, but these must be for whites only or
blacks only, but not for both. A negro market gardener suffers no
discrimination, and a negro grocer may receive white patronage, though
he usually does not attempt to attract white customers. There are a few
negro dairymen, and some get the best prices for their products. Where a
negro manufactures or sells goods in a larger way, as in brickyards,
cement works lumber yards and the like, race prejudice does not
interfere with his trade.

Negro professional men, on the other hand, get little or no white
patronage. No negro pastor preaches to a white congregation, and no
negro teaches in a school for whites. Negro lawyers, dentists, and
doctors are practically never employed by whites. In the past the number
engaged in these professions has been negligible, and that any increase
in the total of well trained negro professional men will make an
immediate change in the attitude of whites is unlikely. The relation of
lawyer and client or physician and patient presumes a certain intimacy
and subordination to greater wisdom which the white man is not willing
to acknowledge where a negro is involved. Negro women, trained or
partially trained, are employed as nurses, however, in increasing
numbers.

In 1865, the great mass of negroes was wholly illiterate. Some of the
free negroes could read and write, and a few had graduated at some
Northern college. Though the laws which forbade teaching slaves to read
or write were not generally enforced, only favored house servants
received instruction. It is certain that the percentage of illiteracy
was at least 90, and possibly as high as 95. This has been progressively
reduced until in 1910 the proportion of the illiterate negro population
ten years old or over was 30.4 per cent, and the number of college and
university graduates was considerable though the proportion was small.
Since the percentage of native white illiteracy in the United States is
but 3, the negro is evidently ten times as illiterate as the native
white. This comparison is not fair to the negro, however, for illiteracy
in the urban communities in the United States is less than in the rural
districts, owing largely to better educational facilities in the cities;
and 82.3 per cent of the negro population is rural.[1]

[Footnote 1: In New England negro illiteracy is 7.1 per cent in the
cities and 16.9 per cent in the rural communities. Then, too, the great
masses of negroes live in