T h e Training of Negroes for Social Power
By W. E. B. Du Bois
Professor of Economics and History in Atlanta University.
HE responsibility for their own
rance would be part of the Nation's
social regeneration ought to be design, its poverty would arise partly
placed largely upon the shoul- from the direct oppression of the strong
ders of the negro people. But such and partly from thriftlessness which such
responsibility must carry with it a grant oppression breeds; and, above all, its
of power ; responsibility without power crime n~ouldbe the legitimate child of
is a mockery and a farce. If, therefoi-e, j that lack of self-respect \vhich caste
the American people are sincerely anx- systems engender. Such a solution of
ious that the negro shall put forth his best the negro problem is not one which the
efforts to help himself, they must see to l saner sense of the Nation for a moment
it that he is not deprived of the freedornl contemplates; it is utterly foreign to
and power to strive. The responsibility American institutions, and is unthinkfor dispelling their own ignorance im- able as a future for any self-respecting
plies that the power to overcome igno- race of men. The sound afterthought
rance is to be placed in black-men's of the American people must come to
hands ; the lessening of poverty calls for realize that the responsibility for disthepFer
of effective work; and the pelling ignorance and poverty and up-responsibility for lessening crime calls rooting crime among negroes cannot
for control over social forces which pro- be put upon their o\vn shoulders unless
duce-Zie.
they are given such independent Kcler-1
-[
Such social power means, assuredly, 3 - i p in intelligence, skill, arld morality :
the gro~vthof initiative among negroes, -as will inevitably lead to an independent
.the spread of independent thought, the manhood which cannot and will not
expanding consciousness of manhood ; rest in bonds.
-._-Let me illustrate my meaning particuand these things to-day are looked upon
by many with apprehension and distrust, larly in the matter of educating negro
and there is systematic and determined youth.
effort to avoid this inevitable corollary
The negro problem, it has often been
I
of the fixing of social responsibility. said, is largely a problem of ignoranceMen openly declare their design to train not simply of illiteracy, but a deeper
these millions as a subject caste, as ignorance of the world and its ways, of :
men to bt thought for, but not to think; the thought and experience of men ; an
to be led, but not to lead tkemselves.
ignorance of self and the possibilities
Those who advocate these things of human souls. This can be gotten
forget that such a solution flings them rid of only by training ; and primarily
squarely on the other horn of the dilem- such training must take the form of that
ma: such a subject child-race could sort of social leadership which Ifre call
never be held accountable for its own education. T o apply such leadership to
misdeeds and shortcomings ; its igno- themselves, and to profit by it, means
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410
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The Outlook
[17 October
that negroes would have among them- proven to b e of especial value. W e sift
selves men of careful training a n d a s carefully as possible the student matebroad culture, as teachers a n d teachers rial which offers itself, a n d we try b y
of teachers. There are always periods every conscientious. method to give t o
of educational evolution when it is students who have character and ability
deemed quite proper for pupils in the such years of discipline a s shall make
fourth reader to teach those in the third. them stronger, keener, a n d better f o r
But such a method, wasteful a n d in- their peculiar mission. T h e history of- ,
effective a t all times, is peculiarly danger- civilization seems to prove that no gl-oup
ous when ignorance is widespread and or, nation which seeks advancement a n d
when there are few homes a n d public true development can despise or neglect
institutions to supplement the work of the power of well-trained minds ; and.
the school. I t is, therefore, of crying >s-.~ power of intellectual leadelship
necessity among negroes that the heads must b e given t o the talented tenth
of their educational system-the teach- among American n-egroes Fefore this_
ers in the normal schools, the heads of race can seriously be asked to assume
high schools, the principals of public \ t h e responsibility of dispelling its own
systems, should be unusually well trained i ignorance. Upon the foundation-stone
men ; m e n trained not simply in com- 'of ~a few well equipped negro colleges of
mon-school branches, not simply in the high and honest standards can b e built
technique of school management a n d a proper system of free common schools
normal methods, but trained beyond this, in the South for the masses of the negro
broadly a n d carefully, into t h e meaning people ; any attempt t o found a spslem
of the age v:hose civilization it is their of public schools on anything less than
peculiar duty to interpret to the youth this-on narrow ideals, limited or merely
of a new race, t o the minds of untrained technical training-is t o call blind leadpeople. Such educational leaders should ers for the blind.
be prepared by long and rigorous courses.
T h e very. first step toward the settle-.
of study similar to those which the world G e n t of the negrp p r o b k m is the spread
over have been designed to strengthen :;of intelligence. 7 h e first step t o F a i T - '
the intellectual powers, fortify character, wider intelligence is a free public-school
and facilitate the transmission from age system ; a n d the first and most importo age of the stores of the world's knowl- tant step toward a public-school system
edge.
i s the equipment a n d adequate s u p
Not all men-indeed, not the majority ',port of a sufficient number of negro
of men, only the exceptional few among colleges. These are first steps, a n d
American negroes or among any other t h e y involve great movements : first, the
people-are adapted to this higher train- best of the existent colleges must no'; b e
ing, as, indeed, only t r e exceptional few abandoned to slow atrophy and death,
are adapted to higher training in any a s the tendency is to-day; secon.dly,
l i n e ; but the significance of such men systematic attempt niust b e made to
is not t o b e measured b y their numbers, organize secondary education. Below
but rather by the numbers of their the colleges a n d connected with them
pupils and followers who are destined must come the normal and high schools,
to see the world through their eyes, hear judiciously distributed a n d carefully
it through their trained ears, a n d speak manned. I n no essential particular
to it through the music of their words.
should this system of common and secSuch men, teachers of teachers a n d ondary schools differ from educational
leaders oE the untaught, Atlanta Univer- systems t h e world over. Their chief
sity a n d similar colleges seek to train. function is the quickening__a_nd~trainningg
W e seek t o d o our ~ v o r kthoroughly a n d of human intelligence ; they can d o
carefully. W e have no predilections o r -much-in €lie-'teaching of n ~ o r a l sa n d
prejudices as t o particular studies o r manners incidentally, but they cannot
methods, but we do cling to those time- and ought not to replace the home a s
honored sorts of discipline which the the chief moral teacher; they can teach
experience of the world has long since valuable lessons a s t o the meaning of
i
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19031
T h e Training of Negroes for Social Power
41 1
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work in the world, but they cannot re- in their hands. Economic efficiency
place technical schools and apprentice- depends on intelligence, skill, and thrift,
ship in actual life, which are the real T h e public-school system is designed to
schools of l ~ p r k . Manual training can9!furnish the necessary intelliqence
for
-_Land ought to be used in these schools, :the ordinary worker, the secondary
but as a means and not as an end-to
;school for the more gifted workers, and
quicken intelligence and self-knowledge ' the . college for the exceptional few.
and not to teach carpentry; just as Technical knowledge
manual
.- --and
. . . ..-.
---dex-,
ar~thmeticis. used to train minds and ter"ity in learning branches of the worIiTs~
worli3t-e taught by industrial and trade.
not skilled accountants.
Whence, now, is the money coming for schools, and such school^ are of prlme;
this educational system ? For the com- importance in the training of colored!.
mon schools the support should come children. Trade-teaching cannot Wfrom local communities, the State gov- effectively combined with the work of
ernments, and the United States Govern- the common schools because the primary
ment ; for secondary education, support curriculum is already too crowded, a n 7
should come from local and State gov- thorough common-school training should
ernn~entsand private philanthropy ; for precede trade-teaching. I t is, however,'
the colleges, from private philanthropy quite possible to combine s o m e of the
and the United States Government. I- work of the secondary schools with
make no apology for bringing the United purely technical training, the necessary
I
States Government in thus conspicuously. limitctions being. matters of time and
The General Government must give aid.: cost: the question whether the boy can
to Southern education if illiteracy and i afford to stay in school long enough to
ignorance are to cease threatening the add parts of a high-school course to the
very foundations of civilization within- trade course, and particularly the quesAid to common- tion whether the school can afford or
.- any reasonable time.
school education could be appropriated ought to afford to give trade-training to
to the different States on the basis of high-school students who do not intend
'illiteracy. T h e fund could be adminis- to become artisans. A system of trade-. :
terecl by State officials, and the results schools, therefore, supported by State
and needs reported upon by United and private aid, should be added to the
States educational inspectors under the secondary school system.
Bureau of Education. T h e States could
An industrial school, however, does
easily distribute the funds so as to not merely teach technique. I t is also
encourage local taxation and enterprise a school-a
center of moral influence
and not result in pauperizing the commu- and of mental discipline. As such i
nities. As to higher training, it must be has peculiar problems in securing the
remembered that the cost of a single proper teaching force. f t demands
battle-ship like the Massachusetts would broadly trained men : the teacher of
endow all the clistinctively college work carpentry must be more than a carpennecessary for negroes during the next ter, and the teacher of the domestic arts
half-century; and it is without doubt more than a cook; for such teachers
true that the unpaid balance from boun- must instruct, not simply in manual
ties withheld from negroes in the Civil dexterity, but in mental quickness and
War would, with interest, easily supply moral habits. I n other ~vords,they
this sum.
must be teachers as well as artisans.
But spread of intelligence alone will I t thus happens that co!lege-bred men
not solve the negro problem. If this and men from other higher schools have
problem is largely a question of i g n e always been in demand in technical
rance, it is also scarcely less a problem of schools, and it has been the high privipoverty. If negroes are to assume the lege of Atlanta Univ~;sity to furnish--\
responsibility of raising the standards of during the thirty-six years of its existliving nmong themselves, the power of ence a part r,; the teaching force of
intelligent work and leadership to\vard nearly every negro industrial school in
proper industrial ideals must be placed the United States, and to-day our grad-
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T h e Outlook
[ I 7 October
uates are teaching in more than twenty become eventually the central problem
such institutions. T h e same might be of emancipation is as clear as day to
s a ~ dof Fisk University and other higher any student of history. I n its grosser
schools. If the college graduates were form as a problem of serious crime it is
to-day withdrawn froin the teaching already upon us. Of course it is false
force of the chief negro industrial and silly to represent that white women
schools, nearly every one of them would in the South are in daily danger of
have to close its doors. These facts black assaulters. On the contrary, white
are forgotten by such advocates of womanhood in the South is absolutely
industrial training as oppose the higher safe in the hands of ninety-five per cent.
schools. Strong as the argument for of the black men-ten times safer than
industrial schools is-and
its strength black ~vornanhoocl is in the hands of
is undeniable-its
cogency simply in- white men. Nevertheless, there is a
creases the urgency of the plea for higher large and dangerous class of negro
training-schools and colleges to furnish criminals, paupers, and outcasts. T h e
existence and growth of such a class,
,
broadly educated teachers.
But intelligence and skill alone will far from causing surprise, should be
not solve the Southern problem of pov- recognized as the natural result of that
erty. With these must go that combina- social disease called the negro problem ;.
tion of homely habits and virtues which nearly every untoward circumstance
we may loosely call thrift. Something known to human experience has united
of thrift may be taught in school, more to increase negro crime : the slhvery of
must be taught at home ; but both these the past, the sudden emancipation, the
agencies are helpless when organized narrowing of economic opportunity, the
economic society denies to workers the lawless environment of wide regions, the
just rewards of thrift and efficiency. stifling o f natural ambition, the curtailAnd this has been true of black laborers ment of political privilege, the disregard
in the South from the time _of slavery of the sanctity of black men's homes,
down through the scandal of the Freed- and, above all, a system of treatment for
men's Bank to the peonage and c r o p criminals calculated to breed crime far
lien system of to-day. If the Southern faster than all other available agencies
negro is shiftless, it is primarily because could repress it. Such a cqmbination
over large areas a shiftless negro can of circumstances is as sure to increase
get on in the world about as well as an the numbers of the vicious and outcast
industrious black man. This is not as the rain is to wet the earth. T h e
universally true in the South, but it is. phenomenon calls for no delicately
true to so large an extent as to discour- drawn theories of race differences ; it is
age striving in precisely that class of a plain case of cause and effect.
But, plain as the causes may be, the
negroes who most need encouragement.
results are just as deplorable, and repeatWhat is the remedy ? Intelligencenot simply the ability to read and write edly to-day the criticism is made that
or to sew-but
the intelligence of a ' negroes do not recognize sufficiently
society permeated by that larger vision their responsibility in this matter. Such
of life and broader tolerance u~hichare critics forget how little power to-day
fostered by the college and university. negroes have over their own lower
, Not that all men must be college-bred,* classes. Before the black murderer
but that some men, black and white, who strikes his victim to-day, the avermust be, to leaven the ideals of the age black man stands far more helpless
lump. Can any serious student of the than the average white, and, too, suffers
economic South doubt that this to-day ten times m'ore from the effects of the
- is her crying need ?
deed. T h e white man has, political
Ignorance and Foverty are the vastest power, accumulated wealth, and knowlof the negro problen,~. But to these edge of social forces ; the black man is
later years have added a third-the
practically disfranchised, poor, and uniiat a great able to discriminate between the crimina.1
problem of negro crime. 'I
problem of social morality must have and the martyr. T h e negro needs the
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1903j
T h e Training of Negroes
f o r Social Power
413
'defense of the ballot, the conserving
is gotten in many
power of property, and, above all, the
y experlence, by social contact, '
ability to cope intelligently with such by what we loosely call the chances of
vast questions of social regeneration life. But the systematic method of
and moral reform as confront him. If acquiring and imparting it is by the
social reform among negroes be without training o f ~ o u t hto thoug-ht, power, and
school and colle e. j *
organization or trained leadership from ----knowledp-he
within, if the administration of law i s And that group of people whose lnenta ,
always' for the avenging of the ~vhite grasp is by heredity weakest, and whose
victim and seldom for the reformation knowledge of the past is for historic
of the black criminal, if ignorant black reasons most imperfect, that group is
men misunderstand the functions of the very one which needs above all, for
government because they have had no the talented of its youth, this severe and
decent instruction, and intelligent black careful course of training ; especially if -J
men are denied a voice in government they are expected to take immediate
because they are black-under
such cir- part in modeln competitive life, if they
cumstances to hold negroes responsible are to hasten the slo\ver courses of
for the suppression of crime among human development, and if the responthemselves is the cruelest of mockeries. sibility fcf this is to be in their own
O n the other hand, a sinczre desire hands.
among the American people to help the
Three things American slavery gave
negroes undertake their own social re- the negro-the habit of work, the Enggeneration means, first, that the negro lish language, and the Christian religion ;
-given
the ballot on the same terms but one priceless thing it debauched,
be
as other men, to protect him again-t destroyed, and took from him, and that
Injustice and to safeguard his interests was the organized home. For the sake
: in the administration of law; secondly, of intelligence and thrift, for the sake of
that through education and social organ- work and morality, this home-life must
ization he be trained to work, and save, be restored ancl regenerated with newer
and earn a decent living. But these are ideals. How ? The normal method
not all: wealth is not the only thing would be by actual contact with a
worth accumulating; experience and higher home-life among his neighbors,
knowledge can be accumulated and but this method the social separation of
1' handed down, and no people can be white and black precludes. A proposed
truly rich without them. Can the negro method is by schools of domestic arts,
- do without these ?
Can this training in but, valuable as these are, they are but
work and thrift be truly effective with- subsidiary aids to the establishment of
out the guidance of trained intelligence homes; for real homes are primarily
-and deep knowledge-without that same centers of ideals and teaching and only
efficiency which has enabled modern incidentally centers of cooking. The
peoples to grapple so successfully with restoration and raising of home ideals
the problems of the Submerged Tenth? must, then, come from social life among
There must surely be among negro negroes themselves ; ancl does that social
leaders the philanthropic impulse, the life need no leadership? It needs the uprightness of character and strength best possible leadership of pure hearts
of purpose, but there must be more than and trained heads, the highest leaderthese ; philanthropy and purpose among ship of carefully trained men.
Such are the arguments for the negro
blacks as well as among whites must be
guided and curbed by knowledge and college, and such is the work that Atlanta
- mental discipline-knowledge
of the University and a few similar institutions
forces of civilization that make for sur- seek to do. VlTe believe that a rationally
'vival, ability to organize and guide those arranged college cou:se of study for men
forces, and realization of the true mean- and women ab'; to pursue it is the best
ing of t h o s c ~ a d e rideals of human and onlv method of putting into the \
betterment which may in time bring world ~negroes with ability to use the
heaven and earth a little nearer. This so*;~alforces of their race so as to stamp ,
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T h e Outlook
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 thatsuch 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
~vorkof our graduates precisely such
results as I have mentioned : successful
teachers of teachers, inteiligent 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
i--forces
of uplift and inspiration. T h e
proof of this lies scattered in every State
of the South, and, above all, in the halfun\villing 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
u7e would be glad to see ten industrial
schools to every college. I t 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
[17 October
support and countenance, and that, un--'
less the Nation awakens to its duty, t e n 5
years will see the annihilation of high'er
negro training in the South.-JVe.neeG-.
a few strong, ~ilell-eqoippednegro col:
leges, and we nee$--t-hem noj$ n o t tomorrow ; unless we can have them and
have them decently supported, negro
education in the South, both commonschool and industrial, is doomed to fail;,
ure, and the forces of social regeneration /
\\rill be fatally weakened, for ..the
. - -college
.
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to-day among negroes is, just as truly
as it \vas yesterday among whites, the
beginning and not the e n d of human
training, the foundation and not the capstone of popular education.
- Strange, is it not, my brothers, how
often in America those great watch~vordsof human energy-" Be strong !"
" K n o ~ v thyself 1"
" Hitch your wagon
to a star !"-how
often these die anray
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
fatherlanh, lest mlc: live to lose those great
n~atchwordsof Liberty and Opportunity
which yonder in the eternal hills their
fathers fought with your fathers to preserve.
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