The bulletin of Atlanta University, 1904 no. 146

              NUMBER   146                                     ATLANTA, GEORGIA                                          MAY,   1904 For statement of the work of Atlanta University see last page. COMMENCEMENT FEATURES The address before the Phi Kappa Society, the night of May 20, by Rev. P. James Bryant, D. D., of Atlanta. The Baccalaureate Sermon on Sunday, May 22, by Rev. Joseph H. Twich-ell, of Hartford, Conn. The Conference on the subject, Negro Crime in Georgia, May 24. Fuller notice of this is given elsewhere. The reunion of the college and normal classes of 1894, in connection with the alumni exercises of May 25. The annual Commencement exercises on Thursday, May 26. The orator is Hon. Frank B. Sanborn of Concord, Mass. THE NINTH ATLANTA   CONFERENCE Especial interest, in view of the many contradictory utterances on the subject of crime among Negroes, attaches to the meeting of the conference on Tuesday of Commencement week, May 24. The subject is, Negro Crime in Georgia. Dr. DuBois is in charge of the arrangements, and among the speakers will be Prof. M. N. Work of the Georgia State Industrial College at Savannah, Rev. Dr. H. S. Bradley of Trinity M. E. church, Atlanta; Rev. H. H. Proctor of the First Congregational church, Atlanta; Rev. J. H. Dorsey, a Roman Catholic priest in Birmingham, Ala., and Rev. A. G. Combs of the P. E. church in Augusta. NEGROES LEAVING THE DELTA In the Atlanta Constitution for Apr. 30 there are presented the opinions of a prominent Mississippi planter, who feels that the seeming attitude of hostility to the Negro and to Negro education, now predominant in the government of that state, is injurious to the material interests of the state. Labor is scarce, for' many of the colored people are moving. And this movement includes many good and hard-working citizens. "There are several notable instances in Jackson where well-to-do Negroes have sold their property with the intention of leaving the state. One Negro disposed of his holdings a few days since for $5,000 and is preparing to move to Oklahoma." Is there not a material reason, as well as an ethical and spiritual, for giving the Negro as good an opportunity as possible for his development? DR. DABNEY ON NEGRO EDUCATION Pres. Charles W. Dabney, of the University of Tennessee, gave an address in Atlanta, Feb 24, before the Department of Superintendence 'of the N. E. A., on the topic, Educational Principles for the South. The address has just come to us, in pamphlet form. The closing words of this address, from a prominent Southern educator, are so excellent and hopeful that we give extracts for our readers, calling especial attention to one point, the absolute need of institutions like our own to meet the need of which Dr. Dabney speaks, the providing of good teachers for the Negro children : With these principles accepted, we need not add any thing on the subject of the education of the Negro. Our belief in universal education necessitates a belief in the education of the Negro, for it presupposes that every human being, white or black, has a right to be educated. God has a purpose in every soul he sends into the world. The poorest, most helpless infant is not merely an accident, a few molecules of matter, or a few eons of energy merely, but a "plan of God," as Phillips Brooks has said, a part of the divine plan of creation, and as such, deserves to be trained for its work. This it seems to me is the fundamental argument for universal education — that every child has a right to a chance in life, because God made him and made him to do something in the universe. Every intelligent Southerner now believes that the right kind of education makes the Negro a more thrifty, a more useful, a more moral and a more law-abiding citizen, as it does every other man. Every Southern state is now committed by its constitution and laws to the principle of Negro education and, 'in their legislatures and courts, they have, so far, successfully resisted all proposals to divide the school funds, or to reduce the resources of the schools of the colored race to the taxes paid by the people of that race..... The chief question now is not the kind of education we shall give these people, whether exclusively industrial, or partly literary, but it is the simple elementary training of the people of a child-race to perform the ordinary duties of life and to become decent American citizens. It will be time enough to discuss the merits of industrial education, as against those of the higher education, when we have provided good elementary schools and teachers for the Negro children. Another important problem is how to provide the means with which to build these schools and pay these teachers. With or without national aid, the Southern people will find a way to educate the Negroes.   .    . .........In  the    words  of that splendid young hero and prophet of Georgia, whose statue stands here in these streets to remind Southern men in all generations of a life spent for the salvation of his beloved land: "Let us make the Negro know that he, depending more than any other on the protection and bounty of his government, snail find in alliance with the best elements of the whites the pledge of safe and impartial administration. And let us remember this: that whatever wrong we put upon him shall return to punish us. Whatever we take from him in violence, that is unworthy and shall not endure. What we steal from him in fraud, that is worse. But what we win from him in sympathy and affection, what we gain in his confiding alliance, and confirm in his awakening judgment, that is precious and shall endure—and out of it shall come healing and peace." THE SEVENTH CONFERENCE FOR EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH This was held in Birmingham, Ala., April 26-28, and did much to show the genuine interest that is being taken by the Southern white people in the educational problems before them. The address of Bishop Galloway, from which we quote elsewhere in this issue, was not the only thing in the conference that showed the increasing reasonableness of many leaders in Southern thought concerning the subject of universal education, for both white and colored. Perhaps one of the most noteworthy single utterances was the "new declaration" by Mr. Walter H. Page: "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all should have equality of opportunity ; that they are endowed by our institutions with inalienable rights, and that among these are free training and free opinion." The slowly rising tide of healthful Southern sentiment on educational matters will, we trust, make constant gains, in spite of men like Governor Varda-man and Senator Tillman, and the opposition of certain newspapers. And we welcome all agencies that promote free discussion and a better understanding of the great needs of the educational work in these states.