One of the leading schools of the Freedmen’s Aid Society of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. It was founded in 1870. It has 17
teachers, 304 students, and property valued at nearly $300,000.
]
The schools of the Freedmen’s Aid Society rank high in educational
efficiency. Some of them are well known colleges for colored people.
Claflin University, Orangeburg, South Carolina; Wiley University,
Marshall, Texas; Rust College, Holly Springs, Mississippi; Walden
University, Nashville, Tennessee; Morgan College, Baltimore, Maryland;
Morristown Normal and Industrial College, Morristown, Tennessee;
Philander Smith College, Little Rock, Arkansas; Bennett College,
Greensboro, North Carolina; Samuel Houston College, Austin, Texas, and
New Orleans University, New Orleans, Louisiana. Of these Wiley
University, Walden University, Philander Smith College, Samuel Houston
College and Bennett College are ably managed by colored presidents.
Other institutions under this board are: Central Alabama Institute,
Mason City, Alabama; Cookman Institute, Jacksonville, Florida; Gilbert
Industrial Institute, Baldwin, Louisiana; Haven Institute, Meridian,
Mississippi; George R. Smith College, Sedalia, Missouri, and Virginia
Collegiate and Industrial Institute, Lynchburg, Virginia. In addition to
these credit must be given to this society for the organization of
Meharry Medical College, now managed by an independent board of
trustees; for the maintenance and support of Gammon Theological
Seminary, the best training school for colored ministers, and of the
Sarah Goodridge Nurse Training School and Hospital at New Orleans,
Louisiana. Princess Anne Academy which receives a portion of land-grant
funds through the Federal Government is also supervised by the society.
The proportion of academic teachers is about the same as that in most of
the denominational schools. The emphasis on the literary courses is
marked. It is evidently unfortunate that this large denomination with 18
educational institutions should provide only three gardening teachers
for the education of a people so largely rural. The percentage of men in
the teaching force is above the average of church schools. This is
probably explained by the fact that the proportion of colored teachers
in these institutions is also above the average. The substitution of
colored for white teachers in these institutions in the Freedmen’s Aid
schools has evidently proceeded with considerable rapidity. The
indications are that the change has been too rapid for the good of the
schools. While democracy in education requires the recognition of the
colored teachers, it is equally true that these schools need not only
the financial aid of white people; but also their personal influence.
The Freedmen’s Aid Society was organized in 1866 “for the purpose of
aiding the recently emancipated slaves and their children in securing
the benefits of a good common school education, and such other
educational preparation as was necessary to provide Christian ministers,
physicians, school teachers, and industrial leaders for the race.” The
colored members of the various branches of Methodism are next to the
colored Baptists in number. The number of colored members in the
Northern Methodist Church represented by the Freedmen’s Aid Society and
the Woman’s Missionary Society is about 350,000. These members
contribute about a fourth of the total sums collected by the Freedmen’s
Aid Society for the education of colored people.
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