Evening star., 1934-07-04
NEGRO EDUCATION
NEED IS OUTLINED
NJ. Grant Lucas Says Ad-
vance of Race Lies in
Better Schooling.

Self-help and self-study will mean
the salvation of the American Negro,
M. Grant Lucas. president of the
Columbian Educational Association
told the representative assembly of
the National Education Association
in an address yesterday on Economic
Self-help in the Educational Crisis"
Our schools" Lucas said, have
problems which are distinctly ours.
We always shall feel these problems
can be handled best by teachers of
our own flesh and blood. We know
the children, their parents and their
homes Among the duties we have
is to teach them economy in their
health. their food. their clothes. their
sleep, their play. their work. We
must teach them the avoidance of
waste and the value of economic
self-help to the end that they may
make of themselves self-respecting.
self-supporting. upright. intelligent.
respectable and loyal American citi-
zens.
Need Work Openings.
There is a vast difference between
equality of educational opportunity
and equality of industrial opportun-
lty. Our greatest need is the Cppor-
tunity for our boys and girls VINO re-
ceIve education to be admitted to the
various occupations and industries OF
the present Gay. Too often We charge
them with wilful idleness when the
doors OF employment are shut against
them. Can they be expected to dem
onStrate economic self-help under
these unfair prescriptions? The edu-
cational crisis calls for new deal
We must ally the school more
closely with life and make 1t a life
situation. When this is done. parents
will realize that their children are be-
coming equipped for lifeS needs. A
young graduate will have a definite
training and a definite goal He will
fit more properly into his life work
and give service with satisfaction.
Our hope is TO open the closed doors
Of service and employment to these
boys and girls. We want to make
the new deal a fair deal and a square
deal.
Hits States Neglect
That colored children should be
afforded facilities for education is so
obvious as to make it Unnecessary TO
assert; it ought to be automatic. The
purpose of the school is to train chill
dren for good citizenship. Each State
should be interested in this training,
regardless of race or color. 1t would
be the height of folly for the State to
assume that any part Of its popula-
ton can be neglected without affect
ing seriously the welfare of the other
part"
Lucas reviewed the economic his
tory of the Negro since the Civil War.
For 70 years" he declared, he has
struggled against his own poverty,
against his own ignorance, against re-
strlctions and against prejudice. He
still is at the bottom of the eco
nOmic ladder Yet he has made re-
markable gains. Although he is al
lotted the hardest tasks at the lowest
wages. although he is the last TO be
hired and the first 70 be fired, he is
an American citizen and is proud TO
be one. He has been trained so long
in economic Self-help that he is
equipped spiritually to meet the pres
ent crisis. Depression is his normal
state. He was born in it,"
Self-Study Advocated
The Negro. Lucas insisted. should
be familiar with the history of his
race. 'Self-help," he said, calls for
self-study. Self-study calls for the
study of the history of the race with
which We are identified. Without
race knowledge there is no race soul"
In the present educational crisis,
the Negro community. Lucas conclud-
ed. asks only a fair share of Federal
help. An equitable proportion of
Government emergency aid for edu-
cation. he said. should be allotted to
the colored schools.