What kind of education was best suited for African-Americans in the post-Reconstruction years? In one of many
opinions, some of which his hearers disagreed with, the Reverend C. N. Grandison asserted that to enjoy the liberties
of the majority required that African-Americans receive a classical college education.Rev. C.N. Grandison, said,
the college would do for the black man the same it would do for the white man-all blessings of civilization flow
from the college. They tell me I am an American but I am not certain about it, but if I'm accused of a crime and
come before a white jury its a foregone conclusion that I'm guilty, (a voice, yes, they will lynch you too)-Grandison
replied, "And lynch you before being found guilty." So we are not equal, but I know of one republic where
we are equal, that is the republic of letters, when man has that sweep of vision with which the human mind may
be conversant there is no white man can say he has what the black man has not, there is no color in thought, when
I can read as much greek as he can, they can't say I have not got it. A John Hopkins Professor says: a colored
child can go along with a white child for a certain time but after a while the white child leaves him. It's a part
of God's plan that one race should not know what the other is
doing, God, did not tell Pharoah what Moses was doing, else Pharoah would have killed him. So the Negro is getting
what will hurt white men in the future. Colored men are learning to write books. The mission of college lifts us
up to the republic of letters, when we get there we can't say we haven't got it. Don't be satisfied with any superficial
high school education, but there's room at the top.-Give man the right kind of education, he will certainly succeed.
Whites have everything, banks, railroads, stocks while we sing, "You may have all the world but give us Jesus."
Full
text (Library of Congress/Daniel A. P. Murray Collection)
