he other hand a large proportion
of the race, even from the first, saw what was needed for their new
life, and began to settle down to lead an industrious, frugal
existence, and to educate their children and in every way prepare
themselves for the responsibilities of American citizenship.

The wonder is that the Negro has made as few mistakes as he has, when
we consider all the surrounding circumstances. Columns of figures have
been gleaned from the census reports within the last quarter of a
century to show the great amount of crime committed by the Negro in
excess of that committed by other races. No one will deny the fact
that the proportion of crime by the present generation of Negroes is
seriously large, but I believe that any other race with the Negro's
history and present environment would have shown about the same
criminal record.

Another consideration which we must always bear in mind in considering
the Negro is that he had practically no home life in slavery; that is,
the mother and father did not have the responsibility, and
consequently the experience, of training their own children. The
matter of child training was left to the master and mistress.
Consequently, it has only been within the last thirty years that the
Negro parents have had the actual responsibility and experience of
training their own children. That they have made some mistakes in
thus training them is not to be wondered at. Many families scattered
over all parts of the United States have not yet been able to bring
themselves together. When the Negro parents shall have had thirty or
forty additional years in which to found homes and get experience in
the training of their children, I believe that we will find that the
amount of crime will be considerably less than it is now shown to be.

In too large a measure the Negro race began its development at the
wrong end, simply because neither white nor black understood the case;
and no wonder, for there had never been such a case in the history of
the world.

To show where this primary mistake has led in its evil results, I wish
to produce some examples showing plainly how prone we have been to
make our education formal, superficial, instead of making it meet the
needs of conditions.

In order to emphasise the matter more fully, I repeat, at least eighty
per cent. of the coloured people in the South are found in the rural
districts, and they are dependent on agriculture in some form for
the