a separate
and distinct race, then, in this deeper sense of the word, he should
receive an education different from that given to the whites.

Because the Negro and the white race, although they have the same
inherent powers, possess widely different characteristics. There are
some things which the white race can do better than the Negro, and
there are some things which the Negro can do better than the white
race. This is no disparagement to either. It is no fault of the Negro
that he has not that daring and restless spirit, that desire for
founding new empires, that craving for power over weaker races, which
makes the white race a pioneer; neither is it the fault of the white
race that it has not that buoyancy of spirit, that cheerful patience,
that music in the soul, that faith in a Higher Power, which supports
the Negro under hardships that would crush or make pessimists of
almost any other race on earth.

There have been given to each race certain talents, and for them each
will be held accountable, and rewarded accordingly as they shall use
them. Two boys in the same family may be gifted differently, one with
an artistic, the other with a scientific, turn of mind; both cannot
become artists, nor both scientists, yet they may each become equally
great in their respective spheres. It is for the Negro to find out his
own best and strongest powers, and make the most of them. He cannot by
merely imitating the white man arrive at his fullest and truest racial
development. He cannot and will not, as an absolutely distinct race,
evolve, along the same lines, the _identical_ civilization of the
white race, but who shall say that along his own lines he may not
evolve one equally as glorious and grand?

It is true, situated as he is among the most advanced people of the
world in the very height of their power, with almost all of the ideals
before him belonging to that people, the American Negro is greatly
handicapped in distinct racial development; but the task is, perhaps,
not an impossible one. Some of the most accessible means have not yet
been fully employed; for instance, the race has never been made
entirely familiar with the deeds and thoughts of the few men of mark
it has already produced. In this deeper sense of education the knowing
of one Crispus Attucks is worth more to the race than the knowing of
one George Washington; and the knowing of one Dunbar is worth more
than the knowing of all the Longfellows that A