Negro
the distinctively dark, as opposed to the fair, yellow, and brown varieties of mankind. Their original home was probably all Africa S. of the Sahara, India S. of the Indo -Gangetic plains, lains, Malaysia and the greater part of Australasia. In early and middle Tertiary times this tract was probably NEGRO EDUCATION NEGRO EDUCATION broken up by the sea and the disappear- sively for the higher education of Negrc ance of the region named by Sclater youth was opened in Philadelphia, 1852. Lemuria. The negro is best represented by the Sudanese tribes in Africa. Varieties are found throughout that Continent, with differing characteristics. Negroid races are also found in Madagascar, New Guinea, and Melanesia. The classification of these is difficult, and ethnologists do not agree in relation to them. Indeed, knowledge as to the negro is relatively slight, although advances have been made in recent years.
NEGRO EDUCATION in America began with the early efforts of individual masters or slave owners for economic reasons. They were supplemented by Spanish and French missionaries as a part of their effort to convert the Indians and the Negroes to Christianity. The first settlers of the American Colonies, who offered Negroes the same educational and religious privileges which they accorded to white persons, were the Quakers. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, an organization of the Episcopal Church of England, attempted education as well as missionary work among Indians and Negroes, the first school being opened by the Rev. Samuel Thomas in South Carolina in 1695. In 1747 the Rev.
William Sturgeon, a student of Yale, and ordained in London, opened a school for Negroes in Philadelphia.
Prohibitive legislation against the education of the Negro began with the Act of South Carolina in 1740, but the Northern and New England States still continued to provide teachers for colored children. In 1828 there were three public schools for Negroes in Boston, one in New Haven, one in Salem, and one in Portland, Me. In New York City the New York African Free School was organized in 1787, and was the first to introduce industrial training. In 1801 the Convention of Abolition Societies of New Jersey had several schools in operation. During the latter part of the 18th century and the early part of the 19th century practically all negro education was conducted either by the Church or by Abolition societies.
A colored settlement was begun begun near Xenia, O., where Wilberforce University had its beginning. The sixth census in 1850 shows that Pennsylvania had 3,114 Negro children in school, New York 2,607, Ohio 1,321, New Jersey 1,243; in 1860 New Jersey had 2,741, Ohio 5,671, New York 5,694, and Pennsylvania 7,573.
The first Negro to graduate from a collège was John B. Russworm from Bowdoin. The first institution exclu- Avery College was incorporated at Allegheny City, 1849. Ashmun Institute, afterward Lincoln University, was founded in 1854 in Chester co., Pa.
Wilberforce University in Ohio was formally incorporated in 1856.
The earliest advocate of manual training for colored pupils was Frederick Douglass, and industrial schools were opened in Ohio and Indiana. Free public schools for colored children were established by law in Massachusetts 1820, New York 1821, Rhode Island 1828, Pennsylvania 1834, New Jersey 1844.
The foundations of Hampton Institute were laid at Fortress Monroe in 1861.
After the Emancipation Proclamation, Negro schools were established in all parts of the South by the Federal Army.
The Freedmen's Bureau was created March 3, 1865, and in the five years of its existence it established 4,239 schools, employed 9,307 teachers and taught 247,- 333 pupils, expending for Negro education $3,521,936, while the benevolent organizations cooperating with the bureau expended $1,572,000. In addition the freed colored people raised and expended for their own schools $785,700.
The American Missionary Association, which helped to establish Hampton, also started Fisk University at Nashville, Tenn.; Atlanta University, Atlanta, Ga., and Straight University at New Orleans, La. It also established normal schools at Charleston, S. C.; Macon, Ga.; Talladega and Mobile, Ala.; high schools at Wilmington and Beaufort, N. C.; Savannah, Ga.; Memphis and is and Chattanooga, Tenn.; and Louisville, Ky.
The American Freedmen's Union Commission, organized in 1866, established 458 schools. The New England branch of the same society sent out 180 teachers, who instructed 10,000 pupils. The New York branch supported 125 schools, with 222 teachers. The Baltimore Association for the Moral and Educational Improvement of the Colored People built more than 50 school houses.
West Virginia was the first Southern State to establish a public school system for colored children, in 1863. The District of Columbia, Louisiana, and Maryland in 1864; Missouri, 1865; Alabama and Tennessee, 1867; Arkansas, Florida, and South Carolina, 1868; North Carolina and Virginia, 1869; Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas, 1870; Kentucky, 1874; and Delaware, 1875.
At present the chief supervising agencies for Negro common schools are the State and county boards of education; the Jeanes Fund; the General Education NEGRO EDUCATION Board, the Slater and Peabody Funds, and the Rosenwald Foundation (through the administration by Tuskegee of funds for rural improvement). Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missis- North Carolina, Virginia have State colored supervisors in the rural schools. The largest single contribution to the education of the Negro was made by Pierre S. duPont of Delaware, who in 1919 gave $900,000 for building and equipping rural Negro schools in Delaware.
The Baptist, Catholic, Congregational, Friends, Lutheran, Methodist Episcopal, Presbyterian, Reformed Episcopalian, and Reformed Presbyterian, Seventh Day Adventists, and United Brethren churches maintain boards which carry on educational work among the Negroes.
The Society of Friends conducts a number of schools, notably the one at Cheyney, Pa., a normal school; the outgrowth of the old Institute for Colored Youth, formerly at Philadelphia, founded in 1852.
The United States Bureau of Education's report on Negro education gives 64 public high schools for colored persons. These schools had 49 teachers, 29,- 923 elementary students, and 8,453 secondary students a total of 29,376. These high schools were located by States as follows follows: Alabama, 4; Arkansas, 5; Delaware, 1; District of Columbia, 2; Florida, 2; Florida, 2; Georgia, 1; Kansas, 1; Ken- Maryland, 1; Mississippi, 1; Missouri, Missouri, 2; Oklahoma, 5; South Caro- Tennessee, 5; Texas, 13; Virginia, 6; West Virginia, 5.
Howard University, the largest institution for the higher education of the Negro, was founded by the Freedmen's Bureau in 1869. It comprises colleges of law, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, the ology, education, arts. It is connected with the Freedmen's Hospital, which serves as a practice school for the graduates in medicine and pharmacy.
In 1875 Booker Taliaferro Washington graduated from Hampton Institute, whither he had entered in 1872. On July 4, 1881, he established the Tuske- Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama, the greatest institution of its kind in the world.
Expenditures. During 1917-1918, the expenditures for private and higher schools for the Negro in the United States were by States and municipalities $686,253; by the United States Government, $381,000; from other sources than those mentioned above, $3,425,000; total, $4,492,253 . There was expended for colored public schools by the sixteen former slave States, the District of Columbia and Oklahoma, $12,964,457. The total NEGRO IN AMERICA expenditure for Negro education was $17,456,710. gious and philanthropic organizations It is roughly estimated that the relihave contributed since 1865 about $63,- 500,000 for the education of the Negro in the South. During this same period the Negroes themselves, by direct contributions through their churches and other means, have contributed over $30,- 000,000 for their education. It is estimated that since 1870 the Southern funds about $143,000,000 for Negro com- States have expended from their public mon schools.
The total value of the property, includ- School Property and Endowments.ing scientific apparatus, grounds and buildings owned by institutions for secondary and higher training of Negroes, amounts to about $24,792,669.
The endowments or productive funds of schools for Negroes amount to approximately $9,550,000. Of this amount $3,050,000 belongs to colleges and universities, and $6,500,000 to normal and industrial schools. Only about twenty colleges for Negroes have endowments.
During the year 1917-1918 all Negro schools increased their endowments about $500,000. tion. It is estimated that through the Contributions of Negroes for Educachurches and other means Negroes are each year raising about $2,000,000 for the support of 175 schools. Their school property is valued at about $2,500,000. first mention of the Negro in America is NEGRO IN AMERICA, THE. The found in the records of the voyages of Columbus. In 1501, or earlier, Negro slaves were familiar in the West Indies, African slaves having been brought over by the Spanish émigrés. From 1505 to 1510 there are records of King Ferdinand sending slaves to the West Indies. and assisted him in building the first In 1516, 30 Negroes accompanied Balboa ship constructed on the Pacific Coast.
On accession to the Spanish throne in 1517, Charles V., also Emperor of Germany and the Netherlands, granted the exclusive monopoly to Flemish noblemen Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, and Porto to import annually 4,000 Africans to Rico. ( References: Lowery, "Spanish Settlements Within the Limits of the United United States, 1513-1561"; Wright, "Negro Companions of Spanish Ex- " American Anthropologist, Vol.
ÎV., N.
IV., N. S., 1902.") brought to Jamestown 20 Negroes, who In August, 1619, a Dutch vessel were sold into servitude. Virginia did not give statutory recognition to slavery NEGRO IN AMERICA NEGRO IN AMERICA as a system until 1661. In the records 446; New York, 91,709; New Orleans, of the county courts, Negroes are designated as "servants," never as "slaves." (See Russell, "The Free Negro in Virginia, 1619-1865," pp. 22-25; Ballagh, "White Servitude in Virginia," p. 45.) The Negroes were first imported into Massachusetts from Barbadoes 1636 or 1637; into New York about 1650; into Maryland 1632. In New Jersey the date is indefinite, although the word "slave" occurs in 1664. In Delaware about 1702.
First heard of in Pennsylvania in 1688 through the memorial of Francis Daniel Pastorius of Germantown. Slavery was recognized officially in Connecticut in 1650; in Rhode Island in 1652; in New Hampshire in 1714; in North Carolina in 1715; in South Carolina in 1682; in Georgia in 1749. These dates are significant in that they show the presence and distribution of the Negro over the area of the United States. (See Brawley, "A Short History of the American Negro"; "The Negro Year Book.") Population. In 1625, six years after the first Negroes were brought to Virginia, there were only twenty-three, twelve males and eleven females. In 1659 there were 300; in 1683, 3,000; in Per cent. of total population in gainful occupations. Per cent. all males in gainful occupations..
Per cent. all females in gainful occupations La., 89,262; Baltimore, Md., 84,749; Philadelphia, Pa., 84,459. Four cities of 25,000 or more, with one-half the popиlation Negro, are Jacksonville, Fla., 50.8 per cent.; Montgomery, Ala., 50.6 per cent.; Charleston, S. C., 52.8 per cent.; Savannah, Ga., 51.1 per cent.
The balance of distribution and the percentage of population has been somewhat disturbed by the migration of 1918, but it seems to have readjusted itself to pre-war conditions in the large Southern cities.
Economic Conditions. - The Negro is capable of the hardest kind of work under climatic conditions often intolerable to whites. During the period of slavery the race was engaged chiefly in agriculture and in manual labor. The following tables show the distribution by occupation:
In 1910 the number of Negroes 10 years of age and over in gainful occupations was: 5,192,535, or 71.0 per cent. of total Negro population of this age; by sex the number was, males, 3,187,554; females, 2,013,981. Negroes constitute 13.6 per cent. of all persons in gainful occupations.
Per cent. of all Negro males in gainful occupations. Per cent. of all Negro females in gainful occupations. 1910 1900 53.3 50.2 81.3 80.0 23.4 18.8 87.4 84.1 54.7 40.7 NUMBER OF NEGROES IN EACH MAIN CLASS OF OCCUPATIONS OCCUPATION Agricultural pursuits....
Professional Service.
Domestic and personal service.
Trade and transportation..
Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits. 1708, 12,000; in 1712, 23,000; in 1756, 120,156; in 1774, 200,000, or 14 per cent of the population. The first census in 1790 showed Ne Negro constituting 19.3 per cent, or 757,208, of which 697,899 were slaves. In 1910 the census returns give 9,827,763.
Distribution of Population. - Negroes are distributed in the United States as follows: The South, 8,749,427; the North, 1,027,674; the West, 50,662. In 1910 classification by sex was as follows:
Males, 4,885,881; females, 4,941,882.
Georgia has the largest Negro population of any State. In 1910 there were 1,176,987. The State of Mississippi the largest percentage, 56.2 per cent.
The five cities with the largest Negro population are: Washington, D. C., 94,- INCREASE 1910 1900 Number Per cent. 2,893,674 2,143,176 750,498 35 69,929 41,324 22,605 47 1,099,715 1,324,160 *224,445 *17 425,043 704,174 209,154 215,889 103 275,149 429,025 156 * Decrease.
A larger proportion of persons 10 years of age and over in the United States were engaged in gainful occupations in 1910 than in 1900. This increase was especially marked for the Negroes.
The census reports on occupations for 1900 appeared to indicate that in such trades as carpentry, plastering, blacksmithing, etc., Negroes were losing ground. The 1910 census on occupations indicates that the Negro has made gains in practically all the trades in which he appeared in 1900 to be losing ground.
In recent years there has been a large increase in the number of Negroes working in factories. They are, to a They large extent, doing the rougher, semiskilled work. A marked tendency to- NEGRO IN AMERICA able. In 1900 the number in factory in- dustry was 131,216; in 1910 the number was 358,180; an increase of 226,964, or able. In 1900 the number in factory industry was 131,216; in 1910 the number was 358,180; an increase of 226,964, or 173 per cent.
According to the census of 1910 there lodging housekeepers, 38,382 Negroes en- gaged in business enterprises. This did lodging housekeepers, 38,382 Negroes engaged in business enterprises. This did not include those operating blacksmith, barber and shoe shops, and several other classes of business connected with the trades for which separate returns for proprietors and employees were not made. Probably 5,000 or more should have been added, making the total about 43,000. It is estimated that there are now 50,000 or more Negroes engaged in business.
The general effect on the Negroes of the United States by the World War was greatly to increase the number of occupations in which they were engaged.
In Pittsburgh industrial concerns alone there were in 1916, 2,550 Negroes em- ployed, while in 1918 the number had increased to 8,325. (Epstein, "The Negro Migrant to Pittsburgh.") The following table shows the general progress of the Negro since 1866, the The following table shows the general end of the Civil War:
Economic Progress- Homes owned.
Farms operated.
Businesses conducted.
Wealth accumulated.
NEGRO IN AMERICA nal associations and general literapublished was in 1865, "The Christian Recorder." Negroes now own and pub lish 450 periodicals, of which 70 are religious, 85 educational, 7 organs of ture, 30 fraternal organs, and 220 newspapers. national The first Negro lawyer, Allen B.
Macon, was admitted to practice law in Worcester, Mass., 1845. There are now 779 Negro lawyers. There are 33 national associations of various kinds; social settlements by Negroes are distributed throughout the country; over the Odd Fellows $2,000,000 of property 60 fraternal organizations, with a total membership of 2,000,000. Of Knights of Pythias have $1,000,000 for endowment and $2,500,000 of property; and the Masons $1,000,000. These fraternal organizations are largely for the purpose of improving health, social and economic conditions.
Of these, the The list of books published by Negroes Solomon Northrup, Buffalo and London, is necessarily faulty and incomplete.
The earliest production in the United Philadelphia, 1872. Hundreds are listed, States was "Twelve Years a Slave," by Years derground Railroad," by William Still, 1919 600,000 1,000,000 50,000 Gain in Fifty-three Years 588,000 980,000 47,900 70 1866 12,000 20,000 2,100 $20,000,000 Educational Progress- $1,100,000,000 $1,080,000,000 Farms operated 10 80 Colleges and normal schools. 15 500 Students in public schools. 100,000 1,800,000 Teachers in all schools. 600 38,000 Property for higher education. $60,000 $22,000,000 Annual expenditures for education. $700,000 $15,000,000 Raised by Negroes.. $80,000 $1,700,000 $21,940,000 $14,300,000 $1,620,000 485 37,400 Religious Progress- Students in public schools Teachers in all schools 700 43,000 42,300 Number of communicants. 4,800,000 4,200,000 Number of Sunday schools. 46,000 39,000 Sunday school pupils.... 2,250,000 2,200,000 Value of church property. $85,900,000 $84,400,000 600,000 1,000 50,000 $1,500,000 The social and moral condition of the Negro is rapidly improving, owing chiefly to education and to a better economic position in the community.
Wherever economic conditions of the Negro improve, family life and morals improve. Poverty, overcrowding in the cabins in the South and tenements in the Wherever economic conditions of the quarters in the city, result in destruction of of family life, and in disease and crime.
The Negro has improved to a larger extent educationally than in any other (See "Negro Education in the United States.") The first periodical line.
W. E. B. Du DuBois, Atlanta Uninot including special studies on social and economic questions. (Reference, "A Select Bibliography of the Negro American," W. versity Publication, No. 10, 1905; "Bibliography of the Negro in America," report of the United States Commissioner of Education, 1894, Vol. I.; "Select List of References on the Negro," A. R. Grifin, Library of Congress, Second Edition, 1906.) Negro Migration. Within three years, following the outbreak of the war in Europe, more than 400,000 Negroes moved north. In extent, this movement is without parallel in American history.
NEGROS The real beginnings of Negro migration within the limits of the United States began between 1815 to 1850, with the flight of fugitive slaves to the Northwest. But the migration of 1917-1918 was more nearly similar to the exodus of 1879-1880 to Kansas, and the one to Arkansas and Texas in 1888-1889.
The real causes of the recent migration as expressed by refugees were the agricultural depression in the lower Mississippi valley, resentment against political conditions in the South, desire for economic and industrial opportunity, and inadequacy of school facilities for Negro children. This migration was hailed as the "Exodus to the Promised Land," and was characterized by an unusual degree of excitement. It had no conspicuous leaders, and although apparently sudden and spontaneous, it was in reality an accentuation of a process which had been going on for a hundred years. The total increase in the Negro population between 1900 and 1910 was 11.2 per cent.
In the past 50 years the Northern movement has transplanted about 4 per cent. of the entire Negro population. "Chicago increased her Negro population 46.3 per cent., and Columbus, O., 55.3; an increase wholly at the expense of the South, for the rural communities of the North are very sparsely populated with Negroes, and the increment accruing from birth is almost negligible.
When there is any migration southward it is largely in the western South Central division, while the migration northward has been more evenly distributed by divisions, except that a comparatively_small number have gone to the New England States. Previous to the World War, the States having the greatest gain from Negro migration were Arkansas, 105,500; Pennsylvania, 85,000; Florida, 84,000; New York, 58,- 450; Illinois, 57,500.
The migration of 1916-1917 brought in its wake a train of industrial and racial conflicts in East St. Louis, Chicago, and some other cities, but they seem to have subsided quickly. The problem of the refugees was handled by the Urban League with intelligence and efficiency, best displayed in Detroit, where there was a minimum of suffering, in comparison with the congestion of emigrants. (Reference, "Negro Migration During the War," Emmett J. Scott, Preliminary Economic Studies of the War, No. 16, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.)