In the development of Negro education the various types or kinds of education have received much discussion and the conflicting claims of certain type of education have been ably presented by their advocates. Space does not admit of a full discussion of the conflict which has raged between the so-called “higher education” and the so called “industrial education.” The most notable colored men who have taken sides on this question during the past 25 years have been Dean Kelly Miller and Dr. W. E. Dubois as advocate of the higher education and Dr. Booker T. Washington, and Dr. R. R. Moton, as advocate of industrial education. The result of the various discussions has been that the whole nation has been convinced that there is, and can be no real conflict between higher education for the Negro and industrial education. The conviction is now very general that the Negro needs and should have every type of instruction. The type of education most needed for the full development are college education, professional education and industrial education.

College Education.—No type of education has meant more to the colored people than college education. There are however very few institutions of college grade among colored schools. Many institutions are called colleges, but they have not been able to do real college work. According to the recent report of the Bureau of Education, only 33 of the private and State schools for colored people are doing work of college grade. These institutions are classified into three groups. The following table presents the facts for these institutions:

Of the 12762 pupils in total attendance on these institutions, only 1,643 are studying college subjects, and 995 are in professional classes. The remaining 10,125 pupils are in elementary and secondary grades.

In reply to a questionnaire sent to all the Northern colleges, 66 reported a total of 430 Negro students of college grade. Of these 309 were in college proper, 86 were in medical courses, including dental and pharmaceutical; 10 were in theological schools; 18 in law; and 7 in veterinary medicine. It is probable that the total number of students in northern institutions is at least 500.

Only three institutions, Howard University, Fisk University, and Meharry Medical College, have a student body, a teaching force and equipment and an income sufficient to warrant the characterization of “college.” Nearly half of the college students and practically all of the professional students are in these institutions.

Professional Education.—The standards of professional training are so involved with the development of colleges that for some time to come the professional training of colored people must be carried on largely in connection with college and secondary work. The scarcity of good teachers, the great need for increased library and laboratory facilities, and the small enrollments in all institutions of higher learning for colored people, render the chances of the development of strong professional schools better where they are affiliated with schools of collegiate or university grade.

At present, less than ten institutions for colored people offer professional courses with teaching force and equipment separate from their academic departments. The majority of these are affiliated with colleges. Howard University has a medical, a law, and a theological department, with considerable equipment and a full quota of students in each department. Meharry Medical College has a large student body and a valuable plant. The theological department of Lincoln University, Lincoln, Pa., is fairly well equipped; but the number of pupils is small. Gammon Theological Seminary, Atlanta, Ga., is a well endowed institution owned by the Methodist Episcopal denomination. The teaching force and equipment are adequate, but the number of students is not large. Bishop Payne Divinity School of the Protestant Episcopal denomination, Petersburg, Va., has a scholarly faculty, but a small number of students. Tuskegee Institute maintains a department for the instruction of rural ministers. The instruction is effective and practical. Talladega College provides a separate building for the Theological Seminary, and its teaching force is separate; but the number of students is small. Payne Theological Seminary, of Wilberforce University, is incorporated independently and its work is done by its own teachers and its own building.

Virginia Union University, Richmond, Va., and Morehouse College, Atlanta, Ga., do not have a separate plant for their theological departments; but the instruction is effective and the number of students is fair. Shaw University, Raleigh, N. C., maintains a preparatory medical course, and offers instruction to ministerial students. Other institutions maintaining theological departments are Livingstone College, Salisbury, N. C.; Biddle University, Charlotte, N. C.; Paine College, Augusta, Ga.; and Stillman Institute, Tuscaloosa, Ala. The following table gives the names, together with the number of teachers and pupils in the theological schools:

The one law school of note is at Howard University. It has a separate building, a three-story structure, located near the District Courthouse. Applicants for admission must be graduates of a recognized high school or college. The regular course for the degree of LL. B. covers a period of three years.

The attendance was 106, of whom 104 were male, and 2 female. There were 8 teachers, 5 white and 3 colored; all are men.

The medical profession offers the largest opportunity for the ambitious young colored man. The number of colored physicians, according to the United States Census of 1910, was 3,077; colored dentists were 478 in number. Each group is increasing rapidly. The following table gives the number of medical students in the different colleges.

Industrial Education.—The phrase “industrial education” as applied to colored schools is very misleading. While the effective industrial schools are making a genuine effort to develop industrial skill, this fundamental purpose is much broader than vocational efficiency or the resulting comfort and culture. The underlying principle of these schools is the adaptation of educational activities, whether industrial or literary, to the needs of the pupil and the community. Leaders in these schools believe that education should include not only the head but the hand and the heart. These broad purposes were strikingly expressed by Gen. Armstrong, the founder of Hampton Institute, in his school reports as early as 1870. The following quotations from these reports illustrate the principles which guided him in the organization of his work:

The past of our colored population has been such that an institution devoted especially to them must provide a training more than usually comprehensive, must include both sexes and a variety of occupation, must produce moral as well as mental strength, and while making its students first-rate mechanical laborers, must also make them first-rate men and women.

Through Dr. H. B. Frissell, his successor as principal of Hampton Institute, and through the late Dr. Booker T. Washington, his pupil, Gen. Armstrong’s idea of education for life has been worthily advocated and extended, until now his thoughts are the common property of all progressive leaders of education.

In discussing industrial education, Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones of the Bureau of Education, has eloquently said:

“Industrial education in the comprehensive sense is the very essence of democracy in education. Civilized society has long been democratic in the advocacy of education for all the people, regardless of race, color, and previous condition. In curriculum and method, however, the schools of the land have continued to be both aristocratic and arbitrary. Subjects introduced in the middle ages to meet the needs of the aristocracy of that time have been retained for their cultural value. Democracy in the content of education demands that the curriculum shall impart culture through knowledge and practice related to the farm, the shop, the office, and, above all, the home.”

According to figures recently published by the Bureau of Education there are 61 public and private institutions which offer some industrial training to their pupils, and 174 with manual training and household arts courses. Of the former group, 29 are maintained by State and Federal funds. The 16 agricultural and mechanical schools largely supported by appropriations from the National Government are fairly well equipped to teach the more important trades and to train girls in household arts. Only a few of them, however, teach the trades effectively, and practically all subordinate the industrial training to the literary instruction. The 13 State institutions are schools of elementary and secondary grade, with some teacher-training courses and some facilities for manual training. Six of them are located in Northern States. In addition to these State institutions, well-managed manual training schools are maintained by the cities of Washington, D. C.; Charleston, S. C., and Columbus, Ga.

The private institutions are divided into two groups: Hampton Institute and Tuskegee Institute, with their large plants, constitute the first group. They occupy a unique position, not only for their influence among the schools for colored people, but also for the part they play in determining the educational policies of the country.

A number of effective movements for the extension of industrial education have been organized within the past ten years. These movements are the result of the cooperation of the Jeanes Fund, the Slater Fund, and the General Education Board with the State and county departments of education. Through this cooperation, State supervisors of colored schools have been appointed in ten Southern States and county industrial teachers are maintained in 131 counties of these and other States. These agencies have organized home-makers’ clubs, encouraged the introduction of industrial courses into the schools, and assisted in arousing public opinion favorable to industrial education.

No discussion of industrial education is complete without reference to the late Dr. Booker T. Washington, who in this field attained world-wide fame and brought more to the cause of all education, than any other individual of this generation. His life history and the wonderful story of Tuskegee, which he founded, are too well known to be given in detail. But his influence was not limited to Tuskegee. He did more than any other individual in teaching the world “that democracy’s plan for the solution of the race problem in the Southland is not primarily in the philanthropies and wisdom of Northern people; nor is it in the desires and struggles of the colored people; nor yet in the first hand knowledge and daily contacts of the Southern white people. Democracy’s plan is in the combination of the best thought and the deepest sympathy and the most abiding faith of these three groups working with mutual faith in one another.”

No more appropriate ending can be found to this section on industrial education or the entire chapter on Negro education, than the beautiful poem of Paul Lawrence Dunbar, written as a tribute to Dr. Washington: