The Texas Standard, Volume 7, Number 1, April 1933 Page: 9
24 p. : ill. ; 29 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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April, 1933
THE TEXAS STANDARD
harm," declared the speaker. "Any
knowledge that I might have of your race
is purely theoretical; but I do know that
you have produced two famous artists.
But your greatest contribution to Ameri-
can life has been your contribution to
music.''
The Ambassadors, a musical club from
the Booker T. Washington High School,
directed by A. S. Jackson, Jr., sang two
numbers, featuring Lorine Brown in
"Without a Song"; and Clarence Hender-
son in "Old Man River."
The "New Farmers of Texas," a band
composed of boys dressed in the conven-
tional farmer garb from Sunnyside, Texas,
directed by W. M. Davis, struck up lively
airs at intervals throughout the morning
session.
Dr. John Hope, president of Atlanta
University, Atlanta, Ga., and a keynote
speaker of the convention addressed this
session.
In words of fatherly kindness, Dr. Hope
outlined what he termed a marvelous
growth of the Negro since 1865.
"When I come before a group of teach-
ers, especially colored teachers, I am great-
ly amazed and a feeling of emotion comes
over me. This feeling comes over me be-
cause I am from a state, born in that state,
reared in that state and now live in that
state where, until four or five years before
my birth, it was a crime for a Negro to
learn how to read or to teach him how to
read. When I think of 65 years or more
of my lifetime, within that short space
this marvelous, this remarkable develop-
ment that has taken place, it amazes me
and humbles me. We have traveled far
since 1865. I often hear the remark that
955 per cent of the Negroes are no account,
and I often wonder how can the accuser
know that it is exactly 95 instead of 94
per cent.
"As Negro teachers our job is different
from that of the white teacher, and yet we
are teaching the same textbook our situ-
ation is different. You know what the
state requires of you as teachers; but what
is your job as teachers of Negro boys and
girls ? Every Negro child should have every
opportunity that any other child in this
country has. And if I did not believe that
I would have never given up my job, with
my gray hair, and taken up the job that
is mine now.
"There are certain respects and policies
that Negro children have that other child-
ren have; and certain respects and policies
which Negro children have that no other
children in this country have. Some of
our little kids already have an idea of this
thing we call a race problem. How are
you going to teach them about it? Dr.
Hope charged that Negroes were woefully
liking in measuring up to their political
responsibility as citizens in the South.
"You pay your poll taxes every year,
but do not register and do not try to vote.
Texas is better politically than my own
state. You can go over some states of the
South and ask the students in high school
what is the name of the governor of your
state or the congressman, and none of them
knows; of course, that may be a reflection
on the congressman.
"It is a fact that a whole generation of
educated Negro men and women knows
particularly nothing about the political re-
sponsibility that ought to come to a citi-
zen. Then we must teach Negro history so
that these children will know who they
are. They must know that there are cer-
tain limitations to their vocational aspir-
ations. But how are you going to tell
them? It is something I cannot answer.
My oldest boy told me he wanted to be an
engineer—a locomotive engineer. A week
or so after that I asked him what he wanted
to be, and he said, 'you know what I want
to be, but I can't.' The only group in the
United States that tells itself it cannot be
a locomotive engineer; or it cannot be this,
it cannot be the other.
"How are we going to work on our boys
and girls so in spite of these embarrass-
ments they will get their share of these
vocations. No need saying we would do if
we had money; we are never going to have
money until we do these things.
"With white men taking some of our
jobs and white women taking jobs from
white men, Negroes need no longer assume
that any job is a Negro's job. Men and
women what are we going to do to keep
this great people great? I will tell you
what you teachers can do: You can warn
your boys and girls that they do not have
to have a stiff collar job because they have
an education.
"In conclusion I make no definite rec-
ommendations except this: Don't let your
children think they are better than any-
body else. I never taught my sons that
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Tatum, R. T. The Texas Standard, Volume 7, Number 1, April 1933, periodical, April 1933; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth193733/m1/9/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Prairie View A&M University.