The Omaha guide., 1938-06-04
The Negro College
(Reviewed by Ethel r. Harris
for ANpl

for ANP)
With the use of 5,512 question
aires of interviews from college
graduates. a vast supply of mater
ial on the Negro college gradu-
ate and the colleges and univer-
sites which produced them, DR..
Johnson has carefully analyzed
historically and contemporaneous-
ly the nature and trend of the
vocational, collegiate and univer-
sity processes as they affect Ne
gro life. In addition to an enum-
GRAFTON and geographical distribu-
ton of these graduates. this book
is a study of factors which deter
mine this distribution, and some
thing of a description of the Negro
college graduate in his social mil
leu.
Muct of it's value is in the
study of such sociological factors
as mobility, divorce and separa-
ton. number of children, size of
family of their parents. sex ratio
and marital status. Interesting
comparisons r made with college
graduates as a whole and the Ne
gro population at large.
The number of college educated
Negroes as opposed to self-educa-
ton has increased astonishingly in
the past 25 years. All of the ply
sicians and practically all the
lawyers and teachers are college
graduates. The largest number. so
far. have become teachers. During
the past decade, there has been an
Increase in the liberal arts gradu-
ates, and a decrease in the profess
sions.
Graduation from college often
means and uprooting of the hme
environment and a cultural break
with the family setting. With a
view to vocational opportunity the
graduate becomes increasingly
mobile and tends to locate where
provisions of support of elemen-
tary education are greatest. as w.
Va, where there are 48.3 gradu-
graduates per 10. 900 Negro pop
ulation. The highest degree of con-
%centration has been in Washington
where there r 1916 graduates
mostly from Howard-per 10000
population Northern born gradu-
ates tend to remain in the North.
but despite the process of migra-
ton. urbanization and industrial
cation, the proportion who have
gne South is slightly greater than
that Of southern graduates who
have gone North. There are advan-
tages in the South for teachers in
the separate school system and
professionals among a large Ne
gro population.
These graduates have not mea-
sufed up to their role as poten-
tial leaders. Except for organiza-
tons concerned with Civil Liber-
ties as the NAACP, their support
is negligible. A large number have
no definite racial philosophy be-
cause they do not recognize a ra-
eial problem. Many are content
within the social and cultural IL
mits of segregated communities.
If Negro education is to be
more successful. Negroes must be-
come sufficiently ethnocentric to
view the world from their W
point of view. The training must
be more realistic with more
knowledge of racial history, tools.
and technics based to a modern
chronological age. and 'the value
of intelligent cooperation with
things social" announcement
should be given to share wider the
industrial fields and skilled oc-
equations.
In addition to being a study of
the Negro college graduate. per
Sc, DR.. Johnson has achieved his
aim of laying ga factual basis for
further study and planning of pro-
grams of advanced education with
some reference to the social and
cultural problems which continue
to be a great part of life" The
book exhibits precision maturity
of judgment, thorough and consci-
entious research. One cannot help
being stirred by DR.. Johnson's Vi
sion. He has written the book with
sympathy, scholarship and profund
understanding.