Some of the handsome buildings in colored schools. All of granite.
Founded in 1899 through the union of Wayland Seminary and Richmond
Theological School. It is owned by the American Baptist Home Mission
Society. Teachers, 16; attendance, 275; value of property $500,000.
]
The attendance on these institutions was 51,529, of whom 43,605 were
elementary, 7,188 were secondary, and 736 were collegiate. The number of
teachers and workers was 2,562, of whom 1,069 were white and 1,493, or
58 per cent. were colored. On the basis of sex, 714 are men and 1,848,
or 70 per cent. are women. Classification according to character of work
shows that 1,916, or 74 per cent. of the teachers are academic, 339
industrial, 31 agricultural, and 276 administrative. Comparison with
other groups of schools indicates that those under white boards still
retain a considerable fraction of white teachers, that the number of
women teachers is rather larger than in other groups, and finally that
the proportion of academic instructors is higher than in any group
except those under the colored boards.
There are ten denominational groups which own and maintain a number of
institutions for the education of colored people. Nine other
denominations are supporting one or two schools each. Very few of the
churches represented by either the larger or smaller of these boards
have any considerable proportion of Negroes in their membership. There
are other denominations, notably the Unitarians, who have contributed
liberally to colored schools without any thought either of increasing
their church membership or their control over these schools. The primary
purpose of practically all of these organizations has been the education
of the Negroes in America, and their preparation for life in a
democracy.
In this connection, it is interesting to note the religious preference
of the Negroes in the United States as compiled by the United States
census of 1904. According to this census there were 3,685,097 Negroes in
the various denominations. Of these 2,354,789 were enrolled by Baptists,
1,182,131 belonging to various branches of Methodism, and the remaining
148,177, hardly 4 per cent of the total, were distributed among the
Catholic, Presbyterian, Christian, and Congregational denominations.
The larger denominations maintain central offices and one or more
traveling secretaries whose duties include both the supervision of the
schools and the appeal for funds to the supporting churches. This
personal supervision, together with regular reports of both financial
and educational activities, has developed economy and honesty in the use
of funds and thoroughness in the school work.
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