Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-10-24
DIR. Rumstcad's Address.

President Horace Bumstead of Georgia
spoke The Higher Education of the
Negro
DIR. Bumstcad's Address.
THE Practical Value of the Higher Edu-
cation of the Negro was the theme con-
sidered by Rev Horace Bumstead, DID,
president of Atlanta University, Ga. He
said, in part:
In the education of the American negro
there are certain ends which all good peo-
pie agree in desiring. The appalling Hitter
acy of the masses must be reduced. Inc
criminal tendencies of the lower classes
must be checked. The productive capacity
of the wage-earners must be increaSed
The domestic life of the race must be i'm
proved. Their citizenship must be safe
guarded and ennobled. The development of
personal character must be, stimulated
this last the most important of all. The
problem is too manifold, too complex, too
intricate to admit Of solution by single
panacea.
The American negro Is in condition to re-
ceive, in due proportion, a much greater
variety of education than many people have
supposed. The 100000 set free by the
civil war have grown probably to 9,OOO,OU0.
or nearly many as the entire population
Of the United States in 1920. The more
hopeful classes may still be small relatively
to the whole mass of the negroes, but they
are too large absolutely, and they are po-
tentially too important a factor In the So
luton of the great problem to be safely ig-
nOred.
For the Individual negro who so far rises
above the common mass of his race as to be
fitted to receive it the higher education has
a pre-eminently practical value. There is
a practical advantage in the mere offering
of such an educational opportunity to the
individual negro of exceptional ability.
very practical service which a college edu-
cation renders to the individual negro is to
teach him to think. The power of rational
thought is one which the past history OF
the race has not tended to cultivate. 1t is
the lack of this power which constitutes
one of the chief elements of weakness in
the negro Of today. 1t is not too early for
the negro to learn that some of the Oppor-
tunity and responsibility for the brain work
of the world belongs to him. and that in
proportion as he is able to embrace it and
us it we'll will his race achive a symmetri-
cal development of its powers, more nearly
approaching that of other races, and so
gain more and more the respect of their
fellow men.
There are numerous opportunities open to
many a negro which he fails to utilize SIM
ply from lack Of incentive. He is too easily
content with his low estate, and has too lit
tie ambition t. improve 1t. There is prob
ably not negro in the south who does
not have the means, the skill and the time,
which constitute opportunity. for making
his condition less wretched than 1t is If he
wanted to: but the trouble Is he does not
want to- and never Will want to until sutti-
cient incentives are set before him. The
plain living and high thinking of our home
spun ancestors in New England and Vir-
eina Is worthy object of aspiration to set
before the American negro Of today.
Inemciency of Negro Teachers.
In every community of negroes 1t ought to
be possible for the common people, occa-
sonally at least, to look into the face of
col!ege-bred man or woman of their own
race and catch something of inspiration
from his high attainment. The south has
separate schools for the two races. and
custom requires that the teachers of these
schools shall be of the same race as the
pupils attending them The 10000 negro
public schools, on which the southern states
are spending six and half million dollars
annually and have spent over a hundred
millions since 1870, greatly weakened
and the vast sum of money spent on them
largely wasted because of the inefficency
of the negro teachers. One graduate of At
lanta University has trained 300 teachers
who, in turn. are instructing 10000 children.
These college graduates are also promi-
nent in organizing and maintaining state
associations of negro teachers and in con-
Quoting, under the direction of state su
perintendents of education, the summer
teachers institutes which are fostered by
appropriations from the Peabody fund. In
one case a negro graduate has served for
eleven years a member of the city board
of education by appointment of the mayor
and aldermen in a large southern city.
The religious work Of the race presents
another most important field of activity for
ter of the negro ministry is gradually i'm
proving through the acquisition of better
educated men to their ranks, the supply
of such men is far inadequate to the need
AS physicians, too, college-bred negroes
find an important field of usefulness. In
much of this work they can accomplish far
more than white physicians working among
their race could do. The opportunity for
the college-bred negro in the legal profess
sion is not so large nor the call so urgent
in the occupations already considered.
Some editors, too, must be supplied by the
negro colleges, and these in co-operat ton
with the lawyers and ministers will be
more and more needed as the race pro-
crosses to foster a wholesome public opin-
ion among the negroes, to elevate the char
acter of their citizenship and harmonze
their relations with the white race.
Opportunities for Educated Men.
In every considerable community the ne
gro teachers, ministers, doctors. lawyers
editors and others occupying prominent po-
sitions have it in their power by united
action to promote efforts for reform in
such matters as temperance, purity, the
Improvement Of home life, the training of
children, the provision of wholesome amuse-
ments, the organizing of reading clubs de-
batting societies and lecture courses and In
general to minstering to the higher life of
1 t.t 10 n bal r.