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LESLIE PINCKNEY HILL Leslie Pinckney Hill was born in Lynchburg, Virginia on 14 May 1880, the son of a former slave. A s a youth he mastered the trumpet and envisioned a career in music. Whe n his family moved to East Orange, New Jersey, he transferred t o the local high school and, by accelerated study, was able to skip the junior year, winding up near the top of his graduating class in 1898. In the fall of 189 9 he entered Harvard, supplementing scholarship aid by working as a waiter. H e studied Classics, history, English composition and literature, an d fin e arts . Activ e i n debatin g fro m th e start , h e too k a n official elocution course as a sophomore, and as a junior won second place in the Boylston Prize oratory competition. An introductory philosophy course inspired him to include a philosophy course ever y ter m thereafter . H e forme d a particularl y clos e ti e wit h William James (M.D. 1869), who started out teaching physiology but in 1880 switched t o philosoph y an d psycholog y unti l hi s retiremen t i n 1907 . A decade after James' death, Hill would write a sonnet in tribute to his former mentor. I n his senior year Hill was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and awarded his degree cum laude. H e als o ha d the honor of being one o f th e three candidates invite d t o giv e a commencemen t address , a well-receive d disquisition entitled The Place of Religion in the Education of the Negro." Hill stayed on another year to take courses in education, receiving an A.M. degree in 1904. In 190 4 Hil l bega n teachin g educatio n an d Englis h a t Booke r T . Washington's Tuskege e Institute , wher e th e academi c departmen t wa s headed by his black Harvard schoolmate Roscoe Conkling Bruce '02. Bot h men found Washington's policies uncongenial; Bruce left in 1906, and Hill followed a year later to head the Manassas Industrial School in Virginia. I n 1913 Hill was persuaded to assume the presidency of what is today Cheyney State College in Pennsylvania, which grew out of an Institute for Colored Youth chartered in 1837. H e resumed his musical activity by conducting the College chorus, and retired from the presidency in 1951. Autho r of essays, poems, and plays, and the recipient of four honorary degrees, he died on 15 February 1960. 124 Leslie Pinckney Hill The Place of Religion in the Education of the Negro The problem of the Negro in this country, pressing upon us as it is, we cannot lightl y pu t aside . Fo r thirt y year s i t ha s foun d a widening sphere of influence in politics. I t has been interwoven with the whole industrial growth of the South. I t lay at the bottom of the most frightful war of modern times. An d now of more urgent importance than the reform of our civil service, or the question of the rights of labor and capital, or the government of our new dependencies, it is the first matter of concern for the thinking men of this nation. An d yet for all its prominence and urgency how little attention has been given to one side o f th e proble m fro m whic h i t seem s a rea l approac h t o it s solution might ultimately be made! We hav e spoke n an d acte d wit h regar d t o th e Negr o hithert o almost wholl y fro m th e poin t o f vie w o f hi s economi c value , hi s material status, without taking into due account the opposite balance of hi s inner nature . Chiefl y h e ha s been a n object of pity , or contempt , o r philanthropy , o r legislation , seldo m a livin g huma n soul . Always we are told that he must seek hopefully an d earnestly to find his place and power in the world of competition about him, that he must live a clean, thrifty life , must acquire property and increase his intelligence: but hardly at all is there heard now any word as to the use of that...

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