Part 28

He now entered school under Rev. and Mrs. McDowell, and began the study of the Shorter Catechism. A polyglot Bible was offered for the most perfect recitation of the Catechism, and he won the first prize. In 1874 he took the examination and won the county scholarship for the State Normal at Columbia. From this examination he was given a teachers' certificate and taught his first school in the country; at the close of this school he accompanied Rev. and Mrs. McDowell to Statesville, N. C., and in November Rev. McDowell had arranged for him to go to Biddle University, Charlotte, N. C.

He returned home every summer and taught. So acceptable were his services that scholars were offered to him and held until his return from school. In 1877 on account of failing health he remained out of school, and was chosen as the principal of the city school at his native home. He was always known as the "Mocking Bird" of Laurens. He was the chorister in Sunday School and church. Returning to Biddle University in the fall of 1878, was taken under the care of Catawba Presbytery as a candidate for the ministry, and graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1881. In October, 1881, he entered the seminary of Biddle University, was licensed to preach the gospel in 1883, and was placed in charge of the Pleasant View Church, Greenville County, South Carolina, where he served so acceptably that he was desired as a settled pastor. In 1884 he graduated from the seminary, and was ordained to the full work of the gospel ministry the next day after graduating.

He took charge of the work at Lincolnton, N. C., where he served six years and six months, conducting both church and school, and was then re-elected principal of the city school.

The new church at McClintock was built under his administration. He was chosen moderator of the Presbytery of Catawba at Monroe, N. C., and in 1887 was sent as a commissioner from Catawba Presbytery to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, which met at Omaha, Neb. In 1888 the degree of A. M. was conferred by Biddle University. In 1890 he accepted the call to Winnsboro, S. C., continuing in the church and school work here for four years very acceptably. In 1892 was sent as commissioner to the General Assembly at Saratoga, N. Y. In 1894 he accepted the work at Goodwill, Sumter Co., S. C., where he now serves the largest Colored Presbyterian Church in the United States. He administered communion to 2,000 communicants.

In connection with the church he has charge of the Goodwill Academy, with an enrollment of about 100 students. In 1895 he was chosen stated clerk of Fairfield Presbytery, which position he fills with accuracy and ability until to-day. In 1900 the degree of D. D. was conferred upon him by Biddle University.

He has been Moderator of Fairfield Presbytery and Atlantic Synod. He is the secretary of the Sunday School Convention, chairman of the Committee on Vacancies and Supplies of the Fairfield Presbytery, and chairman of the Committee on Foreign Mission, Atlantic Synod.

The influence of the Negro pulpit on the race is immeasurable. It is to the race what the lighthouse is to the ship laden with human souls upon the tempestuous sea. At the close of the war when the Negroes were in darkness, the Negro preachers were the first to come forward to lead them to the light, and whatever may be said to the contrary, the Negro preachers have done more for the Negro's uplift since his emancipation than any other class of persons. We delight to boast that the Negroes pay taxes on $400,000,000.00 worth of property, that they have thousands of well educated men and women, that their illiteracy has been reduced forty-five per cent, that they have hundreds of newspapers, that they have four hundred or more skilled physicians who are making good money, that they have hundreds of men who are engaged in business enterprises, that they have thousands of honest, sober, upright Christian men and women.

Now, to whom are we more indebted for all this than to the Negro preachers, who have faithfully taught their people to save their money and buy homes and lands, who have constantly advised them to send their sons and daughters to the schools, who have urged their people to patronize Negro business enterprises and Negro physicians and lawyers, who have shown their people the importance of taking Negro papers, who have enjoined them to be honest, sober, industrious citizens?

TOPIC VIII.

IS IT TIME FOR THE NEGRO COLLEGES IN THE SOUTH TO BE PUT INTO THE HANDS OF NEGRO TEACHERS?

BY PROF. N. B. YOUNG.

NATHAN B. YOUNG.

Nathan B. Young was born in Newbern, Ala., September 18th, 1862. He was educated in the private schools at Tuscaloosa, Ala., at Talladega College, and at Oberlin College. He has taught school in Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. He is now President of the Florida State Normal and Industrial College, Tallahassee.

The answer to this question depends upon what is meant by placing these schools in the hands of Negro teachers. If it means that they are to be manned and managed by them I answer, no. If, on the other hand, it means that they should have some hand in managing these schools, I answer, yes.

For two reasons I claim that the time has not arrived for the passing of these institutions into his sole control: the first is a financial reason, the second is an intellectual or cultural reason.

At present the majority of the Negro colleges and institutions of higher and professional learning are supported by white people, either directly or indirectly, and the withdrawal of white faculties and boards of trustees will mean a withdrawal of white supporters. Whether this withdrawal will be logical or ethical, it will nevertheless be a fact. Those whose duty it is to collect funds for these schools can testify to the certainty of such a result if the experiment should be made.

The white man is a very careful giver to charitable institutions of any kind, and he takes every precaution to see that his donations are wisely expended, and that, too, according to his standards. Hence, when he makes a charitable contribution he feels safer when one of his own race is a trustee, or dispenser of the contribution. This explains the fact that in cases where Negro schools under Negro management make an appeal for large endowment funds they find it necessary to appoint a white endowment committee to manage the fund.

The Negro has no standing in the financial world, because he has made no financial record. This is not so much his fault as it is his misfortune. He is without the financial experience that he would need in order to manage successfully large sums of money such as he would be called upon to collect and to manage in colleges. Without aid from the white donors these colleges would be unable to do the work of a college--in other words, with possibly one notable exception, it takes a white man to get a white man's money, and since it is necessary to get a white man's money to support these institutions, it is also necessary to put their management into his hands. This condition will gradually change as the Negro race accumulates wealth within itself. This will naturally bring with it that experience which will eventually enable him to be a successful manager of these institutions.

It is generally known among those who are familiar with college management that the financial feature is the most difficult feature in this work. It requires a rare combination of qualities in a man to carry on successfully this phase of college work. The managing boards of white colleges find it exceedingly difficult to find white men fully equal to the task. If this takes place in the green tree, what may we expect in a dry?

At present the Negro race, to say the least, is too poor to take on itself the complete control of its colleges. Such a transfer would be a calamity, indeed, for under the white management these institutions are leading only a tolerable existence, are progressing but slowly and some of them not at all. To take these feeble institutions, then, and to connect them with a poorer source of supply would be practically to destroy them--certainly seriously to handicap them.

Besides, even if their financial support were guaranteed, at present a more serious obstacle would present itself. It would be impossible from the present supply of educated Negro men and women to get faculties for them. I mean, to get faculties every whit prepared for their progressive management. An up-to-date college must have not only strong financial backing but it must also have strong intellectual and moral backing. Each teacher should be so trained, intellectually and morally as to have a very keen appreciation of the deep significance of the work in which he is engaged. This means that he must in addition to a careful formal training, have a sort of intellectual and culture background to cause him to stand out in clear relief before his students as an embodiment of what he would have them become. He should, in very truth, be "a scholar and a gentleman."

The fact that a man or a woman is a graduate from some of these misnamed Southern "universities" or "brevet" colleges does not argue that he has a liberal education. The fact is that there are no Negro universities in this country and less than half a dozen "bona fide" colleges. These reputed "universities" and colleges are but indifferent high-schools for the most part, and their graduates without additional study, are not prepared to take a place on a college faculty. Strange to say, very few of these graduates feel the necessity of doing additional study before becoming anxious candidates for presidents of colleges or for professorships.

I stand by the statement that there are not enough really educated men fully equipped to manage the colleges such as we have, not to say anything of those that we ought to have. The race is not yet far enough removed from slavery to have that intellectual and moral background necessary to the bringing out of college professors and college presidents. It has taken the white race many generations to develop an Eliot, a Dwight, a Hadley, and an Angell, not to say anything about the Butlers, the Harrises, and the Wheelers. These men are developments--the very cream of the intellectual history of the Anglo-Saxon race in America. As I have indicated elsewhere, the trustees find it hard to fill their places when vacant.

The incipient Negro teacher and educator might as well admit the fact of their incompetency and with the admission bend themselves with renewed energy to hard study, laying aside all bogus degrees and meaningless titles, and acknowledge the fact that they are yet intellectual pigmies. If they will do this, perchance they themselves may not only add to their own statures but they may also become the ancestors of intellectual giants, fully competent to occupy the positions which they fain would hold in the educational world.

Although the time has not yet come, as I believe, for the entire management of Negro colleges by Negroes, yet the time has come when he should have some hand in managing both as teacher and as trustee. It would be a sad commentary upon the Negro race and upon its white teachers to have these schools remain permanently under white tutelage and management. It would also be a sad commentary upon the Negro to have an alien race to continue giving its money to educate his children. He must be brought gradually to see the necessity of his supporting and managing his own institutions of learning. The only way to do this is to gradually place the managing of them upon his shoulders. Every Negro college ought to have one or more Negro trustees on the board, as well as one or more Negro teachers on the faculty. The only way to learn how to swim is to go into the water--the only way for the Negro to learn how to manage his institutions is for him to have a hand in managing them.

Of the large number of Negro youth that are graduated every year from our colleges, there are not a few among them who have in them the making of fine professors if they were stimulated by the sure hope of securing a place on the faculty of their "alma mater." It is the imperative duty of the faculties of these schools to inspire these men to their best efforts and when they have done so it is the duty of the trustees to give them a place on the faculty.

I would not, however, make vacancies for them by moving efficient white teachers, but, when these white teachers fall out because of age or other reasons, I would appoint in their places competent Negro men. This policy would at once keep the support of the white donors and also the support of the Negro patrons. The Negro must have a larger hand in managing his institutions of learning even from the lowest to the highest.

I answer, then, that the time has not yet come for the complete transfer of Negro colleges to Negro management because the Negro is not yet able to assume the financial control of these institutions, nor the intellectual control; but he is able to have a larger hand in controlling them as donor, as trustee, and as teacher. This policy is being pursued by some of the educational agencies now at work in the South.