Women.

"I was born on a farm in Ohio, and lived there until I was 16. My father died when I was 12 and I had to provide for myself. At the age of 16 I taught a country school and saved $100. With this I went to Oberlin, and went through by teaching and working.”

"I am an African Methodist preacher's daughter, and from my 10th until my 15th year we were continually traveling over the State. Finally we came to Atlanta, where I stayed till I finished school."

"Lived a short time in Virginia, some time in Ohio, but principally in Missouri. Attended public schools in Macon, Mo., until the age of 15, when I went to Lincoln Institute for one year and Oberlin for five years."

"Was born and schooled in Philadelphia during the dark days of slavery. Was intimately associated with the work of the ‘underground railroad' and the antislavery society. I was sent to Oberlin in 1864."

"My early life was spent at my home at Shoreham, Vt., where I attended Newton Academy. In the fall of 1891 I entered Mr. Moody's school at Northfield, Mass., graduating as president of my class. I then entered Middlebury College, Vermont."

"My father was route agent between Norfolk and Lynchburg, Va. Both of my parents had some education and were careful to send their children to school. I started in the public schools at 7. "

"I went to school at Monroe, Mich., until a female seminary was opened there from which colored children were barred. I then went to Oberlin.”

"My father was a creole and my mother a free negro woman. We moved from Mobile, Ala.. to Wilberforce, Ohio, where I was reared. My parents were devoted Christians and were blessed with the comforts of life. My father had a fine collection of books.

"At a very early age I assumed the responsibility of housekeeper, as my mother died and I was the oldest of a family of five; hence I labored under many disadvantages in attending school, but nevertheless I performed my household duties, persevered with my studies, and now I feel that I have been rewarded."

"My mother and I took in washing for our support and to enable me to get an education. After finishing the public schools of Jacksonville, Ill., I was supported four years in college by a scholarship.

"My early life was spent in Darlington, S. C. I did not attend the public school until I was a large girl, but was tanght at home, first by my mother, then by a private teacher. When the public school was graded, in 1889, I entered the highschool course."

"While a schoolgirl I taught persons living out in service, going into the premises of some of the most prominent white people in New Orleans. I always kept a large class of night pupils at the same time. I paid my tuition out of these earnings."

OCCUPATIONS.

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 can 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 the returns as to occupations of college-bred negroes are quite full-nearly 60 per cent of the total number of graduates.

This enables us to reach fairly probable conclusions as to the occupations of college-bred negroes. Of 1,312 persons reporting there were:

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.

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 thought, and heads its social movements. It need hardly be argued that the negro people need social leadership more than most groups. 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 indirect influence on other preachers and on congregations the college-bred preacher has an opportunity for reformatory work and moral inspiration the value of which can not be overestimated. The report of the Atlanta conference on “Some efforts of American negroes for their own social betterment" shows the character of some of this work.

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 a 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 merely for breadwinning, 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. The following statistics of occupations according to the year of graduation illustrate this partially:

A study of present and previous occupation gives a still deeper insight into the problem of work. For instance, the following number of persons have never had but one occupation; they began as teachers and are still teaching, or as preachers and are still preaching:

a Cf. The New World, December, 1900, article on " Religion of American negro.”

Let us now add to these such persons as have changed occupations once. In the following table the period of study necessary in preparing for a profession is not considered a different occupation.

Previous and present occupations of persons who have had but two successive occupations. (Showing also persons who have had but one occupation.)

Many interesting things may be noted in the above table. For instance, 43 lawyers report; of these, 26 started on a law course immediately after graduation, finished it, went to practicing, and are still engaged in that work: 11 taught before reading law, 2 were in business, and 4 in other employments, from which

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they turned to law. There are reservations to be made, of course, in interpreting these figures; some persons report a few months of teaching as a previous occupation," while others ignore it; some have not changed occupations, because being young graduates they have not given their present vocation a sufficient trial. Nevertheless, with care in using, the table has much to teach. We find that the profession of teaching is a stepping stone to other work; 87 persons were at first teachers and then changed, 11 becoming lawyers, 7 going into business, 26 entering the ministry, 12 entering the United States civil service, etc. Seven have at various times engaged in menial work, usually as porters, waiters, and the like, but all but one man working in a hotel have done this only temporarily. It is quite possible that others who are engaged in such work have on this account sent in no reports. We see in this way that of 700 college-bred men over 500 have immediately on graduation found work at which they are still employed. Less than 200 have turned from a first occupation to a second before finding apparently permanent employment.

Making all allowances for the gaps in these statistics and some bias on the part of those reporting, it seems fair to conclude that the majority of college-bred men find work quickly, make few changes, and stick to their undertakings. That there are many exceptions to this rule is probable, but the testimony of observers, together with these figures, makes the above statement approximately true.

GRADUATES OF A SINGLE TYPICAL COLLEGE.

It might be well here to turn from the more general figures to the graduates of a single representative institution. A graduate of Dartmouth College who has been in the work of educating negro youth for over thirty years writes as follows in a small publication which gives the record of Atlanta University graduates, including the class of 1899:

"This leaflet covers an experience of about a quarter of a century of graduating classes. It will tell of the work of only the graduates of Atlanta University, all of whom have been kept under the watchful eye of their alma mater. It would be difficult to trace the careers of the thousands of others who did not graduate but who have attended the institution for a longer or shorter period, although many of them are known to have made good use of their meager attainments and some are occupying prominent positions. If it were asked why no larger percentage of the students have obtained diplomas or certificates of graduation a sufficient answer would be found in the one word, 'poverty.' Their parents have been too poor to spare them from home or to pay their expenses at school and they themselves have been utterly unable to find any employment sufficiently remunerative to permit them to keep on and graduate within a reasonable limit in time. Probably the world can not show instances of greater sacrifices by parents or greater pluck, persistency, and self-denial of students than are to be found among the patrons and pupils of Atlanta University.

"While the 94 graduates from the college department represent only a small portion of the work done by the university, they represent a very important part of that work, as will be evident from a statement of the positions they occupy and the work they are doing.

"Of these 94 graduates 12 have died, and it seems to the writer of this leaflet as rather remarkable that only 1 has died during the four years since a similar leaflet was written. Of the 82 now living 11 are ministers, 4 are physicians, 2 are lawyers, 1 is a dentist, 43 are teachers, 1 is a theological student, 1 is studying at Harvard University and another at the University of Pennsylvania, 10 are in the service of the United States, 6 in other kinds of business, and 2 are unemployed.

Three of the ministers are pastors of Congregational churches in the cities of Chattanooga, Tenn.; Selma, Ala., and Savannah, Ga.; two are pastors of Baptist churches in Augusta, Ga., and Charleston, S. C.; two of Methodist churches in Griffin, Ga., and Portsmouth, Va.; one is chaplain of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute and dean of its Bible school; another is secretary of the International Sunday School Convention; another is the general secretary of the Baptist negro churches in Georgia, and another is presiding elder of the African Methodist Episcopal churches in Sierra Leone, Africa. All the churches named are centers of great power and wide influence. Some of these ministers have made addresses in national and international assemblages, one is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and one has had the unique pleasure of being a member of the board of education in a large Southern city for eleven successive years.

"Many of the teachers are holding high positions. Eleven are principals of

public schools and three of high schools. Others are designated as follows: Professor of Latin and Greek in Clark University, Atlanta, Ga.; teacher of music in Savannah, Ga.; president of the State Industrial College of Georgia; principal of Howard Normal School, Cuthbert, Ga.; principal of Normal School, Oakland, Tex.; professor of Greek in Morris Brown College. Atlanta, Ga.: vice-principal of Normal School, Prairie View. Tex.; principal of Knox Institute, Athens, Ga.; superintendent of the industrial department in Biddle University, Charlotte, N. C.; professor of modern languages, history, and pedagogy, and vice-president in Lincoln Institute, Jefferson City, Mo.; president of the Florida Baptist College, Jacksonville, Fla.; professor of natural science in the State Normal School, Frankfort, Ky.; principal of the Georgia Normal and Industrial Institute, Greensboro, Ga.; principal of Walker Institute, Augusta, Ga.; superintendent of mechanical department of Knox Institute, Athens, Ga.: teacher of science in the J. K. Brick Normal and Agricultural School, Enfield, N. C.; assistant superintendent of the mechanical department in Tougaloo University, Tougaloo, Miss.

"The four physicians are located in Denver, Colo.; St. Joseph, Mo.: Savannah, Ga., and Chicago, Ill. All of them were among the very first in their classes in the medical schools that they attended.

"The two lawyers are practicing severally in Boston, Mass., and Augusta, Ga., and are successful in their profession. One is a master in chancery by appointment of the governor of his State. The one dentist lives in Atlanta and has an extensive practice.

One of these graduates was a lieutenant in the Army during the Spanish war and is now a captain of United States Volunteers, serving at Manila. Another was paymaster with the rank of major.

"Several of the graduates who are clerks in the United States service in Washington have taken a full course in law or medicine. And when it is considered that this has required several hours of hard work in the evening after a full day at the office, for months and years, one can understand that they have grit and perseverance. Then three at least have been mail agents on railroads under four successive administrations, and have successfully passed the severe examinations required and conquered the violent opposition that has arisen against them from various sources.

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The peculiar conditions existing in the South have prevented these graduates from becoming prominent in political affairs. Yet one of them has been a member of three successive national Republican conventions and another has represented his county in the Georgia legislature, while a third has served two terms in the Texas legislature, being elected by the aid of the votes of Southern white men in a predominantly white community. * His most conspicuous service has been rendered to the negro farmers of his State. This has been done through the organization of a farmers' improvement society with many branches, whose members are pledged to become landowners, to diversify their crops, to improve and beautify their homes, to fight the credit system by buying only for cash on a cooperative plan, and to raise their own supplies so far as possible. The fact that he can report to-day 86 branches of his society scattered over the State of Texas with 2,340 members, who have bought and largely paid for 46,000 acres of land, worth nearly half a million dollars, is a valuable illustration of what one negro with high ideals and an earnest purpose can accomplish for the economic and material advancement of his race.

Several graduates have done considerable newspaper work, and many sermons and addresses delivered by them have been published. At least two publications have been highly commended by the press. Of President Richard R. Wright's Historical Sketch of Negro Education in Georgia the Journal of Education says: 'And it is just this that makes his story so valuable and forces one to read it straight through from beginning to end, which is not the way books and pamphlets are usually read in newspaper offices. And of Prof. William H. Ĉrogman's Talks for the Times the New York Independent says: The author speaks for his race and speaks in strong, polished English, full of nerve and rich in the music of good English prose.'

"And these graduates are not fickle and unstable, but retain their positions year after year, doing faithful, earnest, and patient service. The length of the pastorates of the ministers has been far above the average, and one of the teachers is completing his twenty-fourth year in the same institution.

"Do not these simple statements impress their own lessons? Should they not help to silence the sneers against Latin and Greek and higher education for negroes? Could less than a college course have fitted most of these men and women so well for the responsible positions they are occupying and the work they