The National Conference on Negro Education

Abstract

The most significant charge in the law creating the U.S. Office of Education is that it should promote education in all possible ways. This it attempts to do by bringing together the most comprehensive information possible including statistical data. From time to time it engages in special studies of local or state educational situations, partly as a matter of direct assistance and partly for the broader significance which such studies may be to others in the profession. Finally, it arranges conferences large and small for the purpose of reviewing the past progress and possible future development of various phases of education. The Office of Education is therefore without authority in education except for that authority which springs out of comprehensive information and excellency of service. This, I may say, is the most pleasing type of authority in the field of education for anyone to exercise. Hence this conference on Negro Education is a typical performance for the Office of Education, except that it seems to me that this one is of much more than usual significance. The work of the conference is to be carried on through a series of committees as follows: (1) Home Life, Mrs. Mary McLeod Bethune, Daytona Beach, Fla., Chairman; (2) Vocations, T. Arnold Hill, New York City, Chairman; (3) Citizenship, V. E. Daniel, Marshall, Tex., Chairman; (4) Recreation and leisure time, E. T. Atwell, New York City, Chairman; (5) Health, F. 0. Nichols, New York City, Chairman; (6) Ethics and morals, Willis J. King, Atlanta, Ga., Chairman; (7) Elementary Education, Mrs. Helen A. Whiting, Atlanta, Ga., Chairman; (8) Secondary Education, H. L. Trigg, Raleigh, N.C., Chairman; (9) Collegiate Education, David A. Lane, Institute, West Va., Chairman; (10) Rural Education, Mabel Carney, New York City, Chairman; (11) Adult Education, John Hope, Atlanta, Ga., Chairman; (12) Public Education, Garnet C. Wilkinson, Washington, D.C., Chairman; (13) Private Education, Arthur D. Wright, Washington, D.C., Chairman; (14) Financial Support of Education, Fred McCuistion, Nashville, Tenn., Chairman. At the close of the Civil War the Negro population numbered approximately 5,000,000. A scant two generations have gone by. There are yet among us both white and colored who can recall distinctly the tragic days of slavery with all its misery and hopelessness. Hence, the social and economic development of the colored race in this country has largely been a matter of recent decades within indeed the memory of many men and women now living. Today the Negro population numbers 12,000,000. Many thousands own their own homes. They grow the agricultural products of the South. They have migrated to the centers of popu-