Asa Mahan, of Lane Seminary, was offered the presidency.  As he was an Abolitionist he said that he would accept only if Negroes were admitted on equal terms with other students.  After a warm session of the trustees the vote was in his favor.  Though, before this, individual Negroes had found their way into Northern institutions, it was here at Oberlin that they first received a real welcome.  By the outbreak of the war nearly one-third of the students were of the Negro race, and one of the graduates, John M. Langston, was soon to be generally prominent in the affairs of the country.

[Footnote 1:  For interesting examples see C.G.  Woodson:  The Education of the Negro prior to 1861.]

It has been maintained that in their emphasis on education and on the highest culture possible for the Negro the Abolitionists were mere visionaries who had no practical knowledge whatever of the race’s real needs.  This was neither true nor just.  It was absolutely necessary first of all to establish the Negro’s right to enter any field occupied by any other man, and time has vindicated this position.  Even in 1850, however, the needs of the majority of the Negro people for advance in their economic life were not overlooked either by the Abolitionists or the Negroes themselves.  Said Martin V. Delany:  “Our elevation must be the result of self-efforts, and work of our own hands.  No other human power can accomplish it....  Let our young men and young women prepare themselves for usefulness and business; that the men may enter into merchandise, trading, and other things of importance; the young women may become teachers of various kinds, and otherwise fill places of usefulness.  Parents must turn their attention more to the education of their children.  We mean, to educate them for useful practical business purposes.  Educate them for the store and counting-house—­to do everyday practical business.  Consult the children’s propensities, and direct their education according to their inclinations.  It may be that there is too great a desire on the part of parents to give their children a professional education, before the body of the people are ready for it.  A people must be a business people and have more to depend upon than mere help in people’s houses and hotels, before they are either able to support or capable of properly appreciating the services of professional men among them.  This has been one of our great mistakes—­we have gone in advance of ourselves.  We have commenced at the superstructure of the building, instead of the foundation—­at the top instead of the bottom.  We should first be mechanics and common tradesmen, and professions as a matter of course would grow out of the wealth made thereby."[1]

[Footnote 1:  The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, Politically Considered, Philadelphia, 1852, P. 45.]