ABSTRACT
The diffusion of education in the some meanings of formal knowledge and technical training among the masses of people has a twofold significance in the theory and practice of democracy. The economic importance of education is inseparable from its political significance. Whether the status of the Negro since his emancipation is considered politically or economically, the limiting and the accelerating factor in his advancement has been education in the broad sense of instruction in formal knowledge, technical or vocational training. Much of the Negro's education between the American Revolution and the Civil War was obtained, informally, by contact with the white man. The rise of the American city made possible the contact of the colored people with the world, affording them a chance to observe what the white man was doing, and to develop the power to care for them.
