,283

1,374,143 1,102,094 1,819,321 864,214 1,712,898 1,515,685 1,810,474 4,527,877 1,784,519 1,765,720 313,914 254,161 420,664 153,062 240,179 469,073 196,411 782,412 189,300 409,584

46.4 10.6 88,744 69.0 16.0 20,798 63.8 14.7 85,506 54.5 9.6 82,428 78.0 10.9 32,822 57.5 17.7 107,890 52.0 5.6 104,438 71.3 12.3 142,183 73.9 7.8 72,414 65.2 15.2 81,164

$489,228 402,658 274,959 506,170 235,490 273,001 576,963 300,849 924,595 261,714 490,748

35.7
33.3 58.4 46.7 43.7 45.3 58.7 47.2 20.4 28.0 23.8

$32,068,851 $20,038,209 83,818,705 62.4 12.0 8917,670 $4,736,375 14.8 40.1

NOTE. In the Virginia report the amount paid Negro teachers is not given, but the number of Negro teachers and their average salary is given. In the Tennessee report the average salary of all teachers and the number of Negro teachers is given. The amount credited to Negro teachers, is, therefore, likely too large. The amount credited to Negro teachers in Arkansas is based on the average tuition and enrollment in Negro schools. The average tuition is likely too high for Negro schools. In all calculations the Negro teachers are credited with such amounts as the face of the reports indicates. Investigation would undoubtedly lower the figures of some states.

Third. But aside from the expense of Negro teachers, what is the additional cost of the Negro public schools? This additional cost cannot be accurately determined from the data now available. But South Caro-

122

The Negro Common School

The Cost of Negro Schools

123

lina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas five states report the total cost of Negro schools. In these states the additional cost of Negro schools above the cost of teachers is as follows: South Carolina, 1.3 per cent of total expenditures; Florida, 5.3 per cent; Alabama, 1.5 per cent; Mississippi, 4.2 per cent; Texas, 2.2 per cent. These figures indicate that between two and three per cent of the total expenditures for public schools in the South is being devoted to the Negro schools above the cost of Negro teachers. This means that about $917,670 is to be added to the cost of Negro teachers to get the entire cost of the Negro public schools in the South. The aggregate cost of the Negro public schools is, there fore, near $4,736,375, or 14.8 per cent of all expenditures. The signifi cance of these figures is that, while the Negro race has, at least, forty per cent of the children to educate, not quite fifteen per cent of the money expended on public education is being devoted to their schools. Fourth. It is generally assumed in the discussion of the cost of the Negro public schools, that the white race bears all the cost or nearly all; that the Negroes of the South are truly the white man's burden when it comes to paying the bills for public education. ...... And this brings me directly to the main inquiry: Is the Negro public school of the South a burden on the white tax-payer? But here again, complete data with which to work cannot be had. However, this ques tion can be answered for Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia, with some degree of accuracy. First. Is the Negro public school of Virginia a burden on the white tax-payer of that state? (a) The state auditor for 1908 reports the total assessed value of Virginia property at 702,503,778, divided as follows: Listed by whites, 521,612,627, or 74.3 per cent; listed by railroads and other corporations, 155,262,815, or 22.1 per cent; listed by Negroes, 25,628,326, or 3.6 per cent. Thus it will be seen that the state of Virginia does not assess 22.1 per cent of its property as either white or black. This is a fact worth remembering in any discussion of this question. On page 14, Advanced Sheets, State Superintendent's Report, 1907, it is said that Virginia raised for public schools during that year the sum of 3,473,048, of which amount $2,855,871 was raised by state and local taxation, while $450,000 was directly appropriated out of the state treasury. The income of the literary fund was 60,127, leaving the sum of 107,050 raised from other sources. If we assume that the $450,000 directly appropriated to the schools was raised by taxation, then Virginia raised by taxation for schools in 1907, $3,305,871. Bear with me, then, while I set forth what I conceive to be the part the Negro should have of this school fund, if we assume that it is to be divided on the color line and not on the basis of the actual needs of the children to be educated. (b) Property does not raise all this Virginia school fund. The Negroes pay something like 120,000 school poll taxes, after deducting insolvents

and commissions. It is fair to assume that some of the literary fund in come belongs to Negroes, but what part? This fund is neither white nor black. It was not created by white property. Negroes constitute 36 per cent of the population of Virginia, and I take it they should be given 36 per cent of the income of the literary fund, which amounts to 21,649. The ten cents state school tax on Negro property after deducting com missions amounted to at least $22,500 more. The ten cents state school tax on the 155,262,815 railroad and other corporation property would not all, in fairness, belong to the white children. Not many of us, I think, would, a-fter the last few years of agitation, charge the railroads and other corporations with being altogether white. I take it, therefore, that 36 per cent of the proceeds of the ten cents state school tax Virginia levies should be given the Negro schools. This would add about 50,000 more to the Negro school fund. Now we must consider the 1,913,760 raised by Virginia cities, coun ties and districts. If this sum were all raised by property taxation, and we shall so assume, then 3.6 per cent of it was raised on Negro property, 22.1 per cent of it was raised on corporation property, and the remainder on white property. The 3.6 per cent raised locally on Negro property would add 68,895 to the Negro school fund. Then we shall have to add 152,259 more to the account from the corporation property taxed locally, or 36 per cent of the total amount raised on that kind of property. Finally, if the $450,000 directly appropriated to the schools was raised by taxation, then 3.6 per cent of that sum belongs to the Negroes' school fund, also 36 per cent of 22.1 per cent of this 450,000 raised on railroads and other corporation property. These two items will add $16,200 and 35,802, respectively, to the Negroes' part of the school fund of Virginia, not taking into account the balance from 1906 or the fund raised from other sources. Summarizing, the Negroes' part of the school fund raised in 1907 will stand as follows:
. . . From poll tax ........ From literary fund ......... From state corporation tax ...... ,,,....... From state tax on Negro property . ...... , . , ~ - . From local tax on Negro property .
.$ 120,000 21,649 50,000 22,500
152,259 16,200

From local tax on corporations .................... From 3.6 per cent direct state appropriation ........

From 36 per cent direct state appropriation (corporations) ..... Total due to Negroes . .

35,802

... $ 507,305

I have shown before that Virginia is spending only about $489,228 on her Negro schools. If my figures are correct, then $18,077 of the amount which should be devoted to their schools, if we assume the race division of the funds, does not reach the Negro schools of Virginia. I assume that the Negroes' part of the balance from 1906 and their part of the fund from other sources will cancel any balance carried over from 1907 to 1908, so far as the Negro fund is concerned.

124

The Negro Common School

The Cost of Negro Schools

125

Second. Is the Negro public school of North Carolina a burden on the white tax-payer of that state? (a) The total assessed value of all property in North Carolina is $593,485,331, divided as follows: Listed by whites, $440,669,472; listed by Negroes, $21,716,922, or 3.7 per cent; corporations, $111,098,937, or 19.3 per cent. (b) The state superintendent reports for 1908 the school fund as follows:
Balance from 1907 . Local taxes .... Literary fund . . . Bonds and loans . . . Fines, polls, licenses State fund . . State apportionment Other sources . . Total . . $ 413,214.63
. 660,739.40

100,634.00

in a common treasury and distributed. My calculations are made as if such were the case. The practical result of such not being the case would be that the funds for Negroes in this state would be largely in creased in many communities and reduced in others. Hence, I conclude that the Negro school is likely not a burden on the white tax-payer of North Carolina. Third. Finally, is the Negro public school of Georgia a burden on the white tax-payer of that state? (a) On page 397 of the state superintendent's report for 1907 the following is set forth as the school fund of that year:
Balance, 1906. . . . State appropriation Convicts...... Local tax ..... Other sources. . Total...... . . $ 180,190.33
. . 1,744,461.47 199,659.71 750,577.59

208,018.66 631,007.00 1,046,263.10 198,647.00 46,907.11 . $3,294,231.70

. .

136,789.36

(c) If this fund had been divided on the race basis, I think a fair division would be as follows:
33% per cent of 19.3 per cent of $660,740, local tax (corporation) 33% per cent of literary fund of $100,534 .... ............. 3.7 per cent of $198,548, state appropriation (Negro property) .... . . . 33% per cent of 19.3 per cent of $198,548, state appropriation (corporations) . 33% per cent of $254,834 licenses and fines ... . . Poll taxes actually paid ............. 3.7 per cent of $1,045,263 (Negro property) ............. 83% per cent of 19.3 per cent c_ $1,045,263 (corporation property) . . 3.7 per cent of $413,215- L< \: ..ce of 1907 (Negro property) . . SSya per cent of $413,21 ), baia n e of 1907 (corporation property) . 3.7 per cent of $208,018, t-.id (Ne.c-ro property) ............ 33% per cent of 19.3 per cent of $20u,Ul8, bonds (corporation property) . Total due to Negroes . . % 41,864 33,511 7,346 12,773 80,000 38,675 67,245 16,289 . 7,696 13.381

. "$3,011,678.46

(b) On page 8, comptroller's report, 1907, the sources of the state school appropriation are given as follows:
Poll tax . Liquor . . Fertilizer .... Oil ... Shows ...... Georgia Railroad . . W. & A. Railroad . . Prison farm. School lands .... Property tax . . Total . . . . $ 275,000.00 242,000.00 21,000.00 1,600.00 9,616.00 2,046.00 210,000.00 16,639.71 8,680.62 . 1,000,000.00 . $1,786,588.33

. $429,197

I have shown before that North Carolina is likely spending only 2,658 on her Negro schools. This leaves $26,539 of the North Carolina fund which never reached the Negro in 1908. But, it may be objected, there is no account taken in this calculation of the balance carried over from 1908 to 1909. It may be further objected that these calculations take no account of the fact that local taxes are not levied on all the property of the state under consideration, but only on the property in certain communities; also that local taxes are derived from polls as well as property. But the excess of the amount calculated as due Negroes in North Carolina will nearly provide for the balance in question. Local taxes are generally levied in the richer communities and there Negroes own more property and there is more corporation property than in poorer communities. It will hardly make much difference in the final result, if the actual facts were in hand and the calculations made from them. As to the local poll taxes, there is no injustice done in these calculations when it is remembered that the local taxes are all considered as raised on property. The thing to remember here is, that the funds are not all put

(c) It will be observed that $42,126.86 of the state fund is not accounted for in the State Superintendent's report. But this small item may be overlooked for the present. I think a fair division of the school fund of Georgia for 1907 would be as follows:
Negro poll tax.............. , . ..... 46.7 per cent of income, W. & A. R. R. . . . . 46,7 per cent of income from liquor .... ... 46,7 per cent of income from fertilizer . . . . . 46.7 per cent of income from oil ..... 46,7 per cent of income from shows ..... . 46.7 per cent of income from Georgia R. R. .............. 46.7 per cent of income from prison farm .......,,...,.. 46.7 per cent of income from school lands ............... 15 cents tax on $26,904,822 Negro property ............... 46.7 per cent income 15 cents tax, $123,538,172 (corporation property) 46.7 per cent income from convicts ............. . . . . . 3.7 per cent of $887,367, local tax, etc. (Negro property) .... 46.7 per cent of 19.1 per cent of local tax, etc. (corporation property) . Total due to Negroes . . $ 111,898.00
98,072.76 113,014.00 9,807.00 747.20 4,481.67 955.48
7,770.88

. .

4,053.56 38,857.23 86,552.50 93,241.22 32,832.58 45.568.46

. $ 647,85a54

* The total assessed value of all property in Georgia is $699,536,879, divided as follows: White, *540,073,885; Negro, $25,904,822, or 3.7 per cent; corporation, $123,538,172, or 19.1 per cent.

126

The Negro Common School

High Schools

127

I have shown above that Negroes actually received about 506,170 of the Georgia school fund of 1907. This leaves 141,682.54 to the credit of the Negro fund, upon any fair race division. If we count the 42,126.82 not accounted for in the school report and the Negroes' part of the balance carried over to 1908, and also the Negroes' part of the balance due them from 1906, we shall still have a comfortable sum over and above the actual expenditures made for Negro schools by Georgia in 1907. Therefore, I think the Negro schools of Georgia are not a burden on white tax-payers. I do not wish it understood, however, that I favor any such race division of the public school funds as I have suggested above. My object is to show, first of all, that upon any fair division of the present school funds of the three states under consideration, the Negro would likely fare as well as he does at present, in the absence of any such division. I am confident, whether my figures are absolutely accurate or not, that any one who takes the pains to ascertain the present sources of the public funds of these states and then tries to make a fair division of them between the races will come to the conclusion that the Negro school is not very much of a white man's burden, in at least three states, unless the white man is ready to say that the division I suggest is not a fair one. And, in view of the facts set forth for these three states, will the white man be able to maintain successfully that he pays nearly all the cost of the Negro public schools in these states? Time is not at hand to make a detailed study of this question for all the eleven states under consideration. What is true of the school funds of the three states considered above is probably true of all the others. A somewhat careful study of this question for several years leads me to the conclusion that the Negro school of the South is no serious burden on the white tax-payer.

Section 26.

High Schools

In concluding this section on the cost of Negro schools, we quote from "Self Help in Negro Education," by Dr. R. R. Wright, Jr.:
It is probably also true that the Negroes pay possibly a larger per centage of the cost of their schools than any other group of poor people in America. The Negroes have paid in direct property and poll taxes more than 45,000,000 during the past forty years. The Negroes have contributed at least 15,000,000 to education thru their churches. The Negro student possibly pays a larger percentage of the running expenses of the institutions which he attends than any other student in the land.

The work of Negro public education in the South is se riously handicapped by the wholesale neglect of high school facilities for colored children. Recent years have witnessed a notable extension of high school facilities in the South, as is evidenced by the official reports; but the white population has been the fortunate recipient. It seems almost incredible that Atlanta with a Negro population of 51,902, Savannah with a Negro population of 33,246 and Augusta with a Negro population of 18,344, should make no provision for the high school training of their black children. There are some cities in the border, western and south western states which are making large provision for the high school education of their Negro youth, notably Washington, D. C., Baltimore, Md., St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo., and Dallas and Houston, Texas, but these are happy exceptions. The widespread indifference to public high school education for Negroes in the South is an injustice to both parents and children of the Negro race and a serious handicap to the intellectual efficiency of the whole South. (1) It deprives the ambitious Negro youth of that pre paration for college which a good high school course gives. The result here is that the schools for the higher education of the Negro, maintained chiefly by northern philanthropy, must carry preparatory departments in order to fit the Negro youth for college. (2) Many young minds are denied that cultural training which none should be denied and which may be gained from a four years' course of high school rank. Many of these young people will never attend college and it is only fair that there should be some provision for their high school training at public expense. (3) The withholding of public high school education denies the Negro youth that incentive to perseverance which is of so much importance during the period of adolescence. (4) The Negro is in a sense double taxed for this type of education, since he pays his share of the public school tax

128

The Negro Common School

High Schools

129

and in addition is forced to pay tuition charges for his high school training in private institutions of learning. (5) The sum total of intelligence, culture and refinement is less for the whole South than it would be if high school facilities were afforded the Negro youth at public expense. In 1906 the General Assembly of Georgia passed a bill authorizing the establishment of one agricultural high school in each of the eleven congressional districts of the state. All eleven of these schools were established and opened for work by September, 1908. These schools are supported from a fertilizer tax, much of which comes from the pockets of Georgia Negroes. Yet not a single one of these schools has been provided for the instruction of Negro youth, tho the Negroes form 45.1 per cent of the population of the state and fully 80 per cent of them live in the rural districts. The thirty-ninth annual report of the department of edu cation of the state of Georgia, in speaking of these agricultural high schools, which, it must be remembered, are provided only for the white youth of the state, says:
The agricultural high schools have now gone beyond the experimental stage. They are not yet what we hope to make them, but they are proving a success. ..... "The latest philosophy of education shows that that which fits a child best for his place in the world as a pro ducer tends to his own highest development physically, intellectually and morally." It is upon this philosophy that these schools are founded. Secondarily, they are preparatory schools, but most of our graduates will not go to the colleges. The chief purpose is to make the citizen farmer to give the boys and girls that are to develop the high rural civilization of succeeding generations a liberal education in terms of country life. They train both the head and the hand and in requiring labor of every one they teach the dignity of labor. The sturdy young farmer graduate of one of these schools will not live in town and farm by proxy, but he will live in the country and till his own land. He will build up around him a progressive, intelligent and prosperous community. By precept and example he will encourage better farming, the use of better farm machinery and more home conveniences. His home will be neat and attractive, kept by one who is as well trained in her department as he is in his. Good roads, a better school and a better church will be found. The young people will have the best of social, educational and religious advantages. There we will see a happy, independent, prosperous country community, the people living on their own fertile and well tilled farms, enjoying the bountiful

gifts of nature. There we will find a rural civilization in the highest, broadest sense of the word. 1

This work is deserving of the highest praise and commen dation. It is deplorable, however, that the Negro youth of the state are not offered similar opportunities for education and training. The table which appears on the following page, showing the public .high schools for Negroes in the United States, is compiled from the annual reports of the United States Com missioner of Education. This table is misleading, however, owing to the curricula of the alleged high schools. Many of the public schools have taken the name of "high school," tho no high school work is done in them. Others are called by that name from the fact that some work above the ordinary grammar grades is done in them. Georgia, for instance, 13 credited with eleven public high schools for Negroes. As a matter of fact there is not in the whole state a single public high school for Negroes with a four years' course above the eighth grade; and so far as the Conference has been able to ascertain only the following public schools for Negroes in the state of Georgia have any work at all above the eighth grade:
Athens Columbus Milledgeville Vienna

Superintendent Charles L. Coon, who is quoted in the pre ceding section, estimates that during the year 1907 the Negroes of Georgia should have received from the school fund of the state, upon any fair race division, $141,682.54 more than they actually received in the way of school facili ties for their children. This sum if wisely expended would have given high school opportunities to thousands of Negro children of the state. Not only the Negro children but also the whole state would have reaped the benefits. What is true of Georgia in this respect is also true of other southern states. As a rule, the high school education of
1 Thirty-ninth Annual Report of the Department of Education of the State of Georgia, pages 162-164.

II

III

130

The Negro Common School Section 27.

The Outlook The Outlook

131

Negro children is wofully neglected. In order to insure the largest and best results in the future the South must make provision for the high school training of its colored youth.
PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS FOR NEGROES
STATE

1899-1900 1 4 . , ..... 1 2 4 2 8 2 7 15 3

1900-01 1 4 1 2 4 2 8 2 7 18 3 "l"

1901-2 1 3 1 4 2 5 7 1 8 17 2 1 5 19 6 4 99

1902-3 3 5 2 4 2 6 6 1 7 19 1 2 3 1 6 11 29 7 4 123

1903-4 3

1901-5 4 7 1

Alabama ... . Arkansas . District of Columbia Georgia ...

6
7 2 6 1

6 2 6
7 1 10 21 1 3 9 10 37 6 4 146

Indian Territory ........ ........ Kentucky . . ... , Maryland . . Mississippi .... . . ...... Missouri . North Carolina . Ohio ....... Oklahoma ....... South Carolina ....... ......... Texas . . ...... Virginia .... Total

6 1 1 8 19 3 1

7 16 5 3 92

7 8 19 7 3 100

32 5 4 131

STATE

1905-8

1908-7 4 7 1

1907-8 1 5 1 2 2 4 "4

190S-9 3 5 1 1 3 7 4 4

1909-10

Alabama .

. .
.

a
. .

Arkansas .

Delaware ....... District of Columbia . .

Florida . . Georgia ... Indiana .....

Illinois .....

Indian Territory . . . Kansas ... Kentucky. ... Louisiana . ...... . . Maryland ... Mississippi ... Missouri .... North Carolina . Ohio ..... Oklahoma .... Pennsylvania . . South Carolina . . . . . Tennessee. . Texas ....... Virginia ...... . West Virginia . . Total . .

6 1 '5' 1 1
8 22 1 1 3 1 4 31 5

7 1 2 2 6 3

2 2 6 4 7

6 4

6 1 1 6 11 4 6 7 1 1 8 21 '2"
3 1 4 7

It is unfortunate that definite conclusions as to the Negro public schools of the United States must be made on such a fragmentary and partial basis of fact as has been presented in this study. It is nothing less than a shame that the United States Bureau of Education is not given funds and authority sufficient to enable it to tell the whole truth concerning our efforts to educate the children of the freedmen as well as of our general educational system. The figures supplied at present bear on their face the evidence of inaccuracy care lessness and ignorance, as may be plainly seen. We do not as a matter of fact know definitely the facts concerning public education in the South. The Conference has made every effort to secure reliable information upon which to base this study and the resulting evidence speaks for itself. The difficulties which have been met are those difficulties which are common to every attempt at a scientific study of any phase of an intricate social problem. The findings of the Conference are in agreement with the authoritative statements of other educational investigators a few examples of which will suffice. The following quotations are from Mr. W. T. B. Williams, who is field agent of the John F. Slater Fund. 1
In the greater portion of the country the colored people are cut off from the ordinary incentives to interest in education. Aside from teach ing they share not at all, or but little, in the management of the schools or in the popular movements for school improvement. And when the -Negro is considered at all, too often it is merely to be told that his edu cation is a burden to other men, and at best that he ought not expect to reap the same rewards from education as others. In so far as Negro education receives popular favor generally it is with the idea that thereby the Negro may be of greater service to others. That he should be trained for his own best self-development meets but scant popular favor. As a result the Negro is often charged with having no interest in educa tion, or when he makes indifferent use of the public schools, he is blamed -tor being a passive recipient of what they have to give. The apparent indifference of the colored people to public education is
before 1 Prom "The Outlook in Negro Education," a paper read by Mr. W. T. B. Williams the National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools in the summer of 1911.

Y 1 1 17 1 1 3 1 2 31
8

6 IB 'l' 2 10 30 B 2 106
4 1

1 1

7 13 '2'

'e' i i
2

'z
9 32 6 3 112

36
5 5 141

5 3

129

121

132

The Negro Common School try teacher was $<M.3i !.30. salary was only $22.20. 20.

The Outlook

133

due in the main to the ineffectiveness of their schools. And in so far as there is any other real indifference, it is to be overcome mainly thru larger participation in the affairs of the schools. It is not reasonable to expect that the colored people, or any people, will give enthusiastic sup port to any feature of government or of social uplift upon which they have scarcely an opportunity to express an opinion, and from the admin istration of which they are almost entirely excluded. A cursory review of colored schools in seven southern states where most of the colored people live will give a fair idea of general educational conditions in the colored schools of the South. The seven states are Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. South Carolina, with 27,288 more colored than white children, employs only 2,696 colored teachers against 4,180 white teachers. And Mississippi, with 17,247 more colored than white children enrolled in her schools, em ploys 2,547 more white than colored teachers. In all these states the number of colored children enrolled per teacher is greater for the colored than for the white teacher. With an average of 58 pupils to a colored teacher and 46 to a white, they are nearer to gether in Louisiana than elsewhere. In Mississippi and in South Carolina they are farthest apart, each colored teacher having an average of 67 and each white teacher an average of only 36. About seventy per cent of the white school population of these seven southern states is enrolled in the schools. The figures from five of them show, however, that the enrollment of the colored children in one state only, North Carolina, reaches as high as sixty-five per cent, while in Ala bama and Louisiana it drops to forty-one and thirty-nine per cent respec tively. In this group of states the highest average of white school popu lation per teacher is sixty-eight in Louisiana. From this it runs down to fifty and forty-nine in Virginia and Mississippi respectively. On the other hand, the lowest average of colored school population per teacher is eightythree, in North Carolina. And it goes up steadily to 152 children of school age per colored teacher in Alabama. While salaries in all southern schools are relatively low, it is at this point that the colored school suffers most. Colored teachers usually re ceive from one-half to two-thirds the monthly pay of white teachers, and that, outside of the cities, for shorter periods than the whites. And there are but few signs of improvement in these conditions. From many indications it actually seems that the states are going backward in the matter of salaries for colored teachers. North Carolina furnishes a sig nificant example in point. In 1885 the average salary of a colored coun

Twenty years afterwards, in 1905, the average

The following comment of the superintendent will suffice. He says: "It will be observed that the above table shows that considerable more was spent on rural Negro schools in 1895 than in 1905, and that almost as much was spent in 1885 as in 1905. Suppose our white schools showed the same results for the past twenty years, would we not be necessarily alarmed at that evidence of lack of progress?" In his report for 1906, and there has been no material change since, this superintendent says: "In thirty counties (of North Carolina) the Negro country teachers are now paid less than $20 per month each. . . . The country school population of the thirty counties which pay Negro teachers less than $20 per month is 59,665, or nearly one-third of all the Negro country school population of the state." The tendency is toward a rapid increase in the salaries of white teachers without any perceptible increase in the salaries of colored teachers. In Virginia, for example, the average pay for white women teachers has risen in the last one or two years to $39, while the salaries of colored women teachers have remained stationary. As small as the amounts are in each southern state for every child of school age, still they are greatly in excess of the actual amounts spent upon the education of each colored child. In scarcely one of the southern states does a colored child receive half of what goes to each white child. In North Carolina each white child's education costs $3.81 per year, while each colored child gets $1.58; in Mississippi each white child gets $7.63 and each colored child $1.89; in South Carolina, where the greatest dis parity seems to obtain, there is an average expenditure of $10.34 for each white child and $1.70 for each colored child enrolled in the schools. As has been well said, Negro education has never been actually tried in.the South. The average salary paid colored women teachers in nineteen counties of South Carolina is less than $80 per school year. And in five counties of this state the terms of colored schools are given as seven, eight, nine and ten weeks respectively. As for the physical conditions of rural school houses for colored youth, Dr. Dillard of the Jeanes Fund reports to the United States Commissioner of Education as follows after visits in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Alabama: "With rare exceptions I found wretched condi tions in the way of school houses and school equipment."

134

The Negro Common School

The Outlook

135

The following official description given four years ago of school houses for colored youth in North Carolina still holds good, for most rural schools at least: "These children are provided with 2,198 school houses valued at $124.37 each. Only sixty-four of these houses have any patent desks, and the sixty-four thus equipped are found in seventeen different coun ties. All the other Negro school houses are furnished either with home made desks or with benches. Nearly half of these Negro school houses, 964 in all, have no furniture except benches, which of itself makes it next to impossible to do any very effective teaching in the primary grades." What is true generally of our rural schools is too often almost as true of many of our city schools. They are usually, however, better housed, tho often they are badly overcrowded. They have longer terms, richer courses of study, and sometimes are better supervised. It is dis heartening, tho, to see how poor and inadequate many of the colored school buildings are in a number of our otherwise progressive southern cities. Indeed it is not difficult to point out important little southern cities with no colored school buildings at all. In such cases, however, some public money is given to the county school outside or to one or more private colored schools operating in the city. In their excellent provisions for colored schools such cities as Louisville, Nashville, Chattanooga and Little Rock are deserving of great praise, to say nothing of the splendid equipment and the admirable administration of the schools for colored youth in Washington, Indianapolis, St. Louis and other cities of Missouri and Texas. But the conditions reported by the superintendent of schools of Augusta, Georgia, in 1904 obtain still only too frequently in most of our southern cities. The report reads: "Altogether we can accommo date not more than 2,100 pupils in our Negro schools, out of the 6,500 in the school population. This seating capacity is possible only by having two sessions a day in the lower grades, giving the teachers as many as 100 pupils to teach in two sections, one-half in the morning and the other half in the afternoon." The remarkable movement during the last few years for increased high school facilities has hardly touched the colored people at all. The United States Commissioner of Education reports for 1910 only 141 public high schools in the whole United States for the colored race. This is a smaller number than the number of new high schools created during the present school year in a dozen southern states; fewer, too, than were created recently in Virginia alone in eighteen months. Virginia has raised her full number of high schools for whites from 75 to 400 within the last half dozen years. As a southern authority on high schools regretfully says, there are

practically no public high schools for colored people. Generally there is but one public institution in a state giving normal training to prospective colored teachers. This school is generally a part of the agricultural and mechanical college, where the emphasis is usually upon industrial or tech nical training with but little or no attention to special training for actual work in the classroom. And there does not exist for the training of col ored youth a single public institution of full college rank in all the South land. It is not generally known, for instance, even among colored people, to say nothing of whites, that from 1884 to 1900 the A. M. E. Church raised and appropriated for schools $1,140,013.31; that the A. M. E. Zion Church during a recent quadrennium, raised for schools $71,585.21; that several C. M. E. conferences in the South raise for similar purposes about $10,000 annually; that the expenditures for sixty-one Baptist schools, supported almost entirely by Negroes for the single year 1906, amounted to $148,883.50; that the colored Baptists of North Carolina alone raised $22,000 last year for the smaller Baptist schools of that state, and that the Negroes contribute annually in nearly every southern state thousands of dollars as supplements to the inadequate public school funds. In Virginia the records show that from $5,000 to $8,000 are raised for this purpose an nually by the colored people. For the school year 1910-11 the colored people of Macon county, Alabama, are reported to have raised $4,000 for school supplements. And there are hundreds of dollars given by the colored people every year of which no official records are made. To make these facts known will encourage our friends and stimulate us to greater efforts in behalf of Negro youth.

Likewise, we quote from "Suggested Solutions for Some Rural School Problems in South Carolina," by Mr. W. K. Tate, State Supervisor of Elementary Rural Schools. The reprint from the forty-third annual report of the state superintendent of education is issued by the University of South Carolina in its quarterly bulletin, No. 28, Part VI, January, 1912.
During the current year the Negro schools of the state enrolled 193,440 pupils. The greater part of the pupils are in the country schools of the state and these schools show an increased enrollment of Negro pupils every year. The education of the Negro in South Carolina is in the hands of the white race. The white trustees apportion the funds, select the teachers, and receive the reports. The county superintendent has the supervision of these schools in his hands. We have expended this year $349,834.60 in the support of Negro schools. I never visit one of these schools without feeling that we are wasting a large part of this money and are neglecting a great opportunity. The Negro school houses are

fl
136 The Negro Common School The Outlook 137

miserable beyond all description. They are usually without comfort, equipment, proper lighting, or sanitation. Nearly all the Negroes of school age in the district are crowded into these miserable structures during the short term which the school runs. Most of the teachers are absolutely untrained and have been given certificates by the county board not because they have passed the examination, but because it is necessary to have some kind of a Negro teacher. 1

The white people seem to have reaped the greatest immediate ad vantage. The conferences have been almost confined to them in the attendance; they have caught the spirit of these occasions, have put themselves into the new efforts suggested and carried them into practical demonstration; naturally the schools for white children have been the first to feel the influence.

Mr. Tate speaks further of the Negro schools:

The Negro school buildings in the state are in most eases a serious reflection on our civilization. They are without adaptation to school work, are destitute of all proper furniture and equipment, frequently without window sash, usually unceiled, often without any kind of heating arrange ments, and comfortless and unsanitary in the extreme. They are usually erected by private effort and without any sort of suggestion or direction from any competent authority. Frequently the same money spent wisely would secure a cheap but decent building. In my opinion, simple plans for very inexpensive school buildings should be prepared and distributed for the guidance of trustees in the erection of Negro buildings, and the Negroes should be encouraged to provide-school buildings as convenient and attractive as the churches which they are erecting all over the state. I believe that comfortable and sanitary school buildings for the Negroes would go far toward raising their standards of living and would awaken new wants and the consequent incentives to labor which now seem to be so sadly lacking. In my journeys over the state this fall 1 have seen thousands of acres of cotton unpicked. It is useless to expect labor beyond that necessary to supply the wants of the laborer. The wants connected with a well-kept home are the most constant and the most insistent. A comfortable and attractive school house for the Negro chil dren will help set for them a better standard of living, and will secure for the landowner a more steady and more reliable tenantry. 2

One of the most potent factors making for the educational advancement of the South during recent years has been the Southern Education Board. As to the scope of its work, we quote from "A Review of Five Years," published by the board in 1907:8

In this movement, divisive questions have been avoided and those of common concern have received chief attention, in the belief that unity is essential to the greatest efficiency, and that every advance in the cause of popular education is of universal significance.
1 "Suggested Solutions for Some Rural School Problems in South Carolina," by W. K. Tate, State Supervisor of Elementary Rural Schools. Page 31. 2J6td, 13-14. 3 Southern Education Board^ A Review of Five Years. 1907. Page 38.

From these and other evidences adduced it seems fair to conclude: 1. That the overwhelming majority of Negro children of school age are not in school. 2. That the chief reason for this is the lack of school fa cilities; and a further reason is the poverty and ignorance of parents. 3. That those Negro children who are in school are as a rule poorly taught by half-prepared and poorly paid teachers and thru short terms of three to six months a year. 4. That the school houses and equipment for Negro schools are for the most part wretched and inadequate. 5. That the Negro schools as a rule receive little or no helpful superintendence from the school authorities. 6. That the result and apparently one of the objects of disfranchisement has been to cut down the Negro school fund, bar out competent teachers, lower the grade and efficiency of the course of study and employ as teachers in the Negro schools those willing tools who do not and will not protest or complain. 7. That in the attempt to introduce much needed and valuable manual and industrial training there has been intro duced into the curriculum of the Negro common school a mass of ill-considered, unrelated work which has overburdened the teacher and pushed into the background the vital studies of reading, writing and arithmetic. In a large measure this has been done with the avowed object of training Negroes as menials and laborers and of cutting them off from the higher avenues of life. 8. That the forward movement in education in the South during the last ten years has been openly confined almost

138

The Negro Common School

entirely to white people. The movement for local school taxes, better high schools, consolidation of schools and trans portation of children has with small exception been encour aged and made possible among the whites and not among the Negroes. In many cases the Negroes have been taxed for the improvement of white school facilities, while their own schools have not been allowed to share in these im provements. 9. That along with this curtailment of elementary public education for Negroes has gone a tendency to decry the work of those schools which are devoted to the higher train ing of the Negro youth, to lower their curricula, to cut off northern benevolence and to decrease the supply of intellec tual leaders for the Negro race. To the editors of this study, these facts seem incontro vertible. If they are not true the evidence for them is of such a character as to call for federal investigation. It would seem, therefore, of prime necessity that the United States Bureau of Education be so enlarged and extended as to investi gate the status of elementary education in the'United States; that federal inspectors be-put in the field to make regular and searching reports; further than this that a large annual fund be provided to aid common school education in parts of the United States where the need is greatest, such aid to be so given as to encourage the largest amount of local effort and to discourage discrimination on account of race or poverty. This is surely a modest and reasonable program and its carrying out in the immediate future would be a work of farseeing statesmanship. The United States of America per mitted the enslavement of millions of black folk and then freed them in ignorance and poverty. From that day to this there has been no systematic attempt to give the masses of those people systematic elementary school training. It is time to make such an attempt.
ADDENDUM. Page 32 gives the cost of the new high school for Negroes in St. Louis as $100.000. It should be $300,000. The exact figures are given on page 96.

Index
Alabama . . 21, 29, 31, 32, 69-71, 102, 107, 116, 117, 118, 120, 121, 122, 130 132,133, 105 ...... 135 Anna T. Jeanes Fund . . . . 103-104, 107-115 Answers of city superintendents 18, 21, 30, 90-92, 120, 121, 130 Arkansas . ..... 58, 61-63, 120, 127 . . . Atlanta, Ga. . . . .13, 14, .17, 20, 56, 60, 61, 64 Atlanta University . . 61,63, 119, 127, 134 Augusta, Ga. . 32, 34, 36, 127 . . . Baltimore, Md. . . 16-22 . . . Beginnings of the Negro common school..... of common school education for Negro Americans . . . 9-12 Bibliography . 70, 107 . Birmingham, Ala. . 16, 30, 51 Charleston, S. C. . 94, 112, 134 Chattanooga, Tenn.. ... 97 Columbia, Mo. ............ . 63-65, 108 ..... Columbus, Ga. ...... . . 16-22 Common school, beginnings of the Negro . 137-138 Conclusions . . . 120-129 Coon, Charles L. ....... 91 Corbin, J. C. . . .29. 30, 31, 120-126 Cost of Negro schools Dallas, Texas ......... Delaware ............. Disfranchisement and the public school District of Columbia. . Enrollment . . Expenditure on Negro schools. . . . . 85-86, 127 .18, 33-34, 130 . 115-119 ....... 17, 22, 32, 37-39, 101, 130 ............ 22-28 29, 30, 31, 32, 120-126, 132-135

18, 21, 30, 67-69, 107, 120, 121, 122, 130 Florida ... 19, 20, 21 Freedmen's Bureau ......... 28-33 . General conditions Georgia . . 15, 18, 21, 30, 31, 32, 56-66, 101, 102, 107-108, 116, 117, 119, 120 ~12i7122, 125, 126, 128, 129, 130, 132, 134 21, 67 Gibbs, Jonathan C. . .
Hallowell, Richard P. ...... 22

High schools Houston, Texas

Illiteracy

127-130 .86-89,127
14-16

Illinois . Indiana .

-130 130

140
Indian Territory

The Negro Common School

STUDIES OF NEQRO PROBLEMS

The Atlanta University Publications COPIES FOR SAI4
No, 1, Mortality among Negroes in Cities'; $1 pp., ISI^.. Out of print;. Mortality among Negroes .in Cities,'24 pp. <23 edi tion, abridged, 1903). 1128 copies -at,25e>, No. 2, Social and Physical Condition of Negroe 3 in Cities: 86 pp., 1897. 766 copies at 25c. No. 3. Some Efforts of Negroes lea- Social Betterment: 66 pp.,,. 1898. Gut of print No. 4. The Negro in Business; 78 p^., 1899. Out of print. N;o, 5. 'The Collie-bred Negro; 110 pp., 1900, . Ojit of print. The College-bred Negro;. 32 pp. r(2d edition, abridged^ 1902), 1,200 & >pies -at 2.x;, No. 6. The Negro Common School 120pp.. 1901: .Out.of print. No. 7. The Negro Artisan; 200 pp., J1902. 37 eopies^at 75c.. No. 8. the Negro Church;.2l2pix, -1^03, 12?eopies-at $1.50, Ne. 9, Notes on Negro Crime;75 pp., 1904, SlTeopiesatSOr. No. 10; A Select Bibliography'of the Negro American; 72pp., 1905. 684 copies, at 25e. j. No. 11, Health and Physique pf ttip *Jegrg 'American; 112 pp.,. 1906, 62 copies at $? 50> No. 12. Economic Cp-operaiion am-vg Nefffo Americans: 184 pp., 1907. 1,227 copK <s at $1.00. No, 13. The Negro American Family; 152 pp., 1908.- 984 copies at 75c. , ';",--- ;i Na 14. Effoife for SociaLBettermenjfc among Negro Ameri cans; 136pp., 1909. 598'csopies at75c. Ntf. 15. The College-bred Negifr Arlericanj 104 pp., 1910. 1^059^ copies at 78c. No,.16, The Common School and he -N%ro American; 140 pp.,,1911, 2,000 copies at 7;5c.'

. 130 . 105 Jeanes Fund, Anna T. 6, 131 John F. Slater Fund . . . 49 Joyner, Superintendet J. Y. . . 130 Kansas ..... ..... ...... 97, 127 Kansas City, Mo. 18, 19, 29, 30, 98-100,101, 108-109, 130 Kentucky . . 15, 21, 30, 77-81, 109, 116,119, 120,121, 130, 132 Louisiana . ....... . . 65, 108,119 Macon, Ga. . 18, 29, 30, 34-36, 109, 127, 130 Maryland Mississippi . 21, 30, 31, 32, 72-77, 101,109-110, 116,118, 119, 120, 121, 122,130 132, 133 Missouri ... . 18, 29, 30, 94-98, 110-111, 127, 130, 134
New Orleans, La. ................ . . ... 17, 119

li

North Carolina . 19, 21, 29, 30, 32, 44-50, 111, 116, 117, 118, 120, 121, 122,124 125, 130, 132, 133, 134 ..... 130 Ohio ...... . 111-112, 130 Oklahoma . ...... . 131-138 Outlook, the . . . . . 130 Pennsylvania . SI-32, 132, 133 Salaries . . 65-66, 108, 127 Savannah, Ga. . . . . . 13-14 Scope of the inquiry ... . 58, 135 Self-help in Negro public school education . . 6,131 Slater Fund, John F. . . ...... South Carolina . 14, 21, 29, 30, 31, 51-56, 103,112, 116, 117, 120, 121, 122, 130 132, 133, 135 Southern Education Board. . ... 136-137 St. Louis, Mo. . . . ..... 32,96-97, 127, 134, 138 Statistics, common school, from reports of U. S. Bureau of Ed. . . 22-28 Summary of answers from city superintendents . . . . 103-104 Superintendents and teachers . . 100-115 Tate, W. K. ...... 103, 135,136 Tennessee .... ...... 18, 30, 93-94, 112, 120, 121, 130 Texas ....... 30, 32, 33, 81-90, 101, 112-114,120,121,122, 127, 130, 134 Tourgee, Albion . . .22 Virginia . 14,15,21, 30, 39-41,105, 114,116,120,121,122,123,130,132,133,134 Washington, D. C. . West Virginia . . Williams, W. T. B. . Wilmington, Del. . . Wright, Dr. R. R., Jr. ...... 17, 32,127,134 .18, 32, 42-44, 101, 115, 130 .131 33 . 126

. .

:iis

N unbiassed--estimate of the an thropological ..evidence so far hjQt forward (|Pes.not rjermit us to eountenance the belief in a racial inferiogitj which would unfit aii 'indl-vMual of the Negro race to ta;ke hispart in modem .civilizatibh. We do net^know of any demand made on the human, body-or,>mind in 'modern life that :ariatoniicaf or, ethnological evi dence wp'uld'-pi-pW'tOi'be t>ey^>ml-the poweife _of - thfe, Negro. * ;...;,, There is every "reason/to .believe; that the Negi-o- when given facility and- oppprrfl! be perfectly iable ^to fulfil ! duties "pi 'citizenship tis well, as his white neighbor.
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