_Continuation of Independent Schools._
"INSTITUTE FOR COLORED YOUTH."
Philadelphia is known for her facilities for education. Few American
cities are better equipped with schools, public and private--free
schools and those in which tuition fees are demanded--schools devoted
to languages, schools devoted to art. In short, everything that one
might desire as a means for obtaining an education in any known branch
is provided for the student, and the road to knowledge is made about as
easy as it can possibly be made.
But of all the schools provided for the instruction of children, youths
and adults, none is of greater importance, perhaps, than that known as
the "_Institute for Colored Youth_." Strange to say, it had its origin
in the kindly forethought of one who had once been a slave-holder.
In the year 1832 Richard Humphreys, a native of the West Indies, but
at that time a citizen of Philadelphia, died, leaving $10,000 to
found an institution, "having," as he worded it, "for its object the
benevolent design of instructing the descendants of the African race
in school-learning, in the various branches of the mechanic arts and
trades, and in agriculture, in order to prepare, fit and qualify them
to act as teachers."
This sum was left with the Society of Friends (of which sect he was a
member), with the provision that this society should have the care of
the institution. In accordance with this bequest and stipulation, in
1837 the "Institute" was founded, the sum of money left for the purpose
amounting at this time, through careful investment, to about $13,300.
The charter was not obtained from the State of Pennsylvania until 1842.
Shortly after this the sum of $18,000 was left by another Friend for
educational purposes, which was given to further the interests of the
Institute.
From time to time, different sums were bequeathed and bestowed for
this enterprise by philanthropic people until, in 1851, buildings were
erected on Lombard street for the permanent establishment of this
institution of learning, in which location it remained until 1866. At
that time it had become clearly evident that the enterprise had reached
such proportions that more ample and convenient accommodations were
urgently required. A movement, therefore, was set on foot to accomplish
the work, if possible, and a sufficient number of interested friends
were found to erect the large and commodious building now situated on
Bainbridge street, above Ninth, at a cost of $40,000, including the
ground.
The officers and committees of the corporation are men belonging to the
Society of Friends, but most of the teachers are women who have worked
hard to obtain the education necessary to make them capable instructors
of their own race. The principal, Mrs. Fanny L. Jackson Coppin, whose
attainments fit her for the principalship of any of the highest grade
schools, has received an education that would graduate her from any of
our first-class colleges. Besides this she is a woman of strong common
sense. The following persons are the instructors:
Principal, Fanny L. Jackson Coppin; principal of the female department,
Frazelia Campbell; teacher of natural and physical science, Edward
A. Bouchet; teachers of English studies, Charles L. Moore, Charlotte
Bassett, Julia F. Jones, Fanny A. Ramsey; teacher of sewing, Martha F.
Minton; teacher of drawing, Katharine H. Ringwalt.
One splendid feature of this school is its practicality, an instance of
which is shown in the fact that the boys are taught to sew as well as
the girls. Realizing that the time will probably come to most of them
when they will be obliged to do for themselves in every way, they are
taught sewing on buttons, patching, darning and buttonhole-making. A
boy who goes out from the Institute need never have his clothes in a
dilapidated condition because he has no "women folks" to take care of
them.
"Heed life's demands" is the watchword of the principal, and everything
is made to conserve to that idea. Again, with this in mind, there is
established in connection with the regular school of education what
is known as a "kitchen garden." In this the little girls are taught
housework in a limited way. They learn to sweep and scrub and make beds
and all the rest of that kind of work, not only in a practical way, but
from a common-sense point of view.
They are not merely taught that part of sweeping a room is wiping the
finger-marks off of the doors, but they learn that when they bring
the pail in for that purpose they must also bring with them a piece of
carpet, or some such thing, upon which to set the pail and thus prevent
an ugly ring or splashes upon the carpet or matting upon the floor.
This is indeed a practical education. "We have this kitchen garden,"
says the principal, "for many of our pupils leave before they have
completed the school course to go out to service or to remain at home.
When they go from us they are not ignorant of the duties which await
them."
In connection with the Institute there is an industrial department open
to adults on three evenings of the week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Men who are otherwise employed through the day can come here to learn
bricklaying, carpentry, painting, shoemaking, tailoring, plastering
and shorthand and typewriting. This part of the school is under the
supervision of George Astley, an instructor in the Manual Training
School at Seventeenth and Wood streets. For women, three afternoons in
the week are given; there are lessons in dressmaking, millinery and
cooking, under the following instructors: Ida A. Burrell, instructor in
dressmaking; M. Anna Earns, instructor in cooking.
There are other schools supported by the Friends, not only in the State
of Pennsylvania, but in other States. Each one of these schools is well
managed and is well supported. I am sorry that I cannot devote more
space to this work, for it is so helpful and so characteristic of the
Quakers.
MRS. FANNY L. JACKSON COPPIN.
[Illustration: MRS. FANNY L. JACKSON COPPIN.]
Mrs. Fanny L. Jackson Coppin was born in Washington, D. C., and was
educated at Oberlin University, Oberlin, Ohio, from which institution
she graduated. In 1865, she came, by invitation, to Philadelphia,
Pa., and accepted a position as teacher in the "Institute for Colored
Youth," where she has taught constantly ever since; for the past
twenty-eight years she has filled the position of principal. Under her
management the Industrial Department was originated and is now an
important part of the work of this splendid school. She is also the
originator of the "Woman's Exchange."
While there are a great many persons in Philadelphia who know and
admire Mrs. Coppin for her great executive ability, few really know
what a remarkable woman she is. And yet but a brief conversation with
her, or a few moments contact and association, suffices to convince any
one that she is not only a woman of marked intellectual power, but one
of a wide and diverse scope of knowledge, both abstruse and applied.
She is a credit to womankind and while her work as a teacher has been
among colored people, few women are better known as educators and few
if any schools have done a better work in the interest of the race,
than the one she is at the head of. I am told that the "Institute for
Colored Youth" was in the first place started as an experiment, because
it was generally believed that the Negro could not master the higher
branches of education. But in that the colored youth has proven quite
as able as the whites and the results have been most satisfactory.
CAMP NELSON ACADEMY.
Camp Nelson Academy is situated in Jessimine Co., Ky., near
Nicholasville, and is midway between Lexington and Danville.
The academy has one good school building and a dormitory 30 × 60, three
stories high.
To the academy lot is added one hundred and fifteen acres of land, as
endowment, thus far.
The design is to establish a first-class Normal School with an
Industrial Department.
More lands are needed, and can be secured. The academy has a charter
from the State Legislature, by which the school is opened to all of
good moral character--colored or white.
Practically, at present, the school is colored. The buildings are
adjacent to the village of Camp Nelson, composed of colored citizens
who settled there immediately after the war.
Of the forty-four families in the village, forty-two have their own
homesteads.
The village has a charter from the State Legislature and no
intoxicating liquors are sold in it.
The situation is central, high, and beautiful. In the county of
Jessimine and the five counties adjacent there are over forty thousand
colored people. These with Christian culture and skilled labor could be
a great power for social well-being in that centre of the State.
Who will help uplift and save?
Mr. John G. Fee is President of the Board of Trustees of Camp Nelson
Academy, and much could be said about him that would be of interest to
the public. Few men have suffered more for the colored people than Mr.
Fee, not only in a social way, but he has suffered from mob-violence
because of the stand he took in favor of the race in their educational
interest and their rights as American citizens.
SCHOOL WORK IN WASHINGTON, D. C.
On my first visit to Washington, D. C., in 1892, I took advantage of
the opportunity offered me to study the school question in that city.
I shall ever feel grateful to Prof. G. F. T. Cook, for the kindness
shown me, in giving me useful information on that subject. Those who
regard the colored man incapable of looking after his own educational
interests, need only visit the public schools of Washington to have
his views very much changed. In the high school I found the greatest
interest. That building is under the control of Prof. F. L. Cardoso,
who has been for years a very useful man in the educational interest of
the race. He received a fine University training in Glasgow, Scotland,
before the war, and afterwards, I think, secured a scholarship at
Oxford. In the early days of freedom, he founded in the interest of the
A. M. A. Society what is known as Avery Institute, Charleston, S. C., a
school that has done grand work for the race.
At the High School, I met Mr. Hugh Brown, who is beyond doubt one
of the finest scholars in America, white or colored. He called my
attention to a phase of Negro education I knew nothing of. In the
department of Elementary Physics, he showed me a first-class telephone,
made entirely by colored students; the phone was then in use. I saw in
print a statement from Mr. Bell, of the Bell Telephone Co., in which
he said, "I regard this telephone, made entirely by these students,
as good as any I have ever tested." Mr. Brown also showed me quite a
number of electrical appliances, all made by students.
[Illustration: MRS. MARY C. TERRELL.]
For competent teachers, earnest men and women who are doing a noble
work for the elevation of the race, there are not, to my knowledge,
to be found anywhere in the United States a larger number than in
Washington, D. C.
One feature of the school work of Washington is the industrial
departments of the public schools.
I am endebted to Prof. G. F. T. Cook for these splendid observations,
and during my visit to Washington he told me much more that would make
not only interesting reading, but valuable study to those who are
seeking the truth as regards the educational forces in operation in
Washington for the improvement of the colored citizens. The noble work
of Prof. Cook is aided by the following persons who are supervising
principals: H. P. Montgomery, W. S. Montgomery, J. H. N. Waring, F. L.
Cardoso, Miss L. E. Moten, H. F. Grant, T. W. Hunster, J. H. Hill, Mrs.
M. B. Cook, Mrs. C. E. Syphax, Mrs. M. P. Evans.
I want to say in this connection, that Mrs. Mary C. Terrell is one of
the Board of Trustees of Public Schools for the District of Columbia,
and she is the first colored lady to be so honored in any city in the
United States to my knowledge. I present her portrait.
Mrs. Terrell is interested in every movement that will advance the
cause of colored people and especially colored women. I am told
that she has just been elected as President of the Federation of
Afro-American Women, and succeeds Mrs. Booker T. Washington, who was
the first president.
She is a graduate of Oberlin College, Ohio, and was at one time a
teacher at Wilberforce University, Ohio, where she was much loved.