The Federal Government and Negro Education

The twenty-four chapters which precede this concluding one are very like the separate scores for the various instruments in an orchestral composition. Yet each of the separate parts was written by a different person without knowledge of others would embody in their treatments, except as such knowledge was given by careful planning by the editors. The same phrases occur over and over in each part. Some carry the secondary themes and others carry the dominant theme; some carry responsibility for both. It is remarkable that the various parts of the composition produce a harmonious whole to the extent that they actually do. It is the purpose of this chapter to interpret the whole series of separate parts of this Yearbook in a related and connected fashion. In other words, the functions of the chapter are critical rather than creative. It is written with all of the preceding chapters before the writer. Treatment is directed, therefore, to the whole performance and not to the performance of any individual part or chapter. The primary purpose of this chapter is to emphasize the harmony that exists rather than the incongruities that arise from the nature of the treatment. If this series of papers were a musical composition for the orchestra, the various parts would be played simultaneously and it would be possible to analyze the combined effects thus produced. The task of analyzing the general effect of a collection of papers, that must of necessity be read in some order of succession, involves subjective evaluation to an unusual degree. But the impression produced upon the writer is rather definite and clear cut. An attempt is made to report these effects in the paragraphs that follow. It appears from the Introduction that the major objective of the series of papers is the third purpose stated by the Introduction, that is, the purpose to suggest what modifications should be made in the future relationships of the Federal government to Negro separate schools, and to indicate the methods by which such modifications may be most expeditiously effected. In fact, the major theme discovered by the writer might perhaps better be stated as the discovery of modifications in the relationships of the Federal government to Negro education which are in harmony with the fundamental democratic concepts of this country. Writer after writer recognizes that expedition, while desirable, must give way to consistency with the democratic organization of society for which this country stands. The urgency of the problems of Federal relations to Negro education is a secondary theme, one that is implied in a perfectly clear fashion but never sounded in a way to drown out the major theme of democracy. The Federal government has been, is, and will in the future be, a force in education in the United States, and

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