Nearly one-half of the population of this diocese are colored. There are
1000 colored Catholics out of the total number of 20,000 Catholics to be
found in the State. The colored people have five Catholic schools open to
them, and one church in Savannah which is regularly attended by a priest.
“It seems to me” writes Bishop Becker, “that the colored people need to
be taught less in schools, and a great deal more in individual work.
They have a notion that the sovereign panacea for all their woes is to
be able to read and write a little, and learn something of figures. They
believe that such knowledge would somehow keep them from being obliged to
work. The orphan Asylum for colored children is wholly dependent on our
help, except for what the girls may get for working. I would gladly do
all in my power to aid the colored people suitably. It is my well founded
belief, that without an ‘Industrial School’ under some Brothers, like the
Xavieran for instance, very little permanent good can be effected. With
utterly inadequate means we are doing what we can.”