One of the best schools of higher education. A number of notable
colored men are graduates of this institution. It was founded in
1867 by the American Missionary Association (Congregational), but it
now has an independent board of trustees. It has 35 teachers, nearly
600 students and property valued at $405,000.
]
Without the institutions thus erected and maintained, the industrial and
agricultural education of the colored people would be almost entirely
confined to the very limited facilities of the public schools, and the
inadequate work of the land-grant institutions. Teacher training would
be almost negligible, secondary courses would be conspicuously
inadequate and no college work would be offered. Upon the North
therefore, and the Negroes must rest the responsibility of providing
higher training. While constant effort should be made to induce public
authorities to provide for every phase of education, any plan to
diminish private support should be adopted only after careful
consideration of the local situation. The per capita public school
expenditures for white children of the Southern States is four and five
times that for the Negroes. All the available facts indicate that the
financial aid of the North would be needed for some decades to come.
Essential as northern philanthropy has been to the education of the
Negro, the greatest contribution of the North has been the teachers,
sons and daughters of the best families, who have been willing to work
in colored schools, and to show their colored pupils by precept and
example that education is not only head knowledge, but the formation of
habits that guarantee such fundamental virtues as cleanliness,
thoroughness, perseverance, honesty, and the essential elements of
family life.
The work of the Northern teachers is no less important than that of the
northern soldier. While the one emancipated the Negro from slavery, the
other laid the foundation for the greater emancipation from ignorance.
In the conduct and management of colored schools, it is to be expected
that the South should stress contact with the white neighborhood and
conformity to the community standards. The concern of the Negro is
naturally the preservation of his self-respect and the increase of
opportunities for employment and influence. The concern of the North is
the maintenance of such school activities as will produce manhood and
womanhood of good physique, discerning minds and sound morals. In
accordance with this purpose, northern people have erected schools of
all types for the Negroes, including industrial, agricultural and
collegiate institutions. No greater loss could befall the Negro schools
than the elimination of northern philanthropy and northern teachers.
The two types of institutions which are largely supported by northern
philanthropy are designated as independent schools, and schools under
white denominational boards. Many of these schools also receive large
sums from their colored patrons. The following table gives the important
facts concerning the independent schools in the several States. The
names of the larger institutions of this group are given in the table at
the end of this Chapter.
[Illustration:
DINING HALL. BIRDSEYE VIEW OF GROUNDS.
]
[Illustration: