CHAPTER VIII.

EDUCATION AND THE RACE. I With most of the present sources of power controlled by the white race it behooves my race as well as the other subject races to learn the wisdom of the wenk and to develop to the fullest that organ whereby weakness has been able to overcome strength; namely, the intellect. It is not with our teeth that we will trar the white man out of our ancestral land. It isn't with our jaws that we can ring from his hard hands consideration and respect, It must be done by the upper and not by the lower parts of our heads. Therefore, I have insisted ever since my entry into the arena of racial discussion that we Negrocs must take to reading. siuly and the development of intelligence as we have never done before. In this respect we must pattern otiraclves after the Japanese who have gone to school to Europe but have never Itseel Burope's colucation to make them the apes of Europe's culture. They have absorbed, adopted, transformed and milized. and we Negroes must do the same. The three editorials in this chapter and the article which follows them were written to indicate from time to time the duty of the transplanted African in this respect.1

Reading for Knopledge. Some time ngo we wrote an editorial entitled "Rcad, Rond, Kead!" We touch upon the same subject again, because in our recent trip to Washington we found thousands of people who are eager to get in touch with the storcd-up knowledge which the books contain, but do not know just where to turn for it. In New York the annie situation obtains, and no help is afforded by the papers of our face.

The reason is that some of our newspaper clitors coon's read and son't know beans themselves. James W. John. son is one of the notable exceptions. We were cheereri tp a good deal by noting his recent editorial advice to our "leadery" to read Arthur Jenderson's "The Aims of Labor.". But that was six months after the clitor of The l'oice had licen telling thousands of the "lecl" all about it and about the British Labor Party and the Russian Bulsheviki in luis outdoor talks in Harlem.

But there is no doubt that the New Negro is producing a New Leadership and that this new leadership will be based not iipon the ignorance of the masses, but upon their intelligence. The old leadership was possible partly because the masses were ignorant. Today the masses include educated laymen who have studied science, theology, history and economics, not, perhaps in college but, nevertheless, deeply and down to date. These young men and women are not going to follow fools and, indecil, are not going to follow any one, blindly. They want a reason for the things that they are asked to do and to respect. The others, the so-called Common People, are beginning to read and understand. As we sit in the great John Wesley A. M. E. Zion Church in Washington one Sunday night, and heard the cultured black minister speak to his people on literature, science, history and sociology, and yet so simply that even the rullest could ontch the meat and inspiration of his great ideas, we could not help saying its we went out of the church: "Depend upon it, these people will demand as much from their next minister." In fact our race will clerunnel as much from all its leaders. And they will demand no less for themselves,

So, with a glad heart, we reprint the following paragraphs from our earlier editorial trusting that our readers everywhere may find them helpful:

As a pcoplc our bent for books is 110t encouraging. Wc mostly read trash. And this is truc not only of our rank and file but even of our Icaders. When we heard Kelly Miller address the Sunrisc Club of New York at a Broadway hotel two or three years ago, we were shocked at the ignorance of modern science and modern thought which his remarks displayed. Jlis biology was of the brand of Pliny who lived about cighteen hundred years ago. lvr him Darwin and Spencer and Jacques Loch had ncver cxisterd nor written. Ilis ignorance of the 1. B. C.'s of astronomy and gcology was pitiful.

If this is truc of the Icaders to whom our reading masses look, what can we expect from those reading masses ? The masses must be taught to love good hooks. But to love them they must first know them. The handicaps placed on its in America arc too great to allow us to ignore the liclp which we can get from that cducation which we get out of school for oursclves--the only onc that is really worth while.

Without the New Kinowledge thc New Negro is no better than thic old. And this new knowlcdgc will be found in the books. Thercfore, it would be well if every Negro of the new model were to make up his (or her) mind to get the essentials of modern science and modern thought as they are set down in the books which may loc easily hnd. Don't Inlk about Darwin and Spencer: reoil them!

To help the good work along we nppened the following list of books that are essential. When you master these you will have n letter "celurcation" than is found in ninetenths of the graduates of the average American college.

"Modern Science and Modern Thought," by Samuel Laing : "The Origin of Species" and "The Descent of Man," by Charles Darwin: "The Principles of Sociology."

and "First Principles," lov Herbert Spencer; "Thc Childhood of the World" anel "The Childhood of Religion," by Folward Clodd: "Antlıropology," by E. B. Tylor (very casy to read and a work of standard information on Kaces, Culture and the origins of Religion, Art and Science): Buckle's "Ilistory of Civilization"; Gibhon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"; "The Martyrdom of Man," ly Winwood Reade: the books on Africa by Livingstone and Mungo l'ark, and "The Mind of Primilive Man," ly l'ranz Boas.--- Sept., 1918.

Education and the Racc. In the dark days of Russia, when the iron heel of Czarist lespotism was heaviest on the necks of the people, those who wished to rule decreed that the people should remain ignorant. Loyalty to interests that were opposed to theirs was the prevailing public sentiment of the masses, In vain dlind the pioneers of freedom for the masses perish linder the knout and the rigors of Siberia. They sacrificer in move the masses, but the masses, strong in thcir love of liberty, lacked the head to guide the moving feet to any successful issue. It was then that Leo Tolstoi and the other intelligentsin began to carry know Icelge to the

Not only in the province of Tula, but in every large city, young men of university experience would assemble in secret classes of instruction, teaching them to read, 10 write, to know, to think and to love knowledge. Most of this work was underground at first. But it took. Thousands of educated persons gave theniselves to this work---Without pay: their only hope of reward lay in te future effectiveness of an invitacted mass movement.

What were the results? Is knowledge spread, enthusiasm was backed by brains. The Russian revolution

began to be sure of itsell. The worhingmen of the cities studicel the thing that they were "1p against," ganged their own weakness and strength as well as their opponents'. The despotism of the Czar could not provoke them to a mass movement before they were ready and had the means; and when at last they movedl, they swept not only thic Czar's regime but the whole exploiting system tipon which it stood into utter oblivion.

What does this mcan to the Negro of the Western world? It may mean mich, or little: that depends on him. If other men's experiences have value for the New Negro Manhood Movement it will scck now to profit by them and to bottom the new fervor of faith in itself with the solid support of knowledge. The chains snap from the limbs of the young giant as he rises, stretches himself, and sits up to take notice. But let him, for his future's sakc, insist on taking notice. To crop the figure of specch. we Negroes who have shown our manhood must back it by our mind. This world, att present, is a white man's world-even in Africa. We, lrcing what we are, want to shake loose the chains of his control from our corner of it. We must either accept his domination and our inferiority, or we must contend against it. But we go up to win; and whether we carry on that contest with ballots, bullets or business, we can not win from the white man unless we know at least as much as the white man knows, For, after all, knowledge is power.

But that isn't all. What kind of knowledge is it that enables white men to rulc black men's lands? Is it the knowledge of Hebrew and Greek, philosophy or literature? It isn't. It is the knowledge of explosives and deadly compounds: that is chemistry. It is the knowl, edge which can build ships, bridges, railroads and factories: that is engineering. It is the knowledge which