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I A HISTORICAL STUDY OF NEGRO LAND-GRANT COLLEGES IN RELATIONSHIP WLTE THEIR SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, POLITICAL, AND EDUCATIONAL BACKGRCTJNDS AND A PROGRAM FOR THEIR IMPROVEMENT DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By OSCAR JAMES CHAPMAN, B. A., M. A. THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY 1940 Approved by: Adviser FOREWORD Every tenth resident of* the United States is a person of African descent Our twelve million Negroes, in other words, constitute one-tenth of the total population. Of the 31,500,000 children 5 to 17 years of age in our popula­ tion, almost 3,000,000 or another 10 percent are colored. Proportionate comparisons end here, however, for as commonly known, these three million children of the Negro race suffer most unfortunate discrimination. Their school terms average 2 months less than the white school year; attendance is difficult and irregular; enrollment is congested in the first three grades; buildings are dilapidated and inaccessible; and teaching equipment is meagre or lacking. Even more serious is the instructional situation under which large numbers of unqualified teachers are still retained and paid salaries averaging less then half of the white school salaries. Dominating all else is the problem of financial support, involving a current annual expenditure of $87.22 per child for the United States as a vdiole but an annual expend­ iture of only $12.57 for the average Negro child. Notwithstanding the discrimination cited above^ amazing progress has been made in all phases of Negro education during the last twenty years. Nor is this a problem of the South alone. Two million Negroes now live outside the South with thousands more moving North annually. Moreover, the South could not possibly meet the situation adequately, even though inclined to do so, since the per capita wealth of this region in 1930 was only $1,785. as com­ pared with $3,080.for the country as a vhole, and $3,609. for the North and luest or Non-South. Rather is the issue one of national responsibility, sig— ■nifioant to the North as well as to the South and to be solved only through Federal participation and financial aid. ii \ Ihe development of any race depends upon its leadership, and leadership, in-turn, .is dependent upon advanced education. This at once establishes the importance of collegiate education for Negroes and reveals the signiFicance of the Negro land-grant College. The writer first became interested in the Negro land-grant college in the fall of 1929 when he journeyed to Virginia State College as a member of the Lincoln University (Pa) football team. During his short stay at this land- grant college a professor there gave him a brief description of the atmosphere and activities of several such institutions. During the next three years the writer visited eight other land-grant colleges as a member of the track and debating teams of Lincoln University. In the fall of 1937 the writer became an instructor in the Negro land- grant college at Pine Bluff, Arkansas. There, as Director of the Division of Education, ha began an ever expanding experience which brought him into direct contact, as a visitor, with six other Negro land-grant colleges in the deep South and Southwest. Through friends, teachers, and officers of Negro land-grant colleges additional knowledge of a rather intimate sort has been gained concerning every institution of this type in every Southern State. During the summer of 193& the writer began to collect data for a historical study of the Negro land-gjrent college in Arkansas. He had not advanced very far, however, until he realized that there were sixteen other Colleges with a similarity of orgin, background, and problems, which m l ^ t bo included along with the Arkansas A. M. and N. College. A new study, dealing with all the Negro land-grant colleges in the country, was there­ fore undertaken. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to express his gratitude to the persons fAio helped In the preparation of this study. Professor Harry Q. Good, under idiom this dissertation was written, has given valuable suggestions from the standpoint of historical research and Interpretation. Thanks are due also to Professor Roscoe H. Eckelberry for his constructive criticism of the first draft of the study idien it was presented in the Ph. D. seminar at Ohio University. Professors D. H. Elkenberry and Horace B. English, who kindly consented to serve on the author’s Advisory Committee, have given Important help. The author is deeply Indebted to President John W. Davis of the West Virginia State College for supplying valuable data. Considerable help was obtained from the N. T. A. students of the Arkansas A. M. and N. College and the deans and registrars of the Negro land-grant colleges. These people by their co-operation and assistance made the collection of data for some of the chapters possible. The author regrets that they can not all be mentioned by name. Professor Richard Allen Carroll of the Arkansas A. M. and N. College and Professor J. Saunders Redding of the Elizabeth City State Teachers College spent many hours reading the manuscript, and the author deeply appreciates their generous aid. Finally to his wife, Mildred Acree Chapman, and his mother Millie Cath­ erine Chapman, idiose constant encouragement, sympathetic understanding, and self-sacrifice have greatly aided him during the entire period of graduate study in Education, the author affectionately dedicates this work. 0 . J . C . iv TABLE OP CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I INTRODUCTION ............................................. 1 1. Purpose of This Investigation 1 2. Outline of the Problem ..... 2 3. Significance of the Problem in the Light of the Present Background of the Colleges ..... 3 4. Method and Sources of Data ..... 7 5. Scope of This Investigation .......................... 8 6. Related Studies ..................................... 9 II HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS OP THE AMERICAN SYSTEM OP agricultural EDUCATION PROM THE LATTER PART OF THE SIXTEENTH TO THE LATTER PART OP THE NINETEENTH CENTURY .................... ^........... 10 1. Early Movements and Influences 10 ' a. The Revival of the Scientific Attitude and Method 10 b. Development of Agricultural Education in Europe............................................ 13 c. Early Agricultural Schools in Europe ............. 15 d. Early Agricultural Societies in Europe ........... 16 e* Early Agricultural Societies in the United States. 18 f. Early American State Boards of Agriculture .......21 g. Influence of the Lyceum Movement 22 h . Influence of the Manual-Labor Movement ........... 24 1. Broadening of the American College Curriculum after 1800 .................................... ^ j. Influence of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ....................................... 27 k. Agricultural work in the Early, Private, American Colleges ............................... 29 2. Development of a Definite Movement for Public Support for American Agricultural Colleges ........... 31 a. The Movement in New York ........................ 31 b. The Movement in Michigan ......................... 36 c. The Movement in Maryland ... 37 d. The Movement in Pennsylvania .................. 39 e. The Movement in Illinois 40 f * Origin and Enactment of the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862 ..................... 44 g. States' Acceptance of the Morrill Act of 1 8 6 2 . 56 h. Summary ...... 57 III ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE COLLEGES FROM 1862 TO 1900 ........................ 59 1. Establishment of the Four Negro Land-Grant Colleges out 6f the Funds Derived from the First Morrill Act of 1890 ..... 59 2. Second Morrill Act of I890 6l 3» States' Plans of Establishing Negro Land-Grant Colleges in Accordance with the Morrill Acts of 1862 and I8 9 0 ............... 67 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE 4. Some Economie Factors Conditioning the Early Develop­ ment of the Colleges .............................. 71 5. Influence of Private Negro Colleges upon the Develop­ ment of Negro Land-Qrant Institutions ..... 76 6. Lack of an Extensive Siystem of Education............ 79 7. Period of Uncertainty in Negro Land-Qrant Colleges . 80 8 . Summary ............................................ 82 IV DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLEGES FROM 1900 TO 1939 WITH CONSIDERATION OF SOME OF THE FACTORS THAT HAVE CONDITIONED THIS DEVELOPMENT .......................... 84 1. GENERAL AŒIICULTDRAL CONDITIONS FAVORING THE GROWTH OF NEGRO LAND-GRANT COLLEGES BETWEEN 1 9 0 0 - 1 9 1 4 ..... 84 2. THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEGRO LAND-GRAOT COLLEGES........... 85 3. SMITH-LEVER A C T ...................................... 86 a. Nature of the Smith-Lever Extension Program 88 4. PARTICIPATION OF THE NEGROES IN THE SMITH-LEVER EXTENSION P R O G R A M .................................... 91 a. ??!amber o f Agents ................................. 92 b. Expenditures ........ 98 5. LEGISLATIVE AND ADMINISTRATIVE CONDITIONS OF THE SMITH-HÜGHES EXTENSION PROGRAM ............... 99 a. Legislative Conditions ............. 101 b. Administrative Provisions ..................... 103 6. SUMMARY AND RECOMîffiNDATIONS ............... 104 a. Summary .................. 105 b. Recommendations ..... 105 7. SMITH-HUGHES VOCATIONAL ACT OF 1 9 1 7 ................. 1 0 6 a. Nature of the Act ........ 106 b. The First Specific Provision for Federal Aid to Teacher—Training ........ 108 c. Purpose of the National Vocational Education Act, 111 d. To What

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