Home     Photo Gallery     Classroom     Documents
Selected Writings of Eleanor Roosevelt

Originally printed in The Journal of Negro Education 3 (October 1934): 573—575. Address delivered at the National Conference on Fundamental Problems in the Education of Negroes, Washington, D.C., May 11,1934.

1. Mr. Chairman, Dr. Zook, Ladies and Gentlemen: It is a great pleasure for me to be with you this morning because I am following with interest all that you are doing in this conference. I noticed in the papers this morning the figures given of the cost of certain states per capita for the education of a colored child and of a white child, and I could not help but think as I read that item how stupid we are in some ways, for of course in any democracy the one important thing is to see as far as possible that every child receives at least the best education that that child is able to assimilate.

2. Now, that does not mean that education should not vary in different communities, because we all know that the needs of some communities are different from the needs of others, just as we know that some individuals (and this is not confined to any race) need a different type of education from others, and we should really bend our energies now, with our better knowledge of education, to giving to children the opportunity to develop their gifts, whatever they may be, to the best that is in them. We cannot all become geniuses, we cannot all reach the same level, but we can at least have the opportunity to do the best we can with what the Lord has given us.

3. I feel that while we have been fortunate in this country in having many fine men and women interested in the education of the Negro race, we have also been slow, many of us who are of the white race, in realizing how important not only to your race it is, but how important to our race that you should have the best educational advantages. The menace today to a democracy is unthinking action, action which comes from people who are illiterate, who are unable to understand what is happening in the world at large, what is happening in their own country, and who therefore act without really having any knowledge of the meaning of their actions, and that is the thing that we, whatever our race is, should be guarding against today.

4. There are many people in this country, many white people, who have not had the opportunity that they should have, and there are also many Negro people who have not had the opportunity that they should have. Both these conditions should be remedied and the same opportunities should be accorded to every child regardless of race or creed.

5. Of course I feel this should be done because of our intelligent interest in children, but if we have to put it on a self-interest basis, then it should be done for the preservation of the best that is in the ideals of this country, because you can have no part of your population beaten down and expect the rest of the country not to feel the effects from the big groups that are underprivileged. That is so of our groups of white people and it is so of our underprivileged groups of Negro people. It lowers the standard of living. Wherever the standard of education is low, the standard of living is low, and it is for our own preservation in order that our whole country may live up to the ideals and to the intentions which brought our forefathers to this country, that we are interested today in seeing that education is really universal throughout the country.

6. Now I know what the facts are today, and I know that you know them. I know that in many communities people have been so badly off that they have not been able to keep up schools and pay teachers and do the things that should be done for the children of this generation. I think the Federal Government is trying to help in every way that it can in the crisis; but I think we have to go further back than the present crisis and realize, that even before we had the depression, there were people in the country who did not understand that not giving equal opportunity to all children for education was really a menace. It was felt that possibly it was better not to educate people to want more than they were at that time getting, and the thought which goes a little beyond this wa~ dormant in a great many places. This thought which had not yet been accepted will make us realize that to deny to any part of a population the opportunities for more enjoyment in life, for higher aspirations is a menace to the nation as a whole. There has been too much concentrating wealth, and even if it means that some of us have got to learn to be a little more unselfish about sharing what we have than we have been in the past, we must realize that it will profit us all in the long run. We have got to think it through and realize that in the end all of us, the country over, will gain if we have a uniformly educated people; that is to say, if everywhere every child has the opportunity to gain as much knowledge as his ability will allow him to gain. We know that there are in every race certain gifts, and therefore the people of the different races will naturally want to develop those gifts. If they are denied the opportunity to do so they will always feel a frustration in their lives and a certain resentment against the people who have denied them this opportunity for self-expression.

7. I believe that the Negro race has tremendous gifts to bring to this country in the way of artistic development. I think things come by nature to many of them that we have to acquire, such as an appreciation of art and of music and of rhythm, which we really have to gain very often through education. I think that those things should be utilized for the good of the whole nation that you should be allowed and helped to make your greatest contribution along the lines that you want and that give you joy. And therefore I am very happy to see this conference, and I have the hope that out of it will come a realization not only to you who are here but to all the people throughout the country who may be listening in today and who may later come in contact with those of you who are here, that we as a democracy in these times must be able to grasp our problems, must have sufficient general education to know not only what our difficulties are, but what the Government is trying to do to help us meet those difficulties. Without that ability in our people and without the willingness to sacrifice on the part of the people as a whole, in order that the younger generation may develop this ability, I think we have harder times ahead of us than we have had in the past. I think the day of selfishness is over the day of really working together has come, and we must learn to work together, all of us, regardless of race or creed or color; we must wipe out, wherever we find it, any feeling that grows up, of intolerance, of belief that any one group can go ahead alone. We go ahead together or we go down together, and so may you profit now and for the future by all that you do in this conference.