Owned and supported by the Methodist Episcopal Church. It has eleven
teachers and one hundred students. The total value of the college is
$100,000.
]
The purpose of the Freedmen’s Aid Society to continue its splendid work
of education is revealed in the report of the commission recently
appointed by the Society to study the schools, which among other things,
said:
[Illustration:
GEORGE R. SMITH COLLEGE, SEDALIA, MO.
]
“We are persuaded that in spite of the better rural schools now being
provided for the Negroes, in spite of some growth in normal school and
high school accommodations, the work of the Freedmen’s Aid Society is
still an urgent need of the South. So far from sounding any retreat, we
of the church should make a great advance, provide a large endowment,
give more adequate facilities, pay better salaries, and, in general,
strengthen the institutions we have established. They are needed to
train a Christian leadership for the colored race, and while they can
touch but a few out of the negro millions, they can do, as they have
already done, great things through these selected leaders.”
_Woman’s Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church._—The
Woman’s Home Missionary Society owns and maintains 12 home schools for
girls. Eight of them are connected with the various educational
institutions of the Freedmen’s Aid Society. These homes usually provide
home training for the girls at the larger schools of the Freedmen’s Aid
Society. All of these homes are well managed. They are in charge of the
best type of northern women and colored women, who have manifested
unusual devotion and efficiency in their work. The important facts for
these schools by States, are given below: