ins, of The Slater Industrial and State Normal School at
Winston, N. C., as one of the most worthy and capable men
connected with the education of the Negroes in the South.
His intelligence, courtesy, good deportment, high character
and efficiency as the head of a school have won the
confidence and goodwill of the people among whom he lives,
and of all who best know his work and worth."
"The education of a Negro is the education of a human being. In its
essential characteristics the human mind is the same in every race and
in every age. When a Negro child is taught that two and two are four
he learns just what the white child learns when he is taught the same
proposition. The teacher uses the same faculties of mind in imparting
the truth as to the sum of two and two. The two children use the same
faculties in learning the truth; it means the same thing to them both.
In further teaching and training the methods may vary, but variations
will depend less on differences of race than on peculiarities of the
individual."--Bishop Haygood.
The above quotation from Bishop Haygood indicates my answer to the
question. This question is simply a revival of the old superstition
concerning the Negro that manifested itself in the inquiry as to
whether the Negro had a soul. Civilization and fraternity have so far
developed that it would be hard in these days to find a person whose
skepticism concerning the Negro would find a doubtful expression as to
the Negro's humanity. The light has become too strong for the
existence of that kind of mist; hence the unsympathetic critic has
been forced to find a new way of putting his wish begotten thought.
There is still a higher authority for a negative answer to the
question, "Should the Negroes be given an education different from
that given to the whites?" in the following language: "God had made of
one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of all the
earth."
This declaration of St. Paul goes to the core of the matter, unless it
is proposed to revive the old superstition that the Negro is not
included as a part of the "nations of men." It is a strange fact that
nobody ever proposes a modified or peculiar form of education for any
other nationality.
It is the glory of the backward peoples of the earth that they are
adopting the forms and methods of education which have made Western
civilization the touch-stone of the world's progress.
But th
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