In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

17 False Theory of Education Cause of Race Demoralization In this July 1904 essay, Fortune calls attention to the fact that there are educated men who “have been saturated with the notion that their paramount mission in life is to lift up the race.” This, according to Fortune, has created a race of leaders rather than a group of faithful followers “to execute the wise policies of capable men.” In the end, Fortune concludes that this sort of education has paralyzed “the thought and action of the race.” False Theory of Education Cause of Race Demoralization —Colored American Magazine 7, no. 7 (1904): 473–78 The writer was present at the commencement exercises, at Hampton Institute , a few years ago, when a theory of education, which has been persistently inculcated in all the academic and collegiate schools founded and maintained for the education of Afro-American youth, since the War of Rebellion, was emphasized in a painful manner, as far as the writer was concerned.1 I do not wish to have it understood that this theory of education was or is knowingly inculcated in our schools; it appears to be a matter of unconscious inculcation, hammered into the students from start to finish of the prescribed course of study by the words of professors and outside speakers in addressing the student body, so that ultimately the students come to regard it as a fixed principle of the school course and of their life-work. Much of the misdirected effort of the graduates of Afro-American schools, in the past quarter of a century, is traceable, in some sort, to this theory of education; which I may define as educating the student away from the principle that his first object in life should be the building up of his individual character and material well-being, substituting instead the necessity of devoting all of his time and talents to the building up of the character and material well-being of his race, as the first rule of action. 172 / T. Thomas Fortune The incident, at Hampton Institute, to which I wish to direct attention, as being the false theory of education which has caused so much of misdirected effort, was illustrated in the addresses of the two principal graduates of the class; one being an Afro-American and other an Onandago Indian, whose reservation home was near Syracuse, New York. The Negro was the first speaker. There was nothing in his looks or speech to differentiate him from the average academic graduates. He was short of stature, fat, and his face was indicative of abounding good nature. Genius did not flash from his eyes nor resound in his periods as he held the auditory spellbound. His address was pitched in a high-key of devotion to and sacrifice for others, although the speaker did not appear capable of doing more than the ordinary work that falls to an educated man, with an appetite for good eating and plenty of it and a disposition to take life easy, looking at the humorous rather than the serious side of life’s struggle. When he reached the peroration of his essay, the student struck the theatrical attitude usual in oratorical heroics, and exclaimed, in substance: “I shall go out from these sacred walls with one great idea uppermost in my mind; I shall go back and mingle with my people and devote my life to lifting them up. I shall seek to give to them of the knowledge with I have gathered here, for the first rule of every educated man’s conduct should to do what he can to lift up his people.” That is the substance of what he said on that subject, although the same thought ran all through his essay. I was impressed, but sadly. The fact is, the young man had had no money when he reached Hampton Institute four years prior to his graduation; he had been assisted all through his school course by Northern philanthropy and work given him by the school, the clothes in which he graduated had been given to him, and the car-fare in his pocket necessary to enable him to reach his home and the field of his proposed Atlasan labors had been sent to him by relatives as poor as he. I have never heard of the student since, and I dare say he is still tugging away at building up his own character and fortunes; for, unless a man first...

Share