The Colorado statesman., 1913-10-18
AFRO-AMER|CAN CU[[|NCS

In a communication to the Houston
Post e. l.. Blackshear of Prairieview,
Tex, writes:
IN recent editorial you spoke of
the need of better teachers for the
negro schools. | was much impressed
with the timeliness of this editorial.
1t is true the negro public schools
of Texas are far better than they were,
say 25 years ago; but it is equally true
that the negro public schools have not
kept pace with educational progress
except in certain cities and towns
where a high educational sentiment
among white people helps to keep up
better standard among the colored
schools. But in rural districts where
there is but little supervision of ne
gro schools, there is a poor education
al sentiment and standard The col
ored parents do not know when their
children are being properly taught and
when not There is great anxiety
among large number of the more
thrifty negroes to educate their chill
dren so they will not fall into the vi
cious and criminal class which swells
the convict camps of Texas.
The religious-minded negro people
are willing to make almost any sacri-
flee to make their children decent
homes and law-abiding. The black
people of today do not cherish the il
lusions about education that the older
generation did. The older people, new
ly emancipated from slavery, imputed
miraculous power to the printed and
written word. They imagined that
education would finally obviate the
necessity for work and put the negroes
on equal footing with the whites. They
thought it disgrace for an educated"
negro to live on the farm.
But time has changed this and the
present-day' negroes see in education,
not something that is going to alter
in the least degree the relations be-
tween the races, but a something
which has value for its moral effect
in keeping their children out of the
negro saloons, dives and places of idle
ness and debauchery.
But the rural negro teacher has not
risen as whole to his opportunity.
Poor teaching is great waste of the
peoples money and of the children's
ut dlut III WI IA uullo VI luC
time spent by all the negro children
in the schools is considerable and
would add something to the negroes
well-being if translated into productive
labor. But good teacher is a great
blessing to the negro rural community.
The graduates of Prairie View are
among the best teachers in Texas, es-
pecially in the rural districts In many
counties they are pointed out by the
county superintendent as the best of
their race in the county. But Prairie
View is unable to supply the demand
for teachers. In the meantime the ne
gro children are suffering from poor
instruction and mental Indigestion
One remedy is closer supervision of
negro schools and an insistent demand
by colored parents and the white
school trustees and superintendents
that knuckle down to good hard work
in the schoolroom.
During the last fifty years there has
been a rapid increase in the wealth of
the negroes of the south, according to
the Southern Workman, Hampton in
stitute's publication. This increase
has been especially marked in the last
ten years, during which time the value
of the domestic animals which they
own increased from $S5,216,337 to
S177,273,7S5, or 107 per cent. poultry
from $3,7SS,792 to s5,113,756, or 35 per
cent; implements and machinery from
S1S,5S6,225 to $36,S31,41S, or 9S per
cent; land and buildings from $69, $780,
42O to $273, sol ,665, or 293 per cent.