ments without regard to race or color? The very fact that an
institution would exclude a candidate who measures up to its
intellectual, moral and financial standards, merely on the basis
of race, is ample proof that it is not first class. Few institutions
that are zealous to maintain good repute in the eyes of the
world would have the candor to acknowledge such basis of
exclusion without apology. Colored youth in increasing numbers are entering Northern institutions and are gaining distinction in both the intellectual and in the athletic arenas. Some
go so far as to deprecate the existence of distinctively Negro
colleges and universities, claiming that capable colored youth
can find accommodation in institutions, which can furnish superior advantages and facilities to those any Negro school is
likely to possess. It would be absurd for Howard University
or any other Negro school to claim that it can match the
material and intellectual facilities of those great educational
establishments with millions of wealth and centuries of tradition. One might as well ask, or had better ask, the rationale
of Jewish Seminaries or of Methodist colleges and universities.
These racial and denominational schools impart to the membership of their community something which the general educational institution is wholly unable to inculcate. But for the
Negro college, Negro scholarship would decay, and Negro
leadership would be wanting in effectiveness and zeal. The
Negro college must furnish stimulus to hesitant Negro scholarship, garner, treasure and nourish group tradition, enlighten
both races with a sense of the cultural worth and achievement
of the constituency it represents, and supply the cultural guidance of the race.
The insurgence of race consciousness is indeed the most noticeable feature in the trend of modern day tendencies. With it, the place of the Negro in the general scheme of things is growing more defined. The primary need of the race is a philosophy of life, whereby hope, courage and ambition can be maintained amidst an environment which seems hostile and crushing. This philosophy must be based upon the fundamental principles of democracy and human brotherhood, yet it must reckon with those existing circumstances and conditions
