INDEPENDENT AND STATE SCHOOLS.
In this and the next two chapters I shall deal with the Independent and
State schools. I open this chapter with Tuskegee Normal and Industrial
Institute because it has created a greater amount of interest and has
been the subject of more discussion in recent years than any other.
THE TUSKEGEE NORMAL AND INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE.
Charles Dickens says somewhere: "There is not an atom in Tom's
slime, not a cubic inch in any pestilential gas in which he lives,
not one obscenity, or degradation about him, not an ignorance, not
a wickedness, not a brutality of his committing, but shall work its
retribution through every order of society, up to the proudest of the
proud and the highest of the high."
Ignorance and degradation among the people clearly menace the South,
and not only the South, but the entire country. The action and
reaction of human life is such that no class of persons, however wise
or wealthy, can stand aloof from those lower, and remain unaffected,
even though unmoved, by their misfortunes. More and more is this fact
being recognized, and, as a means of self-protection, as well as from
philanthropic motives, a widespread interest is being taken in the
education of the Negro.
Perhaps the phase of this question which has aroused the greatest
discussion is, "What kind of education does the Negro need?" Yet,
probably, if we would try better to understand each other, there
would be less difference of opinion. He who claims that there are
those who should receive the higher education, and he who contends
that what the masses need is an English course and a trade, are not
necessarily antagonistic in their views. They may simply stand each
for the prominent presentation of a special phase of the work to be
done for the race. Bright colored girls and boys who wish to go to
college and can do so, certainly should be encouraged to go. We have
need of men and women with trained and disciplined minds. Besides
there are individuals who are endowed with special gifts which can be
used, to the greatest advantage, for the race and for humanity, only
by giving them the highest possible degree of culture. On the other
hand, there are the masses, who, like the masses of any race, are not
able, either intellectually or financially, to take a college course,
and who, besides, are destined to callings which require training other
than that the college gives. What is to be done for them? This Booker
T. Washington is ably demonstrating at Tuskegee. Both of these cases
should be presented in equity, and the importance of either should not
cause the other to be overlooked.
[Illustration: PROF. B. T. WASHINGTON, A. M.,
_Principal of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, Tuskegee, Ala._]
The success of the Tuskegee School is due, in a large measure, to the
fact that it meets what is recognized as a great educational need. It
carries along with the training of the head the training of the hand
makes possible an education to the poorest boy and girl in the land,
and sends each graduate out into the world familiar with some form
of labor to the extent that he can earn thereby his daily bread. The
experiment of this kind of training in solving the much-talked-of
problem, is being watched on all sides with eager curiosity.
[Illustration: ARMSTRONG HALL.
_Built by Students._]
Tuskegee is no more Hampton than Hampton is the little school in the
Sandwich Islands, from which General Armstrong received those earliest
conceptions of the industrial education, afterwards realized on
American soil in behalf of the American Negro. The peculiar exigencies
of the situation gave rise to features in the more Southern school
which are not to be found in the one nearer Mason and Dixon's line,
and, in like manner, account for the absence in the younger school, of
certain characteristics belonging to the older institution.
As those acquainted with the history of Tuskegee know, the school
started in 1881 in an humble church and two shanties in the town of
Tuskegee. There was then one teacher with thirty pupils; no land, no
buildings, no apparatus, nothing but the $2,000 appropriated by the
State for the payment of salaries. There are now over one hundred
persons connected with the school in the capacity of instructors of
some kind, nearly 1,200 pupils, including those attending the Training
School; more than forty buildings erected by student labor, 2,600 acres
of land, and a property valued at $225,000, unincumbered by mortgage.
[Illustration: ALABAMA HALL.
_Built by Students._]
This marvelous growth is due mainly to one man, Booker T. Washington,
the principal of the school; and his success may be attributed to a
combination of qualities--marked executive ability, high enthusiasm,
keen, prophetic vision, and a wonderful power to see and to state the
value of things commonly considered of small account. Some one has
characterized Mr. Washington as "the man with a genius for common
sense," and, probably, one might use many words in telling of him
without giving so good a description as that conveyed in this terse
expression.
[Illustration: PHELPS HALL.
_Built by Students._]
Tuskegee stands for the education of the head, the hand, and the heart,
the three H's which include the three R's and much more. It gives a
good Normal course, which fits one fairly well for the race of life,
or serves as an excellent foundation for a more advanced course.
Stress is laid on the study of pedagogy and practice in the training
school; for the institution acts on the theory, which in most cases
is correct, that these young people, after graduation, will teach at
some time, whether or not during their schooldays they expect to do so,
and, therefore, protects the future pupils of these embryo teachers by
requiring every one who aspires to a diploma to receive training in the
theory and practice of teaching.
[Illustration: BOOKER T. WASHINGTON'S COTTAGE.
_Built by Students._]
The Phelps Hall Bible School, connected with the Tuskegee Institute,
is the gift of a Northern friend, and is designed especially to help
the ministers of the South, among whom it is doing a great work.
Many pastors in charge of churches, learning of the advantages of
the institution and the possibility of getting through school with
very little money, resign their churches to come here and better fit
themselves for the work. Others, nearer, enter the school and trudge
several miles on Saturday or Sunday to meet and minister to their
congregations. Those not pastoring churches while in school, carry on
some form of mission work, and so keep in touch with the people and
help lift up others even while they are being lifted up.
There are over twenty-five industries operated by students under
experienced and efficient instructors. A limited number of young men
and women work during the day and attend school at night, in this
manner supporting themselves and laying by a surplus for expenses when
they enter the day-school, besides fortifying themselves with the
knowledge of a trade. In order to teach the dignity of labor, as well
as for the sake of the skill thus acquired by each student in some
industry, all are required to do a certain amount of work.
Besides the literary societies of the school, of which there are four,
doing good service along the lines usually adopted by such student
bodies, there are several religious organizations. The Y. M. C. A. has
a large membership and is doing a most effective work. The young men
belonging to this association are of an especially high type of young
manhood, and they are exerting a most helpful and healthful influence
on the morals of the school. After a great deal of worthy effort
they have succeeded in getting a pretty well-stocked reading-room
and library, and they are now bending their energies toward securing
a building of their own. They feel that they have outgrown the one
little room which is all the school can afford to give them.
The Y. P. S. C. E. is full of vigorous life. Its presidents have
always been teachers, while the various committees are composed of
both teachers and students. Besides the Executive Committee there is
a Lookout Committee, which looks out for the welfare of the society,
and keeps trace of the members who are absent from the consecration
meetings; a Prayer Meeting Committee which has charge of all the prayer
meetings; a Flower Committee, which carries flowers to the sick, and
decorates the chapel for special exercises, and a Mission Committee,
which does work in the neighborhood among the poor, carrying food and
clothing to them from time to time during the year.
The Mite Society is a branch of the W. H. M. S. Besides general work
among the poor in the vicinity of the school, it has given special care
to the old people of the county poorhouse. This society exacts one cent
weekly from its members, and when this cannot be given, accepts, in
lieu thereof, a sheet of paper, a stamp, an envelope, or anything which
may be sold by a committee appointed for that purpose.
The Tuskegee Women's Club is not, like the organizations already
mentioned, for the students; but, as an outgrowth of the school,
and one of the most helpful influences in the community, it may be
mentioned here. This club is composed of the women connected with
the institution, either as teachers or the wives of teachers. At
the regular semi-monthly meetings a literary and musical program
is rendered, and there is a sub-organization which meets weekly for
an informal discussion of current topics; but these efforts for
self-improvement do not limit the activity of the club. Among the
branch organizations conducted by its members are social purity clubs
among the girls of the institution, a humane society, to which both
boys and girls belong, a club for the ministers' wives of the town
and vicinity, where they are helped to a fuller realization of the
responsibilities and opportunities of their position, and are shown
how they may best work among the girls and women of the churches,
a club for mutual improvement having as members girls attending
the institution, but living in town, a Y. W. C. T. U., and a club
conducted in the town on Saturday afternoons in the special interest
of the country women, who flock in on that day to see the sights and
to do their small shopping. This club was organized by Mrs. Booker T.
Washington, several years ago, even before the organization of the main
club of which it is now considered a branch, and it has done much to
elevate the morals and improve the manners of the women in and near
Tuskegee.
The influence of the school is still further extended by means of
the farmers' conferences, with which the public is very generally
acquainted. These conferences are held annually, towards the latter
part of February or the first of March, and are largely attended. The
men are advised to buy land and to cultivate it thoroughly, to raise
more food supplies, to build houses with more than one room, to tax
themselves to build better school houses, and to extend the term to
at least six months, to give more attention to the character of their
leaders, especially ministers and teachers, to keep out of debt, to
avoid law suits, to treat their women better, and where practicable,
to hold similar conferences in their several communities. A woman's
conference is held on the afternoon of the same day, and topics
relating to the home and the care of children are discussed. The next
day there is a congress of workers, which is attended by teachers and
others who labor for the elevation of the colored people.
Tuskegee not only advises the people to get homes, but, through the
generosity of a friend who established a fund for this purpose, she
has been enabled to help several families to this end. The sum of
$4,500 was given to be loaned in amounts ranging from $30 to $300,
to graduates of the school or to other worthy persons. Already more
than twenty homes have been secured in this manner, and, as a result,
Greenwood, a model little community, is growing up just beyond the
school grounds.
The Summer Assembly furnishes help of another kind. This is a
sort of Southern Chautauqua, modified to meet the needs of the
section and of the people for whose benefit it is held. Here tired
teachers, preachers, and others meet annually and combine pleasure
with instruction, holding daily morning sessions at which papers on
subjects of practical importance are read and discussed, and spending
afternoons and evenings in rest and recreation.
These are influences emanating directly from the school, but what of
the work of its graduates, of the indirect influences thus set in
motion? Their name is legion. These graduates and undergraduates are
scattered throughout the South, engaged in the great work of trying to
elevate a race. We find them in the shops, comparing favorably with
their white fellow-workmen, at the head of industrial departments in
smaller schools planned after the order of the Tuskegee Institute;
preaching among the people, trying to clear their minds of ignorance
and superstition, and seeking to raise the standard of the ministry of
which they form a part; teaching in remote country districts, probably
for salaries hardly more than sufficient to pay their board, perhaps
building with their own hands the schoolhouse they have induced the
people to assist in erecting; on their own little pieces of land
farming after the improved methods they learned at school; nursing,
sewing, caring for their own homes and children--all, we trust, many,
we know--lights in the communities in which they reside and living
embodiments of the principles for which the beloved parent institution
stands.
The aim has always been to have the instructors at Tuskegee persons
of ability; frequently they have been also persons of considerable
reputation. One of the most remarkable characters ever connected with
the school and the one to whom, more than to any other, with the
exception of Mr. Washington himself, is due Tuskegee's phenomenal
progress, was Mrs. Olivia Davidson Washington, the now deceased wife
of the principal. She was Mr. Washington's assistant almost from the
first, and being a woman of great enthusiasm, earnestness, and fixity
of purpose, and being, besides, widely and favorably known in the
North where she received her education, she made many friends for the
institution, and brought to it many gifts.
Mrs. Warren Logan, who is yet teaching in the school, was associated
very early in the work with Mr. Washington and Miss Davidson, she
and Miss Davidson being for some time the only women teachers in the
school. Mrs. Logan helped to train many of the teachers who have gone
out from Tuskegee, and has done other work in that line, having been
appointed at various times to hold teachers' institutes in different
parts of Alabama and of Georgia.
Mr. Logan, the secretary and treasurer, holds a position in the
institution second in importance only to that of the principal, and has
proved his worth by long years of faithful service. The head teacher,
Mr. Nathan B. Young, is a graduate of Oberlin College; he is a close
student and a man of recognized scholarship.
Mr. R. R. Taylor, who is in charge of the department of architectural
and mechanical drawing, was graduated from the Boston School of
Technology.
Rev. E. J. Penney, at the head of the Phelps Hall Bible Training
School, is of the Yale Divinity School.
Prof. J. W. Hoffman, an agricultural specialist, is a member of the
American Academy of Natural Sciences, and of several English and
continental scientific bodies.
At one time Miss Hallie Quinn Brown, the noted elocutionist, served as
lady principal.
Dr. Tanner's talented daughter, Dr. Hallie Tanner Dillon, was resident
physician until she married, and her husband accepted the presidency of
Allen University in South Carolina.
Something may be judged of Mrs. Booker T. Washington from what has been
already told of her work among the women. She is now more widely known,
perhaps, as the President of the National Federation of Afro-American
Women; but it is in the State of Alabama, the heart of the Black Belt,
where her influence is really exerted and felt, as it can be exerted
and felt nowhere else. Mrs. Washington is a very strong character, and
is truly a helpmeet for the husband who has chosen her.
Of Mr. Washington, the whole country knows how he struggled for an
education at Hampton, was selected by General Armstrong to take charge
of the work at Tuskegee, and with one bound has leaped to the front,
making himself the most prominent figure among living colored men and
his school the greatest educational influence in the South at the
present day.
This brief mention gives some idea of the status of the men and women
who compose the teaching force of the school at Tuskegee. The best
talent is none too good for such work. The school is in the centre of
a vast Negro population, where the blacks outnumber the whites three to
one. Here are unparalleled opportunities for helping the masses of the
people; and in their redemption, even more than in the higher education
of a gifted few, the welfare of the country is involved.
NORMAL.
While the State Normal and Industrial School, at Normal, Alabama, has
made little display through the public prints, it is a fact that it
is doing a great work for Negro Education, and stands among the best
schools of the land.
This institution, like many others in the South, is the work of
sacrifice and charity. The early teachers taught for a bare living in
order to make the school a fixture. Prof. Councill, the founder and
president of the school, gave his entire earnings for more than ten
years to the work. The documents which the teachers signed, donating
their salaries to the cause of education of the Negro race, is a part
of the records of the institution, and a witness of their devotion and
consecration to the work.
[Illustration: OLD SLAVE CABIN--PRESIDENT'S OFFICE, 1891-94.]
The school began its existence in the city of Huntsville, Ala., May 1,
1875. It was first taught in a little church, and then in rented houses
about the city until, September 1, 1882, a beautiful lot consisting of
five acres of land, on which stood several buildings, was purchased and
the school permanently located.
[Illustration: ONLY SCHOOL PROF. COUNCILL EVER ATTENDED.]
Beginning May 1, 1875, with not one dollar in property, only one
teacher, nineteen pupils, annual income of $1,000, in 1878, its work
was so satisfactory that the annual appropriation was increased to
$2,000, and it then had four teachers and over 200 pupils. The Peabody
and Slater funds made liberal contributions to its support. In 1884,
the Alabama Legislature increased the annual appropriation to $4,000,
the city of Huntsville gave aid, and warm friends, North and South,
contributed liberally. The old buildings on the grounds were improved,
and by 1890, two large handsome brick buildings, one large frame
dormitory for young men, and a commodious industrial building had
been erected and fitted up; the faculty had been increased to eleven
teachers, and more than 300 students were receiving instruction in a
thorough Normal Course and in important industries. The Legislature
of Alabama, in further recognition of the merits of this institution,
selected it as the recipient of that portion of the Congressional grant
under act approved August 30, 1890, known as the Morrill Fund "for the
more complete endowment and maintenance of colleges for the benefit
of agriculture and the mechanic arts," given to Alabama for Negro
Education. This action of the Legislature gave new force and broader
scope to the work. It was seen that larger quarters were necessary,
that the beautiful grounds, handsome buildings supplied with gas and
water, must be given up and the school removed from Huntsville to some
suitable place near by. A great many locations were offered, and,
after due consideration, the present location was purchased. Palmer
Hall and Seay Hall, a barn and a dairy were erected and the session
opened for 1891-2, September 1, in its new quarters--three months
after the closing of the session, June 1, 1891. The new location was
commonly known as Green Bottom Inn, or Connally Race-Track. It has
an interesting history, as old almost as the State itself. There once
stood upon these grounds a famous inn, a large distillery, grog-shop,
slave cabins, rows of stables in which were kept the great trotting
horses of fifty years ago, while in the beautiful valley, circling at
the foot of the hill, was the race-course, where thousands of dollars
were lost and won. Stretching far away to the south, west and north
of the hill (now Normal) are broad fields wherein worked hundreds of
Africa's dusky sons, filling the air with merry songs accompanying
plow or hoe, or with silent prayers to heaven for deliverance from
bondage. Here men, as well as horses, were bought and sold, and often
blood was drawn from human veins by the lash like the red wine from
bright decanters. But what a change! The famous old inn is no more.
The distillery has crumbled to dust. Not a vestige of those stables
remain. The old grog-shop, too, has gone forever. However,
"There are still some few remaining,
Who remind us of the past."
[Illustration: PRESIDENT'S OFFICE, 1895.]
The beautiful mountains and the same broad fields, made more beautiful
by Freedom's touch, still stretch far, far away; the race-course
is gone, but a little higher up the hillside is a road along which
thousands of slaves have passed from the Carolinas and Virginia to
the bottoms of the Mississippi, and the road now is a main street of
Normal; four of the old slave cabins remain, one of which for three
years served as the president's office and three repaired and occupied
by teachers and their families; the great old gin-house, built of logs,
where so many slaves trembled at the reckoning evening hour, now used
as Normal's blacksmith shop, wheelwright shop, broom factory, mattress
factory; the old log barn, repaired, and with additions, serving as
Normal's laundry; the little saddle house whose framework is put
together entirely with pegs instead of nails, now serves as barber
shop; the carriage house, which has served as sewing room and printing
office; and last the grand old residence of the "lord of the manor,"
partly of stone (walls three feet thick) and partly of wood covered
with cedar shingles, under a heavy coating of moss, containing in all
eight rooms. In this typical, hospitable Southern home, the great
Andrew Jackson, once President of the United States, was entertained
when he attended the races and bet his eagles on the trotters. This
home is now the residence of the President of Normal who was himself a
slave. The mutations of time!
[Illustration: ANTE-BELLUM HOME, NOW PRESIDENT'S RESIDENCE.]
The income is derived from the State of Alabama, U. S. Government
(Morrill Fund), and charitable sources. This is steadily increasing
every year.
Since the organization, the institution has sent forth 218 graduates
from its various departments. Besides these graduates, there are
hundreds of undergraduates doing great work among thousands of the
Negro population of the country.
In the Literary Department of Normal there are six well organized
schools or courses of study, to wit:
1. Normal or Professional School, with a course of three years.
2. Normal Preparatory School, two years.
3. Model School, four years.
4. Bible Training School, two years.
5. School of Music--Instrumental and Vocal.
6. Business Course, including Bookkeeping, Shorthand, Type-writing,
Telegraphy and Commercial Law.
Normal has, also, a liberal Post-Graduate Course.
[Illustration: CLASS IN MECHANICAL DRAWING.]
The Industrial Department has twenty schools or courses, from one
to three years, in Cooking, Sewing, Sick Nursing, Laundering,
Housekeeping, Network, Blacksmithing, House Carpentry, Wheelwright,
Cabinet-making, Shoe-making, Painting, Printing, Broom-making,
Mattress-making, Plumbing, Agriculture, Horticulture, Dairy Farming,
Stock Raising.
Normal is fortunate in her abundant water supply.
The school has an excellent laboratory, and a very good library
consisting of choice books, and a reading room, wherein are some of the
best magazines and journals of the country.
There are quite a number of Religious Societies which are doing much
good.
There are more than twenty buildings of various sizes and uses upon the
grounds.
A post-office has been established on the Elora branch of the N. C.
& St. L. R. R., right at the school, and the station has been named
Normal, Alabama, in honor of the school. Fearns is the name of the
station on the M. & C. R. R., situated also on the school grounds.
Normal does registry and money-order business. It has also an express
office and telegraph station.
All work, including building, repairing, blacksmithing, wheelwrighting,
painting, broom-making, printing, shoe-making, mattress-making,
farming, cooking, dining-room and general house-work, is performed by
the students.
[Illustration: SCENE IN SHOE FACTORY.]
The shops are well supplied with ordinary machinery and tools.
The farm comprises about 200 acres of land, on which are cultivated for
general and experimental purposes many varieties of cotton, grain, and
all kinds of vegetables. The farm is well stocked with mules, horses,
Devon, Holstein and Jersey cows, best breeds of hogs and poultry;
vehicles and implements of every kind.
The various fruits of this section are found in the orchards of the
farm.
The healthfulness of this entire section is generally known. But
this school is particularly favored in this regard on account of
its excellent location and surroundings. Normal is 1,200 feet above
sea-level, with a natural drainage unsurpassed in the United States.
The atmosphere is pure and bracing at all times.
Very few of the students of Normal received other help than a chance to
work out their destinies.
The teachers contribute a portion of their salaries to our "Student Aid
Fund" and other causes for the promotion of the work.
The work of elevating the plantation life of the Negro is one of the
most important connected with the work of education in the South. It
is hard for the schools to reach these people. Hence the importance
of special effort in this direction. Normal has organized to meet the
demand. Young women are trained especially for this work. Those who
will dedicate their lives to this work on the plantation, to work
regardless of pay, have all of their expenses paid in school while they
are in preparation. Normal hopes to do much in this line.
[Illustration: A CLASS IN COOKING.]
The young men are also organized for Sunday-school Mission Work.
Many of them walk five to ten miles every Sabbath, to organize and
conduct Sunday schools. Everywhere they go, school-houses are built and
repaired, homes are refined and general intelligence scattered among
the people. The ingenuity displayed by these young men to overcome the
poverty which confronts them in their work is quite remarkable. One
of them bought Sunday-school literature and started a library, on a
collection of one egg each Sunday, from those who could afford to make
such a contribution.
The U. S. Government has made Normal a Weather Service Station, and
the signals are read by the farmers for miles away. Normal has a brass
band, also an excellent string band.
Prof. W. H. Councill owns a farm adjoining Normal, and occupying
a portion of the triangle between the two great railroad lines
approaching each other after passing on either side of Normal. He has
laid a portion of this land off in lots, streets, avenues, alleys,
and gives the odd numbers to _bona fide_ settlers, who will build a
specified house, and subscribe to certain other conditions, such as
keeping up fences, streets, sidewalks, etc. Men who can turn their
brains and muscles into things of use are encouraged to settle here.
PRESIDENT W. H. COUNCILL.
W. H. Councill was born in Fayetteville, N. C., in 1848, and brought
to Alabama by the traders in 1857, through the famous Richmond Slave
Pen. He is a self-made man, having had only few school advantages.
He attended one of the first schools opened by kind Northern friends
at Stevenson, Ala., in 1865. Here he remained about three years, and
this is the basis of his education. He has been a close and earnest
student ever since, often spending much of the night in study. He has
accumulated quite an excellent library and the best books of the best
masters are his constant companions, as well as a large supply of the
best current literature. By private instruction and almost incessant
study, he gained a fair knowledge of some of the languages, higher
mathematics and the sciences. He read law and was admitted to the
Supreme Court of Alabama in 1883. But he has never left the profession
of teaching for a day, although flattering political positions have
been held out to him. He has occupied high positions in church and
other religious, temperance and charitable organizations, and has
no mean standing as a public speaker. And thus by earnest toil,
self-denial, hard study, he has made himself, built up one of the
largest institutions in the South and educated scores of young people
_at his own expense_.
[Illustration: PROF. W. H. COUNCILL,
_Principal of State Normal and Industrial School, Normal, Ala._]
Just before closing this sketch, I want to say that I regard Mr.
Councill as being one of the most remarkable colored men in the United
States to-day. I have known him for a great many years and I recognize
in him the true, honest man--in every sense a _man_.