In this untoward situation the negro finds himself at the close of the third generation from Emancipation. He has been educated in the sense that persons directed a certain way are more easily controlled, or as Ovid remarked,'in time the bull is brought to bear the yoke.'The Negro in this state continues as a child. he is restricted in his sphere to small things, and with these he becomes satisfied. His ambition does not rise any higher than to plunge into the competition with his fellows for these trifles. At the same time those who have given the race such false ideals are busy in the higher spheres from which Negroes by their mis-education and racial guidance have been disbarred...
While this may apply in the case of their oppressors, the few positions allotted the Negroes are magnified beyond all reasonable bounds. This comes as a natural result, however, for the "education" of the negro requires it. The ambitious mis-educated Negro in the struggle for the little things. Allotted by others prevents any achievement of the people in matters more constructive. Potentially the colored people are strong although they are actually weak.
This much-ado-about-nothing renders impossible cooperation, the most essential thing in the development of a people. The ambitious of this class do more to keep the race in a state of turmoil and to prevent it from serious community effort than all the other elements combined. The one has a job that the other wants; or the one is a leader of a successful faction, and the other is struggling to supplant him. Everything in the community, then must yield ground to this puerile contest.
- Woodson, Carter.The Mis-Education of the Negro. Washington: Associated Publishers, 1933.
