Part 48

Such are the arguments for the Negro college, and such is the work that Atlanta University and a few similar institutions seek to do. We believe that a rationally arranged college course of study for men and women able to pursue it is the best and only method of putting into the world Negroes with ability to use the social forces of their race so as to stamp out crime, strengthen the home, eliminate degenerates, and inspire and encourage the higher tendencies of the race not only in thought and aspiration but in every-day toil. And we believe this, not simply because we have argued that such training ought to have these effects, or merely because we hope for such results in some dim future, but because already for years we have seen in the work of our graduates precisely such results as I have mentioned: successful teachers of teachers, intelligent and upright ministers, skilled physicians, principals of industrial schools, business men, and above all, makers of model homes and leaders of social groups, out from which radiate subtle but tangible forces of uplift and inspiration. The proof of this lies scattered in every State of the South, and, above all, in the half-unwilling testimony of men disposed to decry our work.

Between the Negro college and industrial school there are the strongest grounds for co-operation and unity. It is not a matter of mere emphasis, for we would be glad to see ten industrial schools to every college. It is not a fact that there are to-day too few Negro colleges, but rather that there are too many institutions attempting to do college work. But the danger lies in the fact that the best of the Negro colleges are poorly equipped and are to-day losing support and countenance, and that, unless the nation awakens to its duty, ten years will see the annihilation of higher Negro training in the South. We need a few strong, well-equipped Negro colleges, and we need them now, not to-morrow; unless we can have them and have them decently supported, Negro education in the South, both common-school and industrial, is doomed to failure, and the forces of social regeneration will be fatally weakened, for the college to-day among Negroes is, just as truly as it was yesterday among whites, the beginning and not the end of human training, the foundation and not the cap-stone of popular education.

Strange is it not, my brothers, how often in America those great watchwords of human energy--"Be strong!" "Know thyself!" "Hitch your wagon to a star!"--how often these die away into dim whispers when we face these seething millions of black men? And yet do they not belong to them? Are they not their heritage as well as yours? Can they bear burdens without strength, know without learning, and aspire without ideals? Are you afraid to let them try? Fear rather, in this our common fatherland, lest we live to lose those great watchwords of Liberty and Opportunity which yonder in the eternal hills their fathers fought with your fathers to preserve.

INDEX

Abel, 377

Abolition, Abolitionists, 13, 17, 18, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 144, 145, 328, 412, 420

Abraham, 306, 373

Academy, French, 95, 294 Negro, 159

Achilles, 455

Adams, John Quincy, 116, 412, 413

Advocate, Southwestern Christian, 455

AEneid, 455

AEneas, 455

Africa, 14, 18, 26, 102, 169, 202, 220, 227, 243, 244, 245, 246, 249, 257, 258, 263, 265, 375, 376, 390, 422, 429, 431, 432, 433, 434, 435, 438, 439, 463, 478, 479, 480

Africa, Central, 169, 426 East, 426 East Coast of, 426 South, 426 West, 170

African, 13, 14, 15, 26, 38, 68, 157, 158, 263, 264, 373, 422, 439, 445, 465, 468

Afro-American, 329, 464, 472

Alabama, 217, 236, 376

Alexander the Great, 330, 464

Alfred the Great, 267, 269

Allah, 381

Alvord, J. W., 384

Amazon River, 182

Amendment, 13th, 70 14th, 70, 76, 79, 468 15th, 70, 155, 310, 469

Ames, Alexander, 130

Ames, Capt., 190

A. M. E. Church, 475

America, 38, 43, 48, 102, 212, 239, 257, 268, 270, 304, 307, 313, 320, 330, 375, 378, 395, 422, 453, 494