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1420 An American Dilemma
James Weldon Johnson gives a good account of these ideas as they have become
common among Negro intellectuals today:
“The old pattern was designed to give us a sound general education, an education
to fit us to take our places as intelligent American citizens. That idea of education is
fundamental and right; for whatever may be the opinions and attitudes on the matter,
the solid fact remains that we are, for good or ill, a part of American civilization. We
may be segregated and Jim-Crowed, but there is no way to subtract or extract us from
American life; so we must be prepared to keep adjusted to it, to keep pace with it.
And that means that our institutions must give Negro youth as good, as broad, and as
high an education as is correspondingly given to white youth.
“But we need not only an education that will enable us to meet the general situation
as American citizens, we need also an education that will enable us to meet our peculiar
situation as Negro Americans.
. . the teaching of history to Negro youth should not confine itself to the experi-
ences of the race in America, but should explore the achievements that lie in the African
background. A study of the African cultural background will give our youth a new and
higher sense of racial self-respect, and will disprove entirely the theory of innate race
inferiority. . . .
“What I have said about the teaching of American history is to be said also about
the teaching of economics, political science, sociology, literature, and other of the arts.
It is something pretty close to a waste of time for Negro students to study the laws of
economics without being given an interpretation of the effects of those laws on the
economic and industrial plight of Negro Americans. In teaching the science of govern-
ment, what is purely academic should be supplemented by inferences drawn from
government as it is constituted, maintained, and enforced in the United States and the
various states, and from its operation on Negro Americans as a group. I do not in the
least advocate that our colleges become any part of political machinery or touched by
partisan politics, but I firmly believe that special political education of Negro youth is
a proper and necessary function for them. The political history of the race should be
reviewed; independent political thinking should be inculcated; political rights and
responsibilities should be explained, and preparation for exercising those rights and
assuming those responsibilities should be given.” (Negro Americans^ What Now?
[>934]. PP- 48-49;)
85 «Xhe stimulation of race pride demands that colored pupils be taught more of the
histoiy and achievements of their own race. The growing body of literature by colored
writers should be studied and the accomplishments of colored men of mark held up
as inspiring examples.” (Woofter, of, cit,y p. 183 .)
See Part VII. It is remarkable that segregation is upheld even in the institutions
for higher learning and even in the graduate schools. This is, of course, related to the
fact that colleges in America generally stress the social side of life so much (the so-
called extra-curricular activities) and the scholarly side less. In the South this stress is
even more apparent. Even the graduate schools in the South do not have much of the
spirit of the age-old ideal of the “academic republic” where abstract truth-seeking is
supreme and where age, nationality, language, and other individual characteristics are
ignored. It is probable, however, that segregation will first break down, if ever, in the
graduate institutions.
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