For Frederick Douglass' Paper.

EDUCATION OF THE COLORED PEOPLE—NO. III.
—
FRIEND DOUGLASS: SIR:—In order for the
colored people to become qualified to act
part before referred to, they must put forth a
most vigorous and persevering effort, and avail
themselves of every possible aid. It must be
a personal and individual effort. Clergymen,
Statesmen, Politicians, Lecturers, Newspapers,
Anti-Slavery Societies, and even the Ballot-box
cannot effect their elevation,—they must elevate
themselves; the great facility for self-elevation
is education. Every class of society through
out Christendom, realize this somewhat, and
have opened their institutions of learning. Re
ligious denominations appreciate the power and
importance of education to give character and
influence to a community, and, therefore, have
established literary and theological institutions
of their own, respectively. Even the Roman
Catholic, to whose system a more deadly foe
des not exist, than the general diffusion of
knowledge, are opening their schools for the
education of children under their own supervi
sion. Is it any less important that the colored
people who must overcome prejudice, proscrip
tion, and the power of caste, and by intellectual
culture prove their identity with the human
race in order to secure their just position in so
ciety, should set up an educational system?
The answer is obvious. It is not enough that
schools are accessible. They need them of their
own to control and manage themselves. Re
sponsibility awakens energy and forethought,
and calls up the dormant faculties of the soul,
and brings the whole man into action.

I read with great interest the proceedings of
your late Convention at Albany on the subject
of an "Industrial College," and must congratu
late its advocates on the passgae of the resolu
tion sustaining the meansure [illegible] be established on the correct principles, and be
judiciously managed, and it will form an era in
the history of the colored people, and stand as
a monument of their progress in the nineteenth
century, pointing to a brighter day in the glori
ous future of which but a faint conception has
yet been gained.

It seems to me, that the times demand such
an institution. There is, doubtless, many a
sprightly youth, thirsting for knowledge, who
would gladly enter upon a coarse of study were
an opportunity offered where he could feel that
the school was for him as much as for others,
and that he would have the sympathy of his
class and all around; but cruel proscription de
stroys his confidence, and in view of existing
prejudices, he will never consent to enter a
school for whites, where, because of early op
portunities, the child of ten is far in advance of
him at twenty. The number of those is increas
ing, and they need encouragement.

Such an institution is needed, to give charac
ter, and remove the intellectual difference be
tween the white man and the black, by culti
vating the latter. While all the institutions of
learning remain in the hands of the whites, the
spirit of arrogance and domination will more or
less prevail, and negroes will be considered im
becile and inferior; but let then take the
management of their education into their own
hands and they may soon become wise and
powerful people. "Knowledge is power."

H. BLACKMARR.

ROCHESTER, February 28th, 1856.