Locating and Producing the "Talented Tenth" of the African-Americans

The sun as a symbol of the vital principle of Nature, has three properties – Life, Light and Heat. The three vitalize and enliven the three worlds – Emotional, Intellectual and Material.

The active, radiant and virile principle of the Sun impregnates the passive, watery and maternal principle of Nature.

The Talented Tenth should be those who would have discovered first hand the eternity of “Life, Light and Truth” and the illusion of “Death, Disease and Perversion.”

In the USA, there are some organizations that were formed by those with the desire to know and understand, and to seek greater breath and scope of enlightenment:


Sigma Pi Phi - The most exclusive and prestigious society in the black community as the first Greek-letter fraternity organized by African Americans. It was founded in 1904  in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and its membership includes men from all Greek  letter organizations as well as those who are not. It is often called the Boulé which means "a council of noblemen" after an ancient Athenian governing body from the ancient Greek verb ‘boulomai’ meaning “to will” (after deliberating). This was a “council of citizens” appointed to run daily affairs of the city.

Sigma Pi Phi was not a college fraternity. It provided fellowship for African-American men who already held college degrees and were established in the professions or business. The Boule is modeled on the Caucasian society called Skull & Bones, established in 1776 at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Today, the Skull and Bones is the source of Caucasian Establishment.

The logo of Sigma Pi Phi is the Sphinx (Hu), an androgynous creature with the body of a winged lion and the human head. The creature symbolized strength and intelligence. It was found by the entrance into the Great Pyramid of Egypt, wrongly considered as a tomb. The Great Pyramid was the first structure erected as a repository of secret truths and the “womb of the Mysteries” as a place of the “second birth” unfolded by the Sage Illuminator or the Master of the Secret House It has three main chambers and three faces representing the human constitution – the heart, brain and generative system. It has a square base as the representative of the universe or Nature, the House of Wisdom, firmly on 4 immutable laws – “Truth, Intelligence, Silence and Profundity” and the cardinal points (east, west, north and south) and the elements of life (fire, air, water and earth). Humanity is the living apex or capstone (a miniature pyramid, a smaller block of similar shape) of the unfinished universe through which the divine wisdom and energies stream down the diverging sides of the structure below throughout the world. The capstone is the epitome of the pyramid just like the spirit is the epitome of human being and God is the epitome of the spirit. Each person who sought to be admitted into the Greater Mysteries for initiation in the sacred subterranean galleries beneath the Pyramid, was asked a question by the attendant (the Magi), “What animal is it that in the morning goes on four feet, at noon on two feet and in the evening on three feet?” Literally, the answer is a human being, who is childhood crawled upon his hands and knees, in maturity stood erect, and in old age shuffled along supporting him/herself using a staff. Esoterically, there is value of numbers – 4, 2, and 3, which produce a sum of 9. The 4 represents the infant or ignorant person, the 2 the evolving or intellectual person and the 3 the illumined person who adds the staff of wisdom. Therefore the sphinx is the mystery of Nature, the embodiment of the secret doctrine of Life and those passed it attained personal immortality. - Wisdom of Religions Volume 5. After one has passed Sphinx, he was informed to enter with the Riddle of the Sphinx - “Look Within for that which Thou needest."

The first constitution of Sigma Pi Phi proclaimed that:

“Whereas it seems wise and good that men of ambition,
refinement and self-respect should seek the society of each other
Both for the mutual benefit and to be an example of the higher
type of manhood.

“Be it Resolved that a society be organized for the
purpose of binding men of like qualities into a close, sacred,
fraternal union, that they may know the best of one another,
and that each in this life may to his full ability aid the other,
and by concerted action bring about those things that seem best
for all that cannot be accomplished by individual effort.”

It was thought that black learned and professional men should have an organization that "should be a fraternity in the true sense of the word; one whose chief thought should not be to visit the sick and bury the dead, but to bind men of like qualities, tastes and attainments into a close and sacred union that they might know the best of one another." Members would not be "selected on the basis of brains alone – but in addition to congeniality, culture and good fellowship; that they shall have behind them [at initiation] a record of accomplishment, not merely be men of promise and good education." His fraternity would contain the "best of Skull and Bones of Yale and of Phi Beta Kappa."

“Now the striking truth in connection with this forceful and memorable utterance is that it came in the most effective way; it grew out of a life situation. It was not a studied abstraction, emanating from the minds of Boulé philosophers; it was no finely spun theory, beautiful for contemplation, but impracticable when applied to the vexing problems that arise out of our relationship toward each other; it was not the result of an attempt of any kind away and apart from a real situation, to define a merely idealistic principle. The utterance of the Grand Boulé has all of the simplicity of a fundamental principle. It is earnest, straightforward, unequivocal. In so many words it says this: first of all every archon is a gentleman, or he has no business in the Boulé. He will, therefore, at all times and in all situations conduct himself as a gentleman; he cannot do less. He will realize, or at least assume, that every other archon along with himself is a gentleman; and therefore in all his social, business, political and religious relationships, subscribes to and practices the same high principles to which he is committed. This assumption will therefore make it impossible for one archon unjustly and viciously to attack another one even when he is in possession of facts sufficient to justify the attack. As brothers in the same circle, it would be his business to present his findings to the Boulé and let them deal with the apostasy from the spirit of the fraternity. Archons may, and should differ; they will, and should be subject to criticism in their public life, by any other archon who disagrees with the program or procedures involved. But this has nothing to do with vicious personal attack that questions the honor and high standing of a fellow archon. This is outside of the pale of the fundamental elements of "brotherhood.'” - Grand Grapter Davis, The Boulé Journal (1929)

The profile of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity is that of African-Americans with significant disposable income; leaders in corporate America, government, education, health care, politics and religion; highly influential shapers of local and national opinion. The demographics are as follows:

• Median Age: 55;
• Age: 35-49 25%, 50+ 75%;
• Median Household Income: US$250,000;
• Average Net Worth: US$2,000,000;
• Graduated College: 100%;
• Postgraduate Study: 100%;
• Professional/managerial: 90%;
• Top Management: 60%;
• Real Estate - Primary Resident: 80%, Real Estate - Own Other: 60%;
• Marital Status - Married: 85%, Children in the Household: 35%;
• Male/Female: 98%/2%
  

Prominent members of the Boule are: WEB DuBois; Jesse Jackson Bill Cosby; Al Sharpton; Thurgood Marshall;  Vernon Jordan; Dr. Daniel Hale Williams who performed 1st open hear surgery; Ralph Bunch a former UN Ambassador; Arthur Ashe; Urban League President; Whitney Young; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Benjamin Mays; Carter G. Woodson; John H. Johnson; Maynard Jackson former mayor of Atlanta; Baseball great Hank Aaron; Tom Bradley a TV personality; Dennis Archor former mayor of Detroit; Elvin Big 'E' Hayes; Bill Cosby; Jesse Jackson; Earl Graves; Douglass Wilder; ex-Steeler, Lynn Swann; David Dinkins former mayor of New York City. The Ebony, Jet, Essence, and Black Enterprise magazines are owned by the Boule.


Official site: www.sigmapiphi.org/home/

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There are a total of nine historically black sororities and fraternities that make up the National Pan-Hellenic Council, sometimes referred to as the “Divine Nine.” The organizations include
1. Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.(1906),
2. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.(1908),
3. Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc .(1911),
4. Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.(1911),
5. Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.(1913)
6. Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc (1914),
7. Zeta Phi Beta (1920),
8. Sigma Gamma Rho (1922),
9. Iota Phi Theta (1963).

Lawrence Otis Graham, a Boule, said in his book, Our Kind of People: Inside America’s Black Upper Class, that these sororities and fraternities “are a lasting identity, a circle of lifetime friends, a base for future political and civic activism.”

Prominent among them are:

Alpha Phi Alpha  - is a fraternity that was founded on December 4, 1906 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and the founders are collectively known as the "Seven Jewels". Alpha Phi Alpha the first intercollegiate Greek-lettered fraternity in the United States established for people of African descent, and the paragon for the Black Greek Lettered Organizations (BGLOs) that followed. It uses motifs and artifacts from Ancient Egypt to represent itself and its archives are preserved at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.

Purpose Statement: To promote a more perfect union among college men; to aid in and insist upon the personal progress of its members; to further brotherly love and a fraternal spirit within the organization; to discountenance evil; to destroy all prejudices; to preserve the sanctity of the home, the personification of virtue and the chastity of woman.

Mission Statement: To develop leaders, promote brotherhood and academic excellence, while providing service and advocacy for communities.     

Vision Statement To stimulate the ambition of its members; to prepare them for the greatest usefulness in the causes of humanity, freedom, and dignity of the individual;  to encourage the highest and noblest form of manhood; and to aid down-trodden humanity in its efforts to achieve higher social, economic and intellectual status.

Alpha Phi Alpha utilizes motifs from Ancient Egypt and uses images and songs depicting the Her-em-akhet (Great Sphinx of Giza), pharaohs, and other Egyptian artifacts to represent the organization. The Great Sphinx of Giza was made out of one unified body of stone which represents the fraternity and its members. 

This is in contrast to other fraternities that traditionally echo themes from the golden age of Ancient Greece. Alpha's constant reference to Ethiopia in hymns and poems are further examples of Alpha's mission to imbue itself with an African cultural heritage. Fraternity brother Charles H. Wesley wrote, "To the Alpha Phi Alpha brotherhood, African history and civilization, the Sphinx, and Ethiopian tradition bring new meanings and these are interpreted with new significance to others." The Great Pyramids of Giza, symbols of foundation, sacred geometry and more, are other African images chosen by Alpha Phi Alpha as fraternity icons.

The fraternity's 21st General President, Thomas W. Cole once said, "Alpha Phi Alpha must go back to her ultimate roots; only then can she be nurtured to full bloom." Fraternity members make pilgrimages to its birthplaces of Egypt to walk across the sands of the Giza Plateau to the Great Sphinx of Giza and the Great Pyramids of Giza, and to Ethiopia

Alpha Phi Alpha and its members have had a voice and influence on politics, current-affairs and key issues facing the world as founder and editor of national publications. The Crisis, the magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was started by fraternity member W. E. B. Du Bois in 1910. In 1914, The Sphinx, named after the Egyptian landmark, began publication as the fraternity's journal. The Crisis and The Sphinx are respectively the first and second oldest continuously published black journals in the United States. The National Urban League's (NUL) Opportunity Journal, was first published in 1923 under the leadership of Alpha founder Eugene K. Jones, with fraternity brother Charles Johnson as its executive editor. While continuing to stress academic excellence among its members, Alpha's leaders recognized the need to correct the educational, economic, political, and social injustices faced by African-Americans and the world community.  Alpha Phi Alpha began its continuing commitment to providing scholarships for needy students and initiating various other charitable and service projects and evolved from a social fraternity to a primarily community service organization.

In practice, through their post-college activities, African-American undergraduate fraternities and sororities also functioned as clubs for the privileged elite, both people who had joined during their student days and a few co-opted men and women.

Official site: www.alpha-phi-alpha.com/

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Phi_Alpha#Egyptian_symbolism

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Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, a fraternity and is the first African-American national fraternal organization to be founded at a historically black college. The fraternity has worked to build a strong and effective force of men dedicated to its Cardinal Principles of manhood, scholarship, perseverance, and uplift. In 1927, at the urging of fraternity member Carter G. Woodson, the fraternity made National Negro Achievement Week an annual observance and it continues today as Black History Month.

Omega Psi Phi does not seek members; quality men seek Omega Psi Phi. A man who successfully completes the membership selection process will immediately have access to a brotherhood of men who share similar ideals and aspirations. Those who seek admission will learn the history of the fraternity from a historical perspective, written test and personal accounts. 

Omega Psi Phi Fraternity is a professional organization of educated men with similar ideas and like attainments. The fraternity’s founders chose Manhood, Scholarship, Perseverance and Uplift as the cardinal principles that every prospective candidate must possess. The fraternity’s motto is “Friendship Is Essential To The Soul.”

Since the birth of the organization, Omega has and will continue to impact the world in every profession and all walks of life.

Candidates must exhibit the qualities of the Fraternity’s Four Cardinal Principles:
1. Manhood – Being appropriate in character and marked by moral excellence, courage, bravery, and resolve.
2. Scholarship – Demonstrating an attitude toward education, learning and being informed by achieving or exceeding and maintaining the minimum educational requirements of the fraternity.
3. Perseverance – Exhibiting a “spirit” of brotherhood, togetherness, humility, cooperation, and a willingness to go an extra mile for the goal sought, as a responsible first-class citizen. This can be demonstrated by presenting obstacles overcome, awards received and honors issued.
4. Uplift – Sharing ones gifts with the community in the form verifiable aid, activism and leadership. 

Official site: www.oppf.org/

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  Non-Black Greek Lettered Fraternities

There are many hundreds of non-black Greek lettered fraternities. The main ones are:


1. Phi Beta Kappa Society was founded on December 5, 1776 at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, and established the precedent for naming American college societies after the Greek-letter initials of a secret Greek motto.

Phi Beta Kappa, an academic honor society. Its mission is to "celebrate and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences"; and induct "the most outstanding students of arts and sciences at America’s leading colleges and universities." 

Phi Beta Kappa (ΦΒΚ) stands for philosophia biou kybernētēs — "Philosophy is the guide of life". 

Its three distinguishing principles are friendship, morality and learning. 

Like the older, Latin-letter fraternities, the Phi Beta Kappa was a fraternal society. To protect its members and to instill a sense of solidarity, it had the essential attributes of most modern fraternities: 
1. an oath of secrecy, 
2. a badge (or token) and a diploma (or certificate) of membership, 
3. motto, 
4. a ritual of initiation, and 
5. a handclasp of recognition.


Its symbol is that of a golden key engraved on the obverse with the image of a pointing finger, three stars and the Greek letters from the society takes its name. 

The stars are said to represent ambition and the three distinguishing principles of the Society: friendship, morality, and learning. 

On the reverse are found the initials "SP" in script, which stand for the Latin words Societas Philosophiae ("Philosophical Society").


Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phi_Beta_Kappa_Society


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Pi Kappa Phi, a fraternity whose mission is to make members lead by "The expression of shared values and ideals as contained in the Ritual of Initiation, Supreme Law and Fraternity policy; The pursuit of brotherhood through scholarship, leadership, service, and personal experiences; The achievement of personal excellence in each member and collective excellence in our Fraternity; A lifelong brotherhood of its members." 


Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity is a value-based membership development organization that focuses on building brotherhood through character enhancement, leadership development, academic achievement, commitment to service, lifelong friendship and social experiences.  


All Pi Kappa Phi (Pi Kapps) are expected to be men of CLASS, which stands for “Character, Leadership, Academics, Sportsmanship, Service.” The ideals arise out of the original acronym, “Chivalry, Loyalty, Accountability, Scholarship and Sportsmanship."


1. CHARACTER. A man of true character displays moral and ethical strength in any situation and displays such strength through personal integrity, ultimate respect and selflessness. 


2. LEADERSHIP opportunities; therefore, Pi Kappa Phi believes that leadership is a choice rather than an action. Pi Kappa Phi offers some of the most progressive and innovative LEADERSHIP development programs. 


3. ACADEMICS are important to every fraternity man. However, not every fraternity man is provided with the resources necessary to help him achieve academic success. Pi Kappa Phi provides the opportunity for advising and mentoring exclusively to its members through the Collegiate Success Program as well as scholarships to recognized academic achievements.


4. Pi Kappa Phi competes to win, but not at all costs. There is a right way and a wrong way to compete. The right way involves the display of SPORTSMANSHIP—through dedication to one’s team, respect for one’s opponent and dignity in winning and losing. Pi Kappa Phi believes that one’s conduct and attitude as a sportsman speak to one’s quality as an individual. 

5. Pi Kappa Phi promotes leadership through SERVICE. However, Pi Kappa Phi prides itself on being the only national fraternal organization to establish and maintain its own national philanthropy—Push America, which develops leadership qualities in the members of Pi Kappa Phi.

The Creed of Pi Kappa Phi 
I believe that the ideal chapter is made up of men

Who are bound together in a common loyalty
which transcends any personal selfishness;

Who realize that membership means personal responsibility
in bearing their share of the financial burden
of the chapter and the national organization;

Who bring credit to the fraternity by striving to attain
the highest possible standards of scholarship;

Who safeguard the reputation of their chapter
by keeping careful watch over their personal conduct;

Who uphold faithfully the
traditions and activities of their college;

Who prepare themselves diligently to shoulder their
full responsibility as citizens.

I believe that my chapter can become an ideal chapter, 

and I shall do my share to make it so. 

Source: www.pikapp.org
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Argument for Bourgeoisie Nationalist or the Corporate "Talented Tenth" in Africa and Zimbabwe

The "Talented Tenth" or the "Vital Few" among Africans

W.E.B. DuBois September 1903

The (African) race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men. The problem of education, then, among (Africans) must first of all deal with the Talented Tenth; it is the problem of developing the Best of this race that they may guide the Mass away from the contamination and death of the Worst, in their own and other races. Now the training of men is a difficult and intricate task. Its technique is a matter for educational experts, but its object is for the vision of seers. If we make money the object of man-training, we shall develop money-makers but not necessarily men; if we make technical skill the object of education, we may possess artisans but not, in nature, men. Men we shall have only as we make manhood the object of the work of the schools ? intelligence, broad sympathy, knowledge of the world that was and is, and of the relation of men to it ? This is the curriculum of that Higher Education which must underlie true life. On this foundation we may build bread winning, skill of hand and quickness of brain, with never a fear lest the child and man mistake the means of living for the object of life.

If this be true ? and who can deny it ? Three tasks lay before me:
1. To show from the past that the Talented Tenth as they have risen among (Africans) have been worthy of leadership; 
2. To show how these men may be educated and developed; and 
3. To show their relation to the (African) problem.

You misjudge us because you do not know us. From the very first it has been the educated and intelligent of the (African) that have led and elevated the mass, and the sole obstacles that nullified and retarded their efforts were slavery and race prejudice; for what is slavery but the legalized survival of the unfit and the nullification of the work of natural internal leadership? (African) leadership therefore sought from the first to rid the race of this awful incubus that it might make way for natural selectionand the survival of the fittest. In colonial days came Phillis Wheatley andPaul Cuffe striving against the bars of prejudice; and Benjamin Banneker, the almanac maker, voiced their longings when he said to Thomas Jefferson, "I freely and cheerfully acknowledge that I am of the African race and in colour which is natural to them, of the deepest dye; and it is under a sense of the most profound gratitude to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, that I now confess to you that I am not under that state of tyrannical thraldom and inhuman captivity to which too many of my brethren are doomed, but that I have abundantly tasted of the fruition of those blessings which proceed from that free and unequalled liberty with which you are favored, and which I hope you will willingly allow, you have mercifully received from the immediate hand of that Being from whom proceedeth every good and perfect gift.

"Suffer me to recall to your mind that time, in which the arms of the British crown were exerted with every powerful effort, in order to reduce you to a state of servitude; look back, I entreat you, on the variety of dangers to which you were exposed; reflect on that period in which every human aid appeared unavailable, and in which even hope and fortitude wore the aspect of inability to the conflict, and you cannot but be led to a serious and grateful sense of your miraculous and providential preservation, you cannot but acknowledge, that the present freedom and tranquility which you enjoy, you have mercifully received, and that a peculiar blessing of heaven.

"This, sir, was a time when you clearly saw into the injustice of a state of Slavery, and in which you had just apprehensions of the horrors of its condition. It was then that your abhorrence thereof was so excited, that you publicly held forth this true and invaluable doctrine, which is worthy to be recorded and remembered in all succeeding ages: ?We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed with certain inalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.? "

Then came Dr. James Derham, who could tell even the learned Dr. Rush something of medicine, and Lemuel Haynes, to whom Middlebury College gave an honorary A. M. in 1804. These and others we may call the Revolutionary group of distinguished Negroes - they were persons of marked ability, leaders of a Talented Tenth, standing conspicuously among the best of their time. They strove by word and deed to save the color line from becoming the line between the bond and free, but all they could do was nullified by Eli Whitney and the Curse of Gold. So they passed into forgetfulness.

But their spirit did not wholly die; here and there in the early part of the century came other exceptional men. Some were natural sons of unnatural fathers and were given often a liberal training and thus a race of educated mulattoes sprang up to plead for black men?s rights.There was Ira Aldridge, whom all Europe loved to honor; there was that Voice crying in the Wilderness, David Walker, and saying:

"I declare it does appear to me as though some nations think God is asleep, or that he made the Africans for nothing else but to dig their mines and work their farms, or they cannot believe history sacred or profane. I ask every man who has a heart, and is blessed with the privilege of believing ? Is not God a God of justice to all his creatures? Do you say he is? Then if he gives peace and tranquility to tyrants and permits them to keep our fathers, our mothers, ourselves and our children in eternal ignorance and wretchedness to support them and their families, would he be to us a God of Justice? I ask, O, ye Christians, who hold us and our children in the most abject ignorance and degradation that ever a people were afflicted with since the world began ? I say if God gives you peace and tranquility, and suffers you thus to go on afflicting us, and our children, who have never given you the least provocation - would He be to us a God of Justice? If you will allow that we are men, who feel for each other, does not the blood of our fathers and of us, their children, cry aloud to theLord of Sabaoth against you for the cruelties and murders with which you have and do continue to afflict us?"

This was the wild voice that first aroused Southern legislators in 1829 to the terrors of abolitionism.

In 1831 there met that first Negro convention in Philadelphia, at which the world gaped curiously but which bravely attacked the problems of race and slavery, crying out against persecution and declaring that "Laws as cruel in themselves as they were unconstitutional and unjust, have in many places been enacted against our poor, unfriended and unoffending brethren (without a shadow of provocation on our part), at whose bare recital the very savage draws himself up for fear of contagion ? looks noble and prides himself because he bears not tile name of Christian." Side by side this free Negro movement, and the movement for abolition, strove until they merged in to one strong stream. Too little notice has been taken of the work which the Talented Tenth among Negroes took in the great abolition crusade. From the very day that a Philadelphia colored man became tile first subscriber to Garrison?s "Liberator," to the day when Negro soldiers made the Emancipation Proclamation possible, black leaders worked shoulder to shoulder with white men in a movement, the success of which would have been impossible without them. There was Purvis and Remond, Pennington and Highland Garnett, Sojourner Truth and Alexander Crummel, and above, Frederick Douglass ? what would the abolition movement have been without them? They stood as living examples of the possibilities of the Negro race, their own hard experiences and well wrought culture said silently more than all the drawn periods of orators ? they were the men who made American slavery impossible. As Maria Weston Chapman said, from the school of anti-slavery agitation, "a throng of authors, editors, lawyers, orators and accomplished gentlemen of color have taken their degree! It has equally implanted hopes and aspirations, noble thoughts, and sublime purposes, in the hearts of both races. It has prepared the white man for the freedom of the black man, and it has made the black man scorn the thought of enslavement, as does a white man, as far as its influence has extended. Strengthen that noble influence! Before its organization, the country only saw here and there in slavery some faithful Cudjoe or Dinah, whose strong natures blossomed even in bondage, like a fine plant beneath a heavy stone. Now, under the elevating and cherishing influence of the American Anti-slavery Society, the colored race, like the white, furnishes Corinthian capitals for the noblest temples."

Where were these black abolitionists trained? Some, like Frederick Douglass, were self-trained, but yet trained liberally; others, like Alexander Crummell and McCune Smith, graduated from famous foreign universities. Most of them rose up through the colored schools of New York and Philadelphia and Boston, taught by college-bred men like Russworm, of Dartmouth, and college-bred white men like Neau and Benezet.

After emancipation came a new group of educated and giftedleaders: Langston, Bruce and Elliot, Greener, Williams and Payne. Through political organization, historical and polemic writing and moral regeneration, these men strove to uplift their people. It is the fashion of to-day to sneer at them and to say that with freedom Negro leadership should have begun at the plow and not in the Senate ? a foolish and mischievous lie; two hundred and fifty years that black serf toiled at the plow and yet that toiling was in vain till the Senate passed the war amendments; and two hundred and fifty years more the half-free serf of to-day may toil at his plow, but unless he have political rights and righteously guarded civic status, he will still remain the poverty-stricken and ignorant plaything of rascals, that he now is. This all sane men know even if they dare not say it.

And so we come to the present ? a day of cowardice and vacillation, of strident wide-voiced wrong and faint hearted compromise; of double-faced dallying with Truth and Right. Who are to-day guiding the work of the (Africans)? The "exceptions" of course. And yet so sure as this Talented Tenth is pointed out, the blind worshippers of the Average cry out in alarm: "These are exceptions, look here at death, disease and crime ? these are the happy rule." Of course they are the rule, because a silly nation made them the rule: Because for three long centuries this people lynched Negroes who dared to be brave, raped black women who dared to be virtuous, crushed dark-hued youth who dared to be ambitious, and encouraged and made to flourish servility and lewdness and apathy. But nor even this was able to crush all manhood and chastity and aspiration from black folk. A saving remnant continually survives and persists, continually aspires, continually shows itself in thrift and ability and character. Exceptional it is to be sure, but this is its chiefest promise; it shows the capability of (African) blood, the promise of black men. Do Americans ever stop to reflect that there are in this land a million men of (African) blood, well-educated, owners of homes, against the honor of whose womanhood no breath was ever raised, whose men occupy positions of trust and usefulness, and who, judged by any standard, have reached the full measure of the best type of modern European culture? Is it fair, is it decent, is it Christian to ignore these facts of the (African) problem, to belittle such aspiration, to nullify such leadership and seek to crush these people back into the mass out of which by toil and travail, they and their fathers have raised themselves?

Can the masses of the (Africans) be in any possible way more quickly raised than by the effort and example of this aristocracy of talent and character? Was there ever a nation on God's fair earth civilized from the bottom upward? Never; it is, ever was and ever will be from the top downward that culture filters. The Talented Tenth rises and pulls all that are worth the saving up to their vantage ground. This is the history of human progress; and the two historic mistakes which have hindered that progress were the thinking first that no more could ever rise save the few already risen; or second, that it would better the uprisen to pull the risen down.

How then shall the leaders of a struggling people be trained and the hands of the risen few strengthened? There can be but one answer: The best and most capable of their youth must be schooled in the colleges and universities of the land. We will not quarrel as to just what the university of the Negro should teach or how it should teach it? I willingly admit that each soul and each race-soul needs its own peculiar curriculum. But this is true: A university is a human invention for the transmission of knowledge and culture from generation to generation, through the training of quick minds and pure hearts, and for this work no other human invention will suffice, not even trade and industrial schools.

All men cannot go to college but some men must; every isolated group or nation must have its yeast, must have for the talented few centers of training where men are not so mystified and befuddled by the hard and necessary toil of earning a living, as to have no aims higher than their bellies, and no God greater than Gold. This is true training, and thus in the beginning were the favored sons of the freedmen trained. Out of tile colleges of the North came, after the blood of war, Ware, Cravath, Chase, Andrews, Bumstead and Spence to build the foundations of knowledge and civilization in the black South. Where ought they to have begun to build? At the bottom, of course, quibbles the mole with his eyes in the earth. Aye! truly at the bottom, at the very bottom; at the bottom of knowledge, down in the very depths of knowledge there where the roots of justice strike into the lowest soil of Truth. And so they did begin; they founded colleges, and up from the colleges shot normal schools, and out from the normal schools went teachers, and around the normal teachers clustered other teachers to teach the public schools; the college trained in Greek and Latin and mathematics, 2,000 men; and these men trained full 50,000 others in morals and manners, and they in turn taught thrift and the alphabet to nine millions of men, who to-day hold $300,000,000 of property. It was a miracle - the most wonderful peace-battle of the 19th century, and yet to-day men smile at it, and in fine superiority tell us that it was all a strange mistake; that a proper way to found a system of education is first to gather the children and buy them spelling books and hoes; afterward men may look about for teachers, if haply they may find them; or again they would teach men Work, but as for Life ? why, what has Work to do with Life, they ask vacantly.

Was the work of these college founders successful; did it stand the test of time? Did the college graduates, with all their fine theories of life, really live? Are they useful men helping to civilize and elevate their less fortunate fellows? Let us see. Omitting all institutions which have not actually graduated students from a college course, there are to-day in the United States thirty-four institutions giving something above high school training to Negroes and designed especially for this race.

Three of these were established in border States before the War; thirteen were planted by the Freedmen?s Bureau in the years 1864-1869; nine were established between 1870 and 1880 by various church bodies; five were established after 1881 by Negro churches, and four are state institutions supported by United States? agricultural funds. In most cases the college departments are small adjuncts to high and common schoolwork. As a matter of fact six institutions ? Atlanta, Fisk, Howard, Shaw, Wilberforce and Leland, are the important Negro colleges so far as actual work and number of students are concerned. In all these institutions, seven hundred and fifty Negro college students are enrolled. In grade the best of these colleges are about a year behind the smaller New England colleges and a typical curriculum is that of Atlanta University. Here students from the grammar grades, after a three years? high school course, take a college course of 136 weeks. One-fourth of this time is given to Latin and Greek; one-fifth, to English and modern languages; one-sixth, to history and social science; one-seventh, to natural science; one-eighth to mathematics, and one-eighth to philosophy and pedagogy.

In addition to these students in the South, Negroes have attended Northern colleges for many years. As early as 1826 one was graduated from Bowdoin College, and from that time till to-day nearly every year has seen elsewhere, other such graduates. They have, of course, met much color prejudice. Fifty years ago very few colleges would admit them at all. Even to-day no Negro has ever been admitted to Princeton, and at some other leading institutions they are rather endured than encouraged. Oberlin was the great pioneer in tile work of blotting out the color line in colleges, and has more Negro graduates by far than any other Northern college.

The total number of Negro college graduates up to 1899, (several of the graduates of that year not being reported), was as follows: Negro White Colleges Colleges Before ?76 137 75 ?75-80 143 22 ?80-85 250 31 ?85-90 413 43 ?90-95 465 66 ?95-99 475 88 Class Unknown 57 64 
-------------------------------------------- Total 1,914 390

Of these graduates 2,079 were men and 252 were women; 50 percent. of Northern-born college men come South to work among the masses of their people, at a sacrifice which few people realize; nearly 90 per cent. of the Southern-born graduates instead of seeking that personal freedom and broader intellectual atmosphere which their training has led them, in some degree, to conceive, stay and labor and wait in the midst of their black neighbors and relatives.

The most interesting question, and in many respects the crucial question, to be asked concerning college-bred Negroes, is: Do they earn a living? It has been intimated more than once that the higher training of Negroes has resulted in sending into the world of work, men who could find nothing to do suitable to their talents. Now and then there comes a rumor of a colored college man working at menial service, etc. Fortunately, returns as to occupations of college-bred Negroes, gathered by the Atlanta conference, are quite full ? nearly sixty per cent. of the total number of graduates.

This enables us to reach fairly certain conclusions as to the occupations of all college-bred Negroes. Of 1,312 persons reported, there were: Teachers, 53.4% Clergymen, 16.8% Physicians, etc., 6.3% Students, 5.6% Lawyers, 4.7% In Govt. Service, 4.0% In Business, 3.6% Farmers and Artisans, 2.7% Editors, Secretaries and Clerks, 2.4% Miscellaneous, .5

Over half are teachers, a sixth are preachers, another sixth are students and professional men; over 6 per cent. are farmers, artisans and merchants, and 4 per cent. are in government service. In detail the occupations are as follows: Occupations of College-Bred Men. 701 Teachers: Presidents and Deans, 19 Teacher of Music, 7 Professors, Principals and Teachers, 675 221 Clergymen: Bishop, 1 Chaplains U. S. Army, 2 Missionaries, 9 Presiding Elders, 12 Preachers, 197 83 Physicians: Doctors of Medicine, 76 Druggists, 4 Dentists, 3 74 Students 62 Lawyers 53 in Civil Service: U. S. Minister Plenipotentiary, 1 U. S. Consul, 1 U. S. Deputy Collector, 1 U. S. Gauger, 1 U. S. Postmasters, 2 U. S. Clerks, 44 State Civil Service, 2 City Civil Service, 1 47 Business Men: Merchants, etc., 30 Managers, 13 Real Estate Dealers, 4 26 Farmers 22 Clerks and Secretaries: Secretary of National Societies, 7 Clerks, etc., 15 9 Artisans 9 Editors 5 Miscellaneous

These figures illustrate vividly the function of the college-bred Negro. He is, as he ought to be, the group leader, the man who sets the ideals of the community where he lives, directs its thoughts and heads its social movements. It need hardly be argued that the Negro people need social leadership more than most groups; that they have no traditions to fall back upon, no long established customs, no strong family ties, no well defined social classes. All these things must be slowly and painfully evolved. The preacher was, even before the war, the group leader of the Negroes, and the church their greatest social institution. Naturally this preacher was ignorant and often immoral, and the problem of replacing the older type by better educated men has been a difficult one. Both by direct work and by direct influence on other preachers, and on congregations, the college-bred preacher has an opportunity for reformatory work and moral inspiration, the value of which cannot be overestimated.

It has, however, been in the furnishing of teachers that the Negro college has found its peculiar function. Few persons realize how vast a work, how mighty a revolution has been thus accomplished. To furnish five millions and more of ignorant people with teachers of their own race and blood, in one generation, was not only a very difficult undertaking, but very important one, in that, it placed before the eyes of almost every Negro child an attainable ideal. It brought the masses of the blacks in contact with modern civilization, made black men the leaders of their communities and trainers of the new generation. In this work college-bred Negroes were first teachers, and then teachers of teachers. And here it is that the broad culture of college work has been of peculiar value. Knowledge of life and its wider meaning, has been the point of the Negro?s deepest ignorance, and the sending out of teachers whose training has not been simply for bread winning, but also for human culture, has been of inestimable value in the training of these men.

In earlier years the two occupations of preacher and teacher were practically the only ones open to the black college graduate. Of later years a larger diversity of life among his people, has opened new avenues of employment. Nor have these college men been paupers and spendthrifts; 557 college-bred Negroes owned in 1899, $1,342,862.50 worth of real estate (assessed value), or $2,411 per family. The real value of the total accumulations of the whole group is perhaps about $10,000,000, or $5,000 a piece. Pitiful is it not beside the fortunes of oil kings and steel trusts, but after all is the fortune of the millionaire the only stamp of true and successful living? Alas! it is, with many and there?s the rub.

The problem of training the (African) is to-day immensely complicated by the fact that the whole question of the efficiency and appropriateness of our present systems of education, for any kind of child, is a matter of active debate, in which final settlement seems still afar off. Consequently it often happens that persons arguing for or against certain systems of education for (Africans), have these controversies in mind and miss the real question at issue. The main question, so far as the Southern Negro is concerned, is: What under the present circumstance, must a system of education do in order to raise the Negro as quickly as possible in the scale of civilization? The answer to this question seems to me clear: It must strengthen the Negro's character, increase his knowledge and teach him to earn a living. Now it goes without saying that it is hard to do all these things simultaneously or suddenly and that at the same time it will not do to give all the attention to one and neglect the others; we could give black boys trades, but that alone will not civilize a race of ex-slaves; we might simply increase their knowledge of the world, but this would not necessarily make them wish to use this knowledge honestly; we might seek to strengthen character and purpose, but to what end if this people have nothing to eat or to wear? A system of education is not one thing, nor does it have a single definite object, nor is it a mere matter of schools. Education is that whole system of human training within and without the school house walls, which molds and develops men. If then we start out to train an ignorant and unskilled people with a heritage of bad habits, our system of training must set before itself two great aims ? the one dealing with knowledge and character, the other part seeking to give the child the technical knowledge necessary for him to earn a living under the present circumstances. These objects are accomplished in part by the opening of the common schools on the one, and of the industrial schools on the other. But only in part, for there must also be trained those who are to teach these schools ? men and women of knowledge and culture and technical skill who understand modern civilization, and have the training and aptitude to impart it to the children under them. There must be teachers, and teachers of teachers, and to attempt to establish any sort of a system of common and industrial school training, without first (and I say first advisedly) without first providing for the higher training of the very best teachers, is simply throwing your money to the winds. School houses do not teach themselves - piles of brick and mortar and machinery do not send out men. It is the trained, living human soul, cultivated and strengthened by long study and thought, that breathes the real breath of life into boys and girls and makes them human, whether they be black or white, Greek, Russian or American. Nothing, in these latter days, has so dampened the faith of thinking Negroes in recent educational movements, as the fact that such movements have been accompanied by ridicule and denouncement and decrying of those very institutions of higher training which made the Negro public school possible, and make Negro industrial schools thinkable. It was: Fisk, Atlanta, Howard and Straight, those colleges born of the faith and sacrifice of the abolitionists, that placed in the black schools of the South the 30,000 teachers and more, which some, who depreciate the work of these higher schools, are using to teach their own new experiments. If Hampton, Tuskegee and the hundred other industrial schools prove in the future to be as successful as they deserve to be, then their success in training black artisans for the South, will be due primarily to the white colleges of the North and the black colleges of the South, which trained the teachers who to-day conduct these institutions. There was a time when the American people believed pretty devoutly that a log of wood with a boyat one end and Mark Hopkins at the other, represented the highest ideal of human training. But in these eager days it would seem that we have changed all that and think it necessary to add a couple of saw-mills and a hammer to this outfit, and, at a pinch, to dispense with the services of Mark Hopkins.

I would not deny, or for a moment seem to deny, the paramount necessity of teaching the (African) to work, and to work steadily and skillfully; or seem to depreciate in the slightest degree the important part industrial schools must play in the accomplishment of these ends, but I do say, and insist upon it, that it is industrialism drunk with its vision of success, to imagine that its own work can be accomplished without providing for the training of broadly cultured men and women to teach its own teachers, and to teach the teachers of the public schools.

But I have already said that human education is not simply a matter of schools; it is much more a matter of family and group life - the training of one?s home, of one?s daily companions, of one?s social class. Now the black boy of the South moves in a black world - a world with its own leaders, its own thoughts, its own ideals. In this world he gets by far the larger part of his life training, and through the eyes of this dark world he peers into the veiled world beyond. Who guides and determines the education which he receives in his world? His teachers here are the group-leaders of the Negro people ? the physicians and clergymen, the trained fathers and mothers, the influential and forceful men about him of all kinds; here it is, if at all, that the culture of the surrounding world trickles through and is handed on by the graduates of the higher schools. Can such culture training of group leaders be neglected? Can we afford to ignore it? Do you think that if the leaders of thought among Negroes are not trained and educated thinkers, that they will have no leaders? On the contrary a hundred half-trained demagogues will still hold the places they so largely occupy now, and hundreds of vociferous busy-bodies will multiply. You have no choice; either you must help furnish this race from within its own ranks with thoughtful men of trained leadership, or you must suffer the evil consequences of a headless misguided rabble.

I am an earnest advocate of manual training and trade teaching for black boys, and for white boys, too. I believe that next to the founding of Negro colleges the most valuable addition to Negro education since the war, has been industrial training for black boys. Nevertheless, I insist that the object of all true education is not to make men carpenters, it is to make carpenters men; there are two means of making the carpenter a man, each equally important: the first is to give the group and community in which he works, liberally trained teachers and leaders to teach him and his family what life means; the second is to give him sufficient intelligence and technical skill to make him an efficient workman; the first object demands the Negro college and college-bred men ? not a quantity of such colleges, but a few of excellent quality; not too many college-bred men, but enough to leaven the lump, to inspire the masses, to raise the Talented Tenth to leadership; the second object demands a good system of common schools, well-taught, conveniently located and properly equipped.

The Sixth Atlanta Conference truly said in 1901:

"We call the attention of the Nation to the fact that less than one million of the three million Negro children of school age, are at present regularly attending school, and these attend a session which lasts only a few months.

"We are to-day deliberately rearing millions of our citizens in ignorance, and at the same time limiting the rights of citizenship by educational qualifications. This is unjust. Half the black youth of the land have no opportunities open to them for learning to read, write and cipher. In the discussion as to the proper training of Negro children after they leave the public schools, we have forgotten that they are not yet decently provided with public schools.

"Propositions are beginning to be made in the South to reduce the already meagre school facilities of Negroes. We congratulate the South on resisting, as much as it has, this pressure, and on the many millions it has spent on Negro education. But it is only fair to point out that Negro taxes and the Negroes? share of the income from indirect taxes and endowments have fully repaid this expenditure, so that the Negro public school system has not in all probability cost the white taxpayers a single cent since the war.

"This is not fair. Negro schools should be a public burden, since they are a public benefit. The Negro has a right to demand good common school training at the hands of the States and the Nation since by their fault he is not in position to pay for this himself ."

What is the chief need for the building up of the Negro public school in the South? The Negro race in the South needs teachers to-day above all else. This is the concurrent testimony of all who know the situation. For the supply of this great demand two things are needed - institutions of higher education and money for school houses and salaries. It is usually assumed that a hundred or more institutions for Negro training are to-day turning out so many teachers and college-bred men that the race is threatened with an over-supply. This is sheer nonsense. There are to-day less than 3,000 living Negro college graduates in the United States, and less than 1,000 Negroes in college. Moreover, in the 164 schools for Negroes, 95 percent. of their students are doing elementary and secondary work, work which should be done in the public schools. Over half the remaining 2,157 students are taking high school studies. The mass of so-called "normal" schools for the Negro, are simply doing elementary common school work, or, at most, high school work, with a little instruction in methods. The Negro colleges and the post-graduate courses at other institutions are the only agencies for the broader and more careful training of teachers. The work of these institutions is hampered for lack of funds. It is getting increasingly difficult to get funds for training teachers in the best modern methods, and yet all over the South, from State Superintendents, county officials, city boards and school principals comes the wail, "We need TEACHERS!" and teachers must be trained. As the fairest minded of all white Southerners, Atticus G. Haygood, once said: "The defects of colored teachers are so great as to create an urgent necessity for training better ones. Their excellencies and their successes are sufficient to justify the best hopes of success in the effort, and to vindicate the judgment of those who make large investments of money and service, to give to colored students opportunity for thoroughly preparing themselves for the work of teaching children of their people."

The truth of this has been strikingly shown in the marked improvement of white teachers in the South. Twenty years ago the rank and file of white public school teachers were not as good as the Negro teachers. But they, by scholarships and good salaries, have been encouraged to thorough normal and collegiate preparation, while the Negro teachers have been discouraged by starvation wages and the idea that any training will do for a black teacher. If carpenters are needed it is well and good to train men as carpenters. But to train men as carpenters, and then set them to teaching is wasteful and criminal; and to train men as teachers and then refuse them living wages, unless they become carpenters, is rank nonsense.

The United States Commissioner of Education says in his report for 1900: "For comparison between the white and colored enrollment in secondary and higher education, I have added together the enrollment in high schools and secondary schools, with the attendance on colleges and universities, not being sure of the actual grade of work done in the colleges and universities. The work done in the secondary schools is reported in such detail in this office, that there can be no doubt of its grade."

He then makes the following comparisons of persons in every million enrolled in secondary and higher education: Whole Country. Negroes. 1880 4,362 1,289 1900 10,743 2,061

And he concludes: "While the number in colored high schools and colleges had increased somewhat faster than the population, it had not kept pace with the average of the whole country, for it had fallen from 30 per cent. to 24 per cent. of the average quota. Of all colored pupils, one (1) in one hundred was engaged in secondary and higher work, and that ratio has continued substantially for the past twenty years. If the ratio of colored population in secondary and higher education is to be equal to the average for the whole country, it must be increased to five times its present average." And if this be true of the secondary and higher education, it is safe to say that the Negro has not one-tenth his quota in college studies. How baseless, therefore, is the charge of too much training! We need Negro teachers for the Negro common schools, and we need first-class normal schools and colleges to train them. This is the work of higher Negro education and it must be done.

Further than this, after being provided with group leaders of civilization, and a foundation of intelligence in the public schools, the carpenter, in order to be a man, needs technical skill. This calls for trade schools. Now trade schools are not nearly such simple things as people once thought. The original idea was that the "Industrial" school was to furnish education, practically free, to those willing to work for it; it was to "do" things ? i.e.: become a center of productive industry, it was to be partially, if not wholly, self-supporting, and it was to teach trades. Admirable as were some of the ideas underlying this scheme, the whole thing simply would not work in practice; it was found that if you were to use time and material to teach trades thoroughly, you could not at the same time keep the industries on a commercial basis and make them pay. Many schools started out to do this on a large scale and went into virtual bankruptcy. Moreover, it was found also that it was possible to teach a boy a trade mechanically, without giving him the full educative benefit of the process, and, vice versa, that there was a distinctive educative value in teaching a boy to use his hands and eyes in carrying out certain physical processes, even though he did not actually learn a trade. It has happened, therefore, in the last decade, that a noticeable change has come over the industrial schools. In the first place the idea of commercially remunerative industry in a school is being pushed rapidly to the background. There are still schools with shops and farms that bring an income, and schools that use student labor partially for the erection of their buildings and the furnishing of equipment. It is coming to be seen, however, in the education of the Negro, as clearly as it has been seen in the education of the youths the world over, that it is the boy and not the material product, that is the true object of education. Consequently the object of the industrial school came to be the thorough training of boys regardless of the cost of the training, so long as it was thoroughly well done.

Even at this point, however, the difficulties were not surmounted. In the first place modern industry has taken great strides since the war, and the teaching of trades is no longer a simple matter. Machinery and long processes of work have greatly changed the work of the carpenter, the ironworker and the shoemaker. A really efficient workman must be to-day an intelligent man who has had good technical training in addition to thorough common school, and perhaps even higher training. To meet this situation the industrial schools began a further development; they established distinct Trade Schools for the thorough training of better class artisans, and at the same time they sought to preserve for the purposes of general education, such of the simpler processes of elementary trade learning as were best suited therefor. In this differentiation of the Trade School and manual training, the best of the industrial schools simply followed the plain trend of the present educational epoch. A prominent educator tells us that, in Sweden, "In the beginning the economic conception was generally adopted, and everywhere manual training was looked upon as a means of preparing the children of the common people to earn their living. But gradually it came to be recognized that manual training has a more elevated purpose, and one, indeed, more useful in the deeper meaning of the term. It came to be considered as an educative process for the complete moral, physical and intellectual development of the child."

Thus, again, in the manning of trade schools and manual training schools we are thrown back upon the higher training as its source and chief support. There was a time when any aged and wornout carpenter could teach in a trade school. But not so to-day. Indeed the demand for college-bred men by a school like Tuskegee, ought to make Mr. Booker T. Washington the firmest friend of higher training. Here he has as helpers the son of a Negro senator, trained in Greek and the humanities, and graduated at Harvard; the son of a Negro congressman and lawyer, trained in Latin and mathematics, and graduated at Oberlin; he has as his wife, a woman who read Virgil and Homer in the same class room with me; he has as college chaplain, a classical graduate of Atlanta University; as teacher of science, a graduate of Fisk; as teacher of history, a graduate of Smith, ? indeed some thirty of his chief teachers are college graduates, and instead of studying French grammars in the midst of weeds, or buying pianos for dirty cabins, they are at Mr. Washington?s right hand helping him in a noble work. And yet one of the effects of Mr. Washington?s propaganda has been to throw doubt upon the expediency of such training for Negroes, as these persons have had.

Men of America, the problem is plain before you. Here is a race transplanted through the criminal foolishness of your fathers. Whether you like it or not the millions are here, and here they will remain. If you do not lift them up, they will pull you down. Education and work are the levers to uplift a people. Work alone will not do it unless inspired by the right ideals and guided by intelligence. Education must not simply teach work ? it must teach Life. The Talented Tenth of the (Africans) must be made leaders of thought and missionaries of culture among their people. No others can do this work and (African) colleges must train men for it. 


The (African), like all other races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men.
END



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