────────────────────┬────────┬───────────┬─────────┬─────────┬─────────
│ │ │ │ Income │
│ Number │ │ │ for │
│ of │ Counted │ │ Current │Value of
States │Schools │Attendance │Teachers │Expenses │Property
────────────────────┼────────┼───────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────
Total │ 5│ 440│ 37│ $29,910│ $184,602
────────────────────┼────────┼───────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────
Alabama │ 1│ 93│ 6│ 2,512│ 8,875
Mississippi │ 1│ 196│ 18│ 21,006│ 160,491
Tennessee │ 1│ 61│ 4│ 1,730│ 3,750
Texas │ 1│ 14│ 3│ 1,712│ 3,000
Virginia │ 1│ 76│ 6│ 2,950│ 8,485
────────────────────┴────────┴───────────┴─────────┴─────────┴─────────
The Christian Woman’s Board maintains five schools, of which two are
rated as “larger or more important.” The total income for current
expenses is $29,910, of which $21,000 is for the Southern Christian
Institute in Mississippi. The value of property is $184,602, of which
$160,492 is also in the plant of the Southern Institute. The total
income for current expenses is $29,910, of which $21,000 is for the
Southern Christian Institute in Mississippi. The value of property is
$184,602, of which $160,492 is also in the plant of the Southern
Institute. The total attendance is 440, of whom 409 are elementary and
31 secondary. The number of teachers is 37, of whom 15 are white and 22
colored; 14 are men and 23 are women.
The general management of these schools is economical and the
educational work is effective. This simplicity of organization and the
genuine interest of the teachers are noteworthy. The other important
school of this denomination is The Alabama Christian Institute, Lowndes
County, Alabama.
_Congregational Board._—No church denomination has made a greater
contribution of the Negro than the Congregational church through the
American Missionary Association.
The American Missionary Association owns and supervises 29 schools for
Negroes in the Southern States. The Association also owns property in
other schools and makes contributions to their work. As the management
of these affiliated institutions has been transferred to independent
boards of trustees, they are classified under other groups. Credit must
here be given to this association, however, not only for such splendid
affiliated institutions as Fisk University and Atlanta University; but
also for a number of others now maintained independently.
No denominational schools surpass those of this group in educational
standards or administrative efficiency. It is probable that no church
board has equaled this association in the thoroughness of its
self-examination. The following quotation from the 1914 report outlines
several policies to which every church board should give serious
consideration:
In the realm of educational policy we record a most important change of
tendency, which it is better to state positively, as _a movement toward
concentration in order to greater efficiency_. This has involved the
discontinuance or radical limitation of five of our smaller schools,
including some of long history and rich service. * * * The time had come
when the socialized Christian conscience demanded such improved methods
in missionary service as it requires—often by law—of educators,
landlords, employers of labor and congregations of men anywhere. It has
cost $1,000 for instance, literally to stop rat holes in mission
buildings, and thus to save New Orleans and Porto Rico from danger from
bubonic plague. We had to do better what we did at all, and our
resources were insufficient. We simply had to close institutions. * * *
While these peremptory conditions have closed some of the schools
nearest to the masses of the people, we are glad to record as the chief
technical gain of the year, that the colleges have been made more
available and useful to the masses. Their curricula have been broadened,
and the conditions of entrance made more democratic and in harmony with
those of the great middle western State universities. This is
immediately manifest in the increased number of high-school pupils, and
will affect the colleges tomorrow.
As to educational plant, last year’s survey touched upon the demand of
the socialized conscience for better housing conditions in missionary
institutions. Our response is in the fact that no year has ever spent so
much for sanitation, that more fire escapes have been erected, and more
bathtubs installed than any previous year. * * * As a class, they are
more nearly fire-proof, they have more steel in their structure, more
scientifically determined allowance of light and air, and more beauty
than any previous group. * * * If the Lord’s work is attempted at all it
shall be done under somewhat decent conditions. Nor do we feel that it
is a substitution of the physical for the spiritual. To live up to
plumbing is itself a training of character, health is a prerequisite of
thought, and beauty an inalienable right of the spirit.
A summary of the schools is given below: