CHAPTER 8. 



INTELLIGENCE OF THE NEGRO. 



Data of two sorts are available for a consideration of the question of the negro's intelligence. 

 First there is the statistical analysis of the principal sample, and second there are the data 

 which have already been assembled by a number of different examiners and discussed by them 

 in various camp reports. Camp procedure in the examination of recruits was determined by 

 the practical needs of the Army. Examiners conducted their work with the object of rendering 

 maximum practical assistance to the military organization, and the collection and study of 

 scientific data were always incidental to this main purpose. The situation as regards numbers 

 and make-up of the groups of drafted men varied between camps and was necessarily dealt 

 with in somewhat different ways by different examiners. Some of the problems presented by 

 the negro conscripts will be considered briefly below. 



The examiner in the camp was confronted by quite a different practical problem when 

 the draft quota to be tested consisted of negroes than that which was presented by a draft 

 quota of white men. The matter of distribution according to grades of intelligence was of less 

 practical importance in the case of negroes, and the matter of elimination was not so much one 

 of excluding the lowest from regular military service as it .was one of admitting the highest. 



Several different methods of segregation were used to divide the negroes into literate and 

 illiterate groups to send to alpha and beta respectively. In some cases the method was used 

 of making all step out who could not read and write. Usually a standard of proficiency was 

 indicated, as "to read a newspaper and write a letter home." In some cases an educational 

 qualification was added — three, four, or even five years of schooling. In some cases literacy 

 tests were used, though generally as a supplement to the simpler and more direct method of 

 segregation mentioned above. In some cases the negroes were all sent in a body direct to 

 examination beta. 



The very large percentage of negroes too illiterate to take alpha placed special emphasis 

 upon the question of the suitability of beta as a test for these subjects. Opinions of examiners 

 differ somewhat on this question, but the general consensus seems to be that beta is not as 

 satisfactory a test for illiterate negro recruits as it is for illiterate whites. Several examiners 

 report that it is difficult to keep up the interest of the negroes in the beta examination as it 

 is usually given. This is especially emphasized in a report from Camp Dodge (July 15, 1918) 

 in which it is stated that, "it took all the energy and enthusiasm the examiner could muster 

 to maintain the necessary attention, as there was a decided disposition for the negroes to lapse 

 into inattention and almost into sleep." Two factors which may have been largely responsible 

 for this condition are, first, the relatively lower intelligence of the negro beta group as a whole; 

 and, second, the fact that, speaking English as they all did, the negroes felt the artificiality of the 

 situation as they would not have felt it if there had been even a sprinkling of non-English- 

 speaking subjects in the group. 



Camp Sevier (November 16, 1918) reported that beta as usually given is unsatisfactory 

 as applied to negroes, and suggested as the reason that it "unnaturally limits the negro mind 

 where it is relatively strong — in the use of language." This camp tried examining a draft of 

 negroes with a system of verbal instructions for beta substituted for the usual pantomime. 

 This procedure seemed to yield more satisfactory results. The September draft with which 

 this procedure was employed was universally recognized in camp as distinctly inferior to the 



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