By aiding the education of Negroes in rural communities with the
assistance of State governments and of Negroes themselves Mr. Julius
Rosenwald has been making an important chapter in the history of this
race during the last generation. The significance of this achievement
is apparent when one merely glances at these statistics:
1223 buildings (2812 teachers).
Total Cost $4,012,923
Negroes $1,139,165
Whites 277,668
Public Funds 1,840,210
Rosenwald aid 755,880
These schoolbuildings have been built in the States as follows:
Alabama 234, North Carolina 175, Mississippi 145, Louisiana 136,
Tennessee 114, Virginia 105, South Carolina 73, Arkansas 54, Georgia
53, Kentucky 52, Texas 50, Maryland 16 and Oklahoma 15.
By types these buildings include:
357 one-teacher
464 two-teacher
191 three-teacher
106 four-teacher
39 five-teacher
32 six-teacher
5 seven-teacher
5 eight-teacher
1 nine-teacher
2 ten-teacher
1 eleven-teacher
1 twelve-teacher
1 sixteen-teacher
18 Teachers' Homes
----
1223
The fact that over $4,000,000 has been invested in these buildings is
worthy of comment as is the added fact that more than one-fourth of
this large total has been raised by the Negroes themselves. While the
figures are of buildings which have been actually completed, it is
well to note that there are in progress now, some of them nearly
finished and all of them to be finished before June 30, 1922, other
buildings which will increase the total to 1500, will show a total
outlay of $5,500,000, will bring the total of contributions by the
Negroes up to $1,500,000, and make Mr. Rosenwald's contribution over
$1,000,000. These school building projects and the financial outlays
for them have been definitely approved, and all that is lacking is the
actual completion of contracts let.
When the work was first undertaken, the thought was to build one-room
rural schoolhouses. Under the developing interest, however, larger and
better buildings have been erected. As the teacher capacity is an
important thing, the total number of teachers has been given to serve
as another index to the value of this achievement.
Still another significant thing should be noted. All of the
construction now going on is being done through the States themselves.
Every project is presented for approval by the State educational
authorities, and is certified as completed by the same officers. The
interest manifested is sincere and continuing, and in North Carolina,
for example, there are no fewer than eight people connected with the
office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction who are giving
their time toward Negro education.
There is another point too which may be interesting. The buildings are
constructed according to definite plans and specifications and no
building receives Rosenwald aid unless it conforms to the details of
such plans and specifications. As a result in the Rosenwald schools
the windows are so placed as to give the right kind of light; the
blackboards too are properly located; and the equipment in the way of
desks is the best available for the funds on hand. No school building
is paid for until inspection has shown it to be built according to the
approved ideas.
* * * * *
The following extract from _Current History_, Vol. XV, pages 771-772,
sets forth the participation of Alice Ball, a scholarly Negro chemist,
in the treatment of leprosy through the use of chaulmoogra oil
extracted by a difficult scientific process.
"Credit for initiating a revolutionary method of treatment is
generally ascribed to Dr. Victor Heiser of the United States
Public Health Service in the Philippines. Instead of giving raw
chaulmoogra oil in doses, as had been the custom for centuries,
he gave it by injection to the muscles. Mixed with olive oil and
drugs, it was efficacious and helped all patients treated. The
old method of taking the oil through the mouth, even in
capsules, produced such violent nausea that very few could retain
it. If retained, it was healing; the best remedy then known. The
success of the Heiser treatment led physicians generally to adopt
injections as the best method of giving the oil, but it was thick
and not easily absorbed. This led Dr. Harry T. Hollman, a member
of the Government Medical Corps at Honolulu, to call for a more
diluted form of the oil, one freed from extraneous matter, an
ethyl ester, or the vital principle, if there was one. The
decomposition of the oil, he said, should be accomplished outside
the body.
"After securing the approval of his superiors, Drs. McCoy and
Currie, he asked the Chemistry Department of the University of
Hawaii to liberate this essence from the vegetable compound.
President Dean, himself an expert chemist, became greatly
interested. He assigned to the task Miss Alice Ball, a young
negro woman and an expert chemist, who found the task exceedingly
elusive. She gave it all her time and secured a light essence,
which Dr. Hollman administered with improved results; but he
still insisted it could be improved. Miss Ball's health failed,
possibly from chemical poisoning, and she went to California to
recuperate. On her return she again took up the task, aided by
Dr. Dean, but was again forced to give up the work entirely and
soon afterward died in California.
"President Dean then entered upon the task with redoubled
enthusiasm. He was encouraged from results obtained to give every
possible aid to the indomitable and optimistic Dr. Hollman. There
were months of persistent effort, the devising of expensive and
complicated apparatus, including a special furnace for intense
heat. At last the precise ethyl ester desired--with a number of
others--was secured. Injections were made as before into the hips
of patients--the large muscles were selected to avoid any
possible introduction of the medicine into the large veins or
arteries. The improvement following in every case was so marked
as to cause surprise and decided gratification."
On the 3rd and 4th of April, the Association for the Study of Negro
Life and History will hold its spring conference in New York City.
This meeting will come as a climax of a nation-wide membership drive
now being conducted by the Association. The plans are to have present
a large representation of persons from the various parts of the
country that steps may be taken for a more thorough prosecution of the
work.