Vandehorst’s Shoe Store, Jacksonville, Fla. Evidence of the opportunity for success in the shoe business. ] [Illustration: THE REWARD OF THRIFT AND ENERGY The palatial residence of J. F. Herndon, a prosperous Colored citizen of Atlanta, Ga. ] [Illustration: AN ELEGANT AND WELL-APPOINTED LIBRARY An interior view in the home of a noted physician, Doctor George Cabaniss, Washington, D. C. ] [Illustration: LUXURY AND COMFORT An elegantly appointed Barber Shop owned and patronized exclusively by Colored citizens. Birmingham, Alabama. ] [Illustration: AN UP-TO-DATE STORE An example of Mercantile Success, showing possibility and prosperity. Owned and operated by A. H. Underdown, Washington, D. C. ] [Illustration: COMMERCIAL PROSPERITY One of the largest Fish Markets in the South. Jacksonville, Fla. ] [Illustration: REPRESENTATIVES OF THE OVERGROUND RAILROAD Here are lined up in their uniforms some of the brightest Parlor Car porters of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. ] [Illustration: THE COLORED MAN AS A PIONEER The first house in Chicago was erected by a Negro. ] FOREWORD. “The progressive era” aims to set forth the marvelous achievements of the Negro race in the United States since its emancipation fifty years ago. Its plan is to cover the period of achievements by a series of chapters devoted to the several lines of endeavor. I want especially to commend the chapter on the Education of the Negro. Education furnishes the standard in terms of which the past progress of the race may be measured and its future progress gauged. Of the many elements which must enter into the final solution of the race problem none will be so important as that of education, whose purpose is to fit the Negro for a useful and honorable place in the complex schemes of American life. This chapter brings together for easy reference information concerning the working of Negro institutions in better form and in fuller detail than has before been attempted in a private publication. Figures are taken from the reports of the Bureau of Education, and their accuracy is vouched for by the authority of the government. Each institution listed was visited by a special agent of the Bureau of Education and its work thoroughly examined and analyzed by educational experts. Over three hundred institutions are described, with the account of the equipment, facilities and course of instruction. There are over sixty photographs containing the fullest pictorial illustrations of Negro schools that has ever been made available in book form. This chapter involves, at once, the feature of a treatise and an encyclopedia, while gaining the general view of the education of the Negro as well. The reader may at the same time gain definite information about any particular school in any part of the country.