The Reflector

Issue Number:24

Date: 01/20/1934

p. 01-02, c. 01-02

It has been announced in newspaper circles that a cetain large Negro weekly is going to launch a movement to help Liberia build roads, improve her educational system and increase her trade relations with the world markets. All plans are not complete as yet, but it is understood that the scheme will have the assistance of prominent Negro citizens of the United States, of power and understanding who shall cooperate with the Weekly in securing the necessary financial aid needed to put on this vigorous campaign in the interest of the intellectual development of the youth of Liberia, and for the betterment of that Republic.

It is suggested that there is much that can be done by the fourteen million Negroes of this country and much that will be done in interest of Liberia if we show sincere intentions of creating a stronger Republic. So a conference is scheduled for an early date and all interested persons are invited to attend, and offer suggestions to improve educational and economic conditions in Liberia.

In the United States today there are one million Negro children of school age that are not attending, because of the inaccessibility of schoools, according to a recent report of the Department of Interior. Nine out of every ten Negro teachers now employed in the United States, regardless of qualification, are being paid at the rate of less than $700 per year, although the unskilled factory worker under the minimum of the N. R. A., gets $728.00. The rate of illiteracy of the Negro population in the South is 16.3 per cent as compared with 1.5 per cent for the white population, and some states in this country spend as little as $12.57 per child on Negro education while the standard rate is set at $87.22 per year for each child.

When we consider the many problems confronting Negro education in America today, and note the little effort exercised by the Negro Race to solve them, this recent proposition to help Liberia becomes a little far fetched and despite our profound respect for ambition, we are forced to conclude that the Weekly would be quite in order to launch a drive for better American schools before attempting to solve Liberia's problem.