THE MIND OF THE NEGRO 



Psychological Tests Indicate That Black and White Races Are Equal in Lower 



Mental Functions but Not in the Higher Ones — Industrial Education 



Therefore Better Adapted to the Negro Race than Literary 



Education — Possibility of Production of Eminent Men 



from the Negroes and Mulattoes in America 



THAT the mental ability of the 

 negro is measurably different 

 from that of the white race is 

 the conclusion of George Oscar 

 Ferguson, Jr., who applied tests to 486 

 white pupils and 421 colored pupils in 

 the schools of Richmond, Fredericks- 

 burg, and Newport News. Va. 



Numerous exact experiments have 

 shown that "in the so-called lower 

 traits there is no great difference between 

 the negro and the white. In motor 

 capacity there is probably no appreciable 

 racial difference. In sense capacity, in 

 perceptive and discriminative ability, 

 there is likewise a practical equality." 

 Mr. Ferguson's investigation^ was there- 

 fore planned "primarily with a view 

 to ascertaining racial differences in 

 the higher rather than the lower intel- 

 lectual capacities." 



"It is in the higher capacities that 

 men are supposed to differ most," he 

 points out. "And it is these capacities 

 that are of the greatest influence in 

 determining their relative achievem.ent. 

 The investigations previously made and 

 the views previously held indicate that 

 there are no considerable group dif- 

 ferences in sensation, in motor control, 

 in native retentiveness. The differences 

 to which evidence has pointed have been, 

 on the side of intellect as opposed to 

 feeling, in such abilities as those included 

 under the terms constijuctive imagina- 

 tion, the apprehension of meaning, 

 reasoning power. These latter traits 

 divide mankind into the able and the 

 mediocre, the brilliant and the dull, 

 and they determine the progress of civili- 

 zation more directly than do the simple 

 and ftnidamental powxrs which man has 

 in common wnth the lower animals." 



Evidence is presented to show that 

 the tests really measured racial ability, 

 and not merely differences in training 

 or the result of different home environ- 

 ments. Ferguson thinks that his tests 

 confirmed those previously made, show- 

 ing "that the average performance of 

 the colored population of this country, 

 in such intellectual work as that repre- 

 sented by the tests of higher capacity, 

 appears to be only about three-fourths 

 as efficient as the performance of white 

 persons of the same amount of train- 

 ing. It is probable, indeed, that this 

 estimate is too high rather than too 

 low." 



EFFECT OF WHITE BLOOD 



Ferguson further divided the colored 

 pupils in accordance with their per- 

 centage of white blood (as shown by 

 skin color and other physical traits). 

 Classifying the results on this basis 

 leads him to say : 



"While the intellectual performance 

 of the general colored population is 

 approximately 75% as efficient as that 

 of whites, this figure is not true for 

 different classes of negroes. It is prob- 

 ably correct to say that pure negroes, 

 negroes three-fourths pure, mulattoes 

 and quadroons have, roughly, 60, 70, 

 80, and 90%, respectively, of white 

 intellectual efficiency. If it were pos- 

 sible to distinguish these four classes of 

 negroes so accurately as to avoid 

 overlapping, it is probable that the 

 differences revealed by tests would be 

 greater rather than less than those 

 indicated by the figures." 



The significance of these findings on 

 the work , of negro education seems to 

 Ferguson, to be important. He says: 



1 The Psychology of the N^egro, an experimental study by George Oscar Ferguson, Jr. 

 Columbia University Contributions to Philosophy and Psychology, Vol. xxv, Archives of 

 Psychology, No. 36, April, 1916. New York fSub-station 84). The Science Press. Price, 

 $1.25. Pp.138. 



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