The Omaha guide., 1935-11-30

careful observation, / am con-
WINGED that the early educators
did more to plant in the Negro
the fundamental principles Of char
acter and to lay an enduring basis
upon which the future of the race
can be safely and securely built
than their present day successors
whose chief reliance is upon an
adequate and efficient secular
pedagogy.
While this shift from sacred to
secular interests in education has
played havoc with the minds of
American youth in general, it has
played double havoc with ambi-
tious Negro youth who have for
saken things that look to Godward
and r engrossed in things which
are of the earth earthly. When a
boy in South Carolina, l used to
hear the white people say if you
want anything run into the ground
let the Negro get hold of it. Our
college youth have gotten hold of
a smattering of science and phil
osphy which has gone to the head
and intoxicated the brain. Not
being able to appraise and APP
preciate the true value and func-
tion of science and religion, they
have gone to the extremes of ag-
Mysticism and ~irreverence. Langs-
ton Hughes in his Goodbye
Christ" has more or less accurate
ly expressed the mind of the av-
erage Negro intelligencsia:
"a little learning is a dangerous
thing;
Drink deep or taste not the Ply
erian spring"
A race which is just entering in
to the equation of civilization for
the first time, without the back
ground or ballast of SOLDERING ex-
p~erience, is apt to be swept off its
feet and carried away with ev-
cry new fad and "ism" which
promises to upset ancient or ex-
order and reconstruct the
world anew.
The educators of Negro youth
today are confronted with the
most momentus problem in the
history of the upward struggle of
the race-how to develop in youth,
placed in their charge, the funda-
mental character which will en-
able them to endure and withstand
the stress and strain of an AFRO
giant and intolerant civilization.
The evil of the lack of moral
education is lamentably manifest
ing itself in the conduct of grad
yates from our schools and col
l once heard the President
Of Howard University, the pre-
.ier institution of higher Negro
learning, say that not a single
graduate of this institution could
be found in jail or the p%eniten-
But, alas, too sad to relate,
this can nc longer be said either
Of this institution nor any other
devoted to the higher education of
youth. Here in Washing
Ton we have the largest number
If Negroes bearing collegiate and
professional degrees to be found
anywhere in the world. Our court
are crowded and our
prisons are well familiar with in
mates bearing insignia of the high
er learning. The same thing is
rue, in a greater or less degree,
all parts of the country. Negro
doctors are too frequently accused
md convicted of malpractice. Ne
gro lawyers too often abuse their
rust.
The tn quoque argument that
educated whites are similarly ac-
,used is no sufficient rejoinder.
The number of educated Negro
:onvicts is sadly out of proportion
the whites in the same category.
must be made for the
economic stress and strain which
hey have not the character to re-
list. Let me hasten to say that
make no wholesale condemna-
ion. The vast majority of Ne
sroes with higher education +
and well behaved citizens;
)ut the majority is not sufficient.
4 few rotten apples will give an
vii reputation to the whole bar
eel. Harvard University must have
fifty thousand graduates in the
States. 1t is so seldom
hat a single n of them is lodged
prison that when it becomes a
of universal report and
,oxanoo~k W1xv oonpa4 Al r1,Nao