Suppose we seek to remedy this by
making them laborers and nothing more: they are not fools,
they have tasted of the Tree of Life, and they will not cease
to think, will not cease attempting to read the riddle of the
world. By taking away their best equipped teachers and lead-
ers, by slamming the door of opportunity in the faces of their
bolder and brighter minds, will you make them satisfied with
their lot? or will you not rather transfer their leading from the
hands of men taught to think to the hands of untrained
demagogues? We ought not to forget that despite the pressure
of poverty, and despite the active discouragement and even
ridicule of friends, the demand for higher training steadily
increases among Negro youth: there were, in the years from
1875 to 1880, 22 Negro graduates from Northern colleges;
from 1885 to 1890 there were 43, and from 1895 to 1900,
nearly 100 graduates. From Southern Negro colleges there
were, in the same three periods, 143, 413, and over 500
graduates. Here, then, is the plain thirst for training; by
refusing to give this Talented Tenth the key to knowledge,
can any sane man imagine that they will lightly lay aside their
yearning and contentedly become hewers of wood and draw-
ers of water?
No.
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