The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1940-04-05
The Negro In
Education
By Leota Stone
CONTINUED from last issue)

period. We find the colonists had
the idea of educating the people
from the very beginning. Our first
college in America was in Virginia.
AS early as 1912 Massachusetts re-
cognized some of the parents were
not educating their children; con-
sequently, the small children were
not sent to the neighborhood wo-
men or Dame" schools to learn to
read and write.
In the South pauper schools
were established and indentured
servants were employed to teach
them. The Negro at this time
could have only a certain routine
of life. He had little to do but
work and obey. In this routine,
however, it was possible for him
to secure a kind of education He
learned the basic habits of routine,
work, order and the general ways
Of living in American culture. The
reason for his presence, of course,
was his labor. AS the Negroes
were the pioneers in hard physical
work the colonists were free to do
creative work in all enterprises.
Throughout the period education
and religion for the Negro were
closely identified. In the Sabbath
Schools" the pupils not only re-
ceived religious instruction but
were sometimes taught to read,
write and cipher.
AS we look into the Revolution
airy period we see marked change
in the development of the Negro.
The schools established for them
and the churches founded by them
gave them an opportunity for in
dependent thought and action.
Now and then there appeared Ne
groes who qualified themselves as
teachers of their own group and
for members of the white group.
At this time prejudice was one of
caste rather than of race. Teach
ers who were Negroes had stand
ing about as high as any other
member of the group. The profess
sion was largely restricted to those
suffering from physical handicaps
or were otherwise undesirable.
During the Civil War and Recon-
struction period the American
missionary Society established the
first day school among freed men
at Fortress Monroe, Virginia in
1861. This school laid the founda-
ton for Hampton Institute and
was the beginning of the general
education of the Negro in Educa-
ton came from the Freedman's
Bureau various relief societies and
the churches. To aid in this work
many missionary teachers went
from the North to help promote
the educational training of the
Negro.
These teachers made tremendous
sacrifices for the enlightenment of
tn Negro. Some of the schools es-
tablished were Fisk, Howard, At
lanta and many others. Other con-
tributions for education of the Ne
gro have come from wealthy peo-
pie sincerely devoted to the cause.
Some of the funds established by
these individuals are the George
Washington Fund which was made
possible by an ex-slave, the Miner
Fund, which made possible the
Minor Normal School, the John
F. Slater Fund, the Phelps Stokes
Fund. the Carnegie Corporation of
New York, the julius Rosenwald
Fund, the General Education Board
and many others.
Let us now think of our educa-
tional progress for the period of
the years 1880 to 1914. Then it was
proposed that education in the
classical field would solve all of our
problems. Negroes not only crowd
ed higher institutions of learning
but established schools of their
own. At this time there came
forth a Negro with an educational
theory and prictice which is now
universally accepted.
Although Booker T. Washing
ton was born in the depth of po-
verify no person has risen higher
in the esteem of his fellow men
black or white" When he started
at the age of 16 to enter Hamp-
ton Institute he walked, slept I'M
der bridges, and arrived there pen
niless. He cleaned a room three
times before it was inspected by
his first teacher as he knew this
would determine his fitness to en-
ter the institution. When he was
twenty five he opened the great
school at Tuskegee, Alabama in
1881. He saw that Negroes had
to toll and decided they should be
taught to do it skillfully. His idea