The Negro Land-Grant College

Between 1861 and 1890 much of interest was taking place in the educational life of the Negro. The discussions of the presidential campaign which resulted in the election of Lincoln as President increased the desire on the part of Negroes not only for freedom but knowledge as well. During the Civil War period agitations, travel, contacts, and new plantation responsibilities all combined to urge Negroes to continue to learn on a selfhelp basis. After the Civil War plans were rapidly executed to lessen the degree of ignorance on the part of the Negro made firm through years of human slavery. Among the factors which operated for the education and enlightenment of the Negro were the following: (1) The recently emancipated Negroes looked upon the attainment of a literate status as a key to the solution of their vexing problems.1 This idea became an intense passion of the Negro freedmen for educational advancement and served through the coming years in reducing illiteracy from 70 per cent in 1880 to 57.1 per cent in 1890, to 44.5 per cent in 1900, to 30.4 per cent in 1910, to 22.9 per cent in 1920, and to 16.3 per cent in 1930. (2) The efforts of the