African American farmers -- Southern States; Agriculture -- Economic aspects -- Southern States
F. Frissell and Booker T.
Washington, so Hampton and Tuskegee have been the chief factors in
producing the change which has been noted as coming. Now that industrial
training is winning support it is amusing to note the anxiety of other
schools to show that they have always believed in it. I can but feel
that had the plans of General Armstrong been widely adopted, had the
teachers been trained to take the people where they were and lead them
to gradual improvement, that the situation today would be radically
different. It is, however, not too late to do this yet and the
widespread founding of schools modeled after Hampton and Tuskegee
indicates a general recognition of the needs of the situation.
Yet, even these schools have not turned out as many farmers as is often
supposed. On examination of the catalog of Tuskegee for 1901 I find only
sixteen graduates who are farming and thirteen of these have other
occupations (principally teaching). The combination, I think, desirable
rather than otherwise. Three others are introducing cotton raising in
Africa under the German Government. From the industrial department nine
have received certificates in agriculture and six in dairying, but their
present occupations are not given. Asking a prominent man at Tuskegee
for the reason, he exclaimed, rather disgustedly, that they disliked
work and preferred to teach. This merely indicates the handicap Tuskegee
has to overcome, and perhaps the average agricultural college of the
North cannot show a higher percentage of farmers. An official of the
Department of Agriculture tells me that only 5 per cent of the graduates
of the agricultural colleges become farmers. To show how much
agricultural training is given at Tuskegee the following statement for
the year 1902-3 is of interest: No pupil is counted twice. One hundred
and eighty-one students are engaged in the actual operations of the
farm, truck garden, orchard, etc. Seventy-nine are taking the dairying,
etc., and 207 are taking agriculture as part of their academic work.
Yet, more of the graduates become professional men (lawyers, preachers,
etc.) than farmers, the proportion being about three to one. In citing
Tuskegee I am, of course, not forgetting that other schools, such as
Tougaloo and Talladega, have excellent farms and are seeking (though
their chief emphasis is elsewhere) to give agricultural training.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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