Progress and Achievements of the Colored People: Containing the Story of the Wonderful Advancement of the Colored Americans—the Most Marvelous in the History of Nations—Their Past Accomplishments, Together With Their Present-day Opportunities and a Glimpse Into the Future for Further Developments—the Dawn of a Triumphant Era. A Handbook for Self-improvement Which Leads to Greater Success — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Progress and Achievements of the Colored People: Containing the Story of the Wonderful Advancement of the Colored Americans—the Most Marvelous in the History of Nations—Their Past Accomplishments, Together With Their Present-day Opportunities and a Glimpse Into the Future for Further Developments—the Dawn of a Triumphant Era. A Handbook for Self-improvement Which Leads to Greater Success
John Stuart Mill · en
With all the mistakes that have been made by a loose-jointed American
democracy in its treatment of the Negroes, both as slaves and as free
men, the general movement of the Negro people has been decidedly
forward. Even under slavery these people benefited by a contact with
civilization that no corresponding groups have had in any other part of
the world. They were quick to perceive that the mastery of the white man
over them lay in his education. Though crushed to the lowest level, they
never lost hope or opportunity to learn the meaning of books and
figures. Sometimes through sympathy of a master’s child, sometimes by a
kindly stranger from the North, a slave learned the alphabet and a
little arithmetic. When the Emancipation Proclamation was sounded the
eagerness and determination of the Negro to obtain an education opened
into full blossom, and the colored people consecrated themselves to the
one great task of educating their children, so that these coming men and
women might be able to live happier and better lives. It was here that
systematic efforts were undertaken to build schools for the colored and
by the colored people. How wonderful has been the result of their effort
is revealed by facts which have just been published by the United States
Bureau of Education. These figures show:
1. That $5,860,876 is spent annually by the public authorities of
Southern States in the wages of teachers in public schools for Negroes.
2. That the Federal State and land-grant schools have an annual income
of $963,611, and a total property valuation of $5,727,609.
3. That the private schools have an annual income of $3,026,460, and a
property valuation of $28,496,946.
4. That eight educational funds are devoting part or all of their income
for the improvement of Negro schools.
5. That the Negroes themselves are contributing an increasing share to
the support of their schools.
6. That Negro illiteracy is now only thirty per cent.
7. That Negro farm laborers and Negro farmers cultivate at least a
hundred million acres of land, of which forty-two and a half millions
are in farms owned or rented by Negroes.
8. That Negroes own twenty million acres of land, an area equal to that
of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.
These facts are indisputable evidences of progress in the past and
afford great promise for the future.
HISTORY OF NEGRO EDUCATION.