III, attached, which illustrates the marked increase in school attendance of the Negro population from less than 2 percent of the school-age population to 60 percent, or from 1 school-age child in every 50 to 30 in every 50. The curve, if corrected, would probably show no decreases at any time; as the curve stands, however, there are decreases from 1850 to 1900. This can be explained in two ways; (1) the 33 percent from 1850 is higher than the actual percentage because of the inclusion in that census of races other than Negroes; the actual count was high in the high twenty percents; (2) in 1900 the definition of school population was extended to include the twentieth year, hence the drop in percentages of both groups because of the high mortality of school population after the end of high

FIGURE III.-School attendance of the Negro population of school age and the average United States population of school age, 1850-1930.

school. Were the chart corrected for these two changes it would become apparent that the Negro population has had an increasingly greater proportion of its group attending school every decade since 1850. More dramatically is this increase shown in table 2, where the percentage change is listed. Here it is apparent that, while the total school population grew almost constantly, its greatest increase was one of only 21 percent; but the Negro school population after the TABLE 2.-Approximate percentage changes in school attendance of Negroes and of total school population, 1860–1930

Civil War had increases of 500 and 230 percent and even now has every decade increases in percentage attending school which are double the increases of the total population. These changes should be of interest to anyone who might wish to demonstrate comparative changes in Negro and total education.

Table 3 demonstrates ratios which are rarely called to attention but which, like the data above, show some educational comparisons which are favorable to TABLE 3-Ratio of enrollment in public school to school population in 18 States1

1 School population is here regarded as all those aged 5 to 17 years, hence the apparent discrepancy between these proportions and those shown on chart VI which considers school population as the 5- to 20-year group. 2 Data for 1935-36 will be available upon release from the Office of Education. Source: Statistics of State school systems for the various years.

FIGURE IV.-School attendance for urban and rural population, aged 5-20: 1930-United States average

and Negroes.

the Negroes. In 18 Southern, States, from 1929 to 1934 in 2-year intervals, the white population of school age was enrolled in school in the ratio of 89, 92, and almost 83 percent. During the first years of the depression there was a noticeable drop in school enrollment. For the colored race, however, the prosperity period of 1929-30 (assuming the usual lag between economic reversals and school appropriations) showed only about 79 percent of the Negroes enrolled. The depression

FIGURE V.-Illiteracy in the United States population (10 years of age and over) for Negroes and all classes: 1870-1930.

years, interestingly enough, showed a constant increase. Even in the depths of the depression, while white children were enrolling in smaller numbers, more Negro children were enrolling, so that the period demonstrates a 5 percent gain for Negroes and over a 6 percent loss for whites.

School attendance by urban-rural distribution is demonstrated in figure IV showing that the urban Negro and the rural-farm Negro come closer to approximating the United States average than does the rural nonfarm Negro. This is

important in the light of the demonstrated ruralness of most of the Negro school population in the Southern States.

Figure V showing illiteracy percentages for the Negro and for all classes of the population indicates another criterion for the progress of Negro education. Beginning with an overwhelming percentage of illiterates, the Negro race has decreased the proportion until in 1930 the Negro percentage is only 12 percent greater than that of all classes.

3. SECONDARY EDUCATION

High-school enrollment of a people is not only influenced by their economic status, but also by their social and intellectual development and their general cultural level. Enrollment of Negro pupils in high schools is perhaps one of the best criteria by which to measure the general progress of the race since emancipation. The popularization of secondary education among them has been a subject of favorable comment by everyone who has studied the question.

Figure VI shows the increase in high-school enrollment since 1917-18. In table 4 are shown the trends in high-school enrollment for white and colored pupils since 1892. The rate of increase for white was greater than that for

TABLE 4.-Enrollments of colored and white pupils in secondary schools and percentage of increase in enrollment by specified periods, 1892–1930 1

Enrollment.

4, 047 8, 395 12, 636

27, 631

35, 731

63, 405

98,705

132, 329

167, 515

107.4 50.5

118. 6

29.3

77.4

55.6

34.0

26.5

235, 509 510, 856 902, 425 1, 829, 524 2, 193, 676 2, 950, 498 3, 642, 368 4, 080, 984 5, 044, 664

1 Source: U. S. Department of the Interior, Office of Education. Bulletin, 1932, No. 17. Secondary Education for Negroes.

2 Percent of increase from 1920 to 1930 is colored, 506.2; white, 175.7.

TABLE 5.-Negro high school enrollment, numbers of graduates, and percentages graduates are of high-school enrollment, 1930 (statistical schools)

colored during the first two periods from 1892 to 1910; but beginning with 1920 and for each biennial period thereafter, the rate of increase of colored enrollment was far in excess of that for whites. Particular attention is directed to the rapid increase for Negroes since 1920. It is of particular significance to note that the percentage of increase of the enrollment of Negro pupils in 1930 over 1920 was 506.2 as compared with 175.7 for white pupils over the same period. This disproportion of increase in high-school enrollment between the two races may be a reflection of the improvement of Negro high-school facilities since 1920.

FIGURE VI.-Percentage of total Negro school enrollment in high school, 1917-18 to 1931-32.

4. NEGROES CONTINUING EDUCATION

The numbers and percentages of high-school graduates in 1929 who were reported as continuing their education in 1930 are given in table 6. In the fourth column will be seen the number of boys and girls combined who are continuing their education in college or some other institution and the percentage this number is of the 1929 graduates for each State. The small percentage for Alabama is probably an error. It is believed that many principals in that State.failed to answer this particular question. The other columns in the table analyze the total situation found in column 4. It becomes obvious that the power to stimulate Negro high-school graduates to continue their education is very pronounced and that the highly selected group which are graduated from high school easily become convinced to go further in educational lines.