Excerpts from The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860–1935
by James D.
Anderson
The
Despite what seemed like
overwhelming opposition to their educational campaigns, the masses of
Afro-Americans persisted in becoming literate.
Their 95 percent illiteracy rate in 1860 had dropped to 70 percent in 1880
and would drop to 30 percent by 1910.
The former slaves were becoming literate; the process could be slowed
but it would not be stopped or reversed. (p. 31)
Of all the evaluations that
could be cited, the most profound and most eloquent was penned by DuBois, who
praised the early missionary philanthropists as “men radical in their belief in
Negro possibility.” By 1900, DuBois
continued, the black colleges supported by northern missionary and black
religious organizations had “trained in Greek and Latin and mathematics, 2,000
men; and these men trained fully 50,000 others in morals and manners, and they
in turn taught the alphabet to nine millions of men.” The black colleges were far from perfect,
concluded DuBois, but “above the sneers of critics” stood “one crushing
rejoinder; in a single generation they put thirty thousand black teachers in
the South” and “wiped out the illiteracy of the majority of black people of the
land.” (pp. 242–245)
_________________
COMPILERS NOTE: Scholars have
pointed out that this feat had never been accomplished before in the history of
mankind.
Telecommunications Homepage | W.E.B. DuBois Learning Center Homepage