STATE SCHOOLS AND CALHOUN SETTLEMENT--VIRGINIA NORMAL AND COLLEGIATE
INSTITUTE.
[Illustration: STATE NORMAL INSTITUTE, PETERSBURG, VA.]
This is an institution supported by the State of Virginia for the
education of the colored youth. The aim of the institution is to
impart knowledge, discipline the mind and train the hand and heart,
so that those who leave its walls shall be better prepared for the
diversified duties of life. In the Normal course of three years, the
training has special reference to preparing the student to become a
successful teacher. It is to this department that most of the students
naturally find their way. This course is comprehensive and endeavors to
give all that is essential to fit their graduates to teach any of the
public schools of Virginia. Although the course covers a wide field,
they endeavor to so drill the student in the branches taught that his
knowledge is thorough, and not a mere smattering. Considerable time is
given to actual teaching of little children under the supervision of
the Model School teacher.
[Illustration: JAMES HUGO JOHNSTON.]
The college course is designed to give a higher and broader culture
to those of their youth who are able to remain longer in school, or
desire to pursue the professions. This course covers four years. The
school is young, and quality, not quantity or number, being their
standard of success, they have thus far labored to prepare thoroughly
those who have taken the college studies before admitting them to this
department. Their curriculum will compare favorably with the best. The
advantages here offered for obtaining a college education at small cost
are unparalleled.
James Hugo Johnston, A. M., Ph. D., president and Professor of
Psychology and Moral Science, is indeed a self-made man. His first
work in life was that of a newsboy on the streets of Richmond. In
fact he kept his paper route for some time after he began teaching in
the public schools of that city. His most excellent work as president
of the institute at Petersburg places him among the most prominent
educators of his race. He has under him a very able set of teachers.
CALHOUN COLORED SCHOOL
Is a school and social settlement in the blackest belt county of
Alabama. Opened and incorporated, 1892. Trustees: Hon. John Bigelow,
President, New York, N. Y.; Mr. B. T. Washington, Vice-President,
Tuskegee, Ala.; Mr. R. P. Hallowell, Auditor, Boston, Mass.; Rev. Pitt
Dillingham, Secretary, Calhoun, Ala.; Miss C. R. Thorn, Treasurer,
Calhoun, Ala.; Rev. H. B. Frissell, D. D., Hampton, Va.; Col. T. W.
Higginson, Cambridge, Mass.; Mr. C. F. Dunbar, Buffalo, N. Y.; Rev.
Silas Jones, Mount Meigs, Ala. Principals: Rev. Pitt Dillingham and
Miss C. R. Thorn.
The school is located at Calhoun, Lowndes Co., Alabama, on Louisville
and Nashville R. R., 28 miles southwest of Montgomery. It is a one-room
cabin and crop-mortgage region.
The plant is a farm of 100 acres, with stock and tools, eleven
buildings, namely, two schoolhouses, two dormitories, three teachers'
cottages, office, industrial building, barn and farmhouse.
Students number 350 and upwards; 46 boarding students; 32 of the 46
work all day and attend night school. Three hundred and more from the
cabins of the county.
Their teaching staff is seven white teachers from the North, four
colored teachers from Hampton, one graduate of Calhoun, five other
workers--seventeen in all.
The departments are Academic--with Kindergarten and eight years' Common
School Course. Industrial--with Agriculture for boys and Domestic
Training for girls.
Our graded school makes a natural centre for community-life. Calhoun is
in the midst of 28,000 plantation negroes. It lives in touch with all
the life of its township and county, and limits its aim to this social
group.
They have Farmers' Conferences, Mothers' Meetings, Sunday and Mission
Services. Cabin, School, Church and Plantation Visiting. Agricultural
Fairs, Teachers' Institutes, Celebration of National Holidays, and
Christian Festivals. Thrift and Land Buying Meetings, Sociological
Study of the County, etc.
To change the crop-mortgage peon into an American small farmer, with
land and home of his own, is our problem and opportunity. "The family
is the foundation of the nation."
From three to four thousand acres are being bought at $6 and $7 an
acre. 75 families (500 individuals) are being planted near the school.
A Southern white planter and neighbor is assisting.
Calhoun believes in the educational and religious value of work and
property. It stands for a vital and practical Christianity.
In my opinion the Calhoun School and Social Settlement is based on
the right principle to solve the so-called race problem. When the
colored people in the South own their own homes, as they can under the
system that has been established at Calhoun, they will not only be
more independent, but more prosperous, and, as a result of the very
practical training given there, they will not only send out farmers,
but teachers, mechanics, and merchants as well. As colored men are able
to start stores in the South they will be able to furnish employment to
graduates from such schools as clerks and bookkeepers. I am sure that
if the people in the North could only understand what a real blessing
such an institution is to the South, it would, at least, not want for
means to carry on its wonderful work.
STATE NORMAL SCHOOL FOR COLORED PERSONS AT FRANKFORT, KY.
The State Normal School is situated about one and one-half miles from
Frankfort on a beautiful hill overlooking the city. The site comprises
about thirty acres of tillable land and meadow, upon which are located
the main school building, with recitation-room and chapel, a new
mechanical shop, forty feet by sixty feet, with modern equipments and
furnishings, the "Ladies' Hall," recently built, and cottages for the
resident professors. Our students are free from the many temptations
and social demands incident to those who attend school in a city.
Our location, being "elevated, healthful, and delightful," renders our
students less liable to malaria and other diseases due to impurities,
both in the water and in the atmosphere.
Nothing in our power will be neglected which can add to the mental,
moral, and manual training of our students, or which can in the least
contribute to their comfort and general welfare.
"The object" of this State Normal School, established and maintained by
Act of the General Assembly, "shall be the preparation of teachers for
teaching in the Colored Public Schools of Kentucky."
I have had the pleasure of making a visit to this school, and was very
well impressed with the institution. I found there an able body of
teachers and a very fine-looking and intelligent class of students.
COLORED NORMAL, INDUSTRIAL, AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE OF
SOUTH CAROLINA.
This school is located at Orangeburg, S. C., and in my opinion is
one of the best State schools in the South for the education of the
colored youth. They have very excellent buildings, not only good, but
beautiful. The course of study there is, as in all State schools,
normal. Their object is to prepare teachers for the public schools of
the State. Many students, however, attend there who do not expect to
teach. Special attention is given to the industrial training of both
boys and girls. The wood shop has, I think, about the best equipment in
the way of tools and up-to-date machinery I saw in any of the Southern
schools. The attendance is large; in fact, they often have to send
students away for want of room. Hon. Thos. E. Miller, L.L. D., who is
president, I found a very pleasant and able man. He is assisted by
a strong force of competent teachers, who have been educated in the
best schools of our country. I am sure the people at large will agree
with me in saying that South Carolina deserves great credit for the
establishment of such an excellent school for the race.
LINCOLN INSTITUTE.
Lincoln Institute is located at Jefferson City, Mo., and had its origin
in a fund of $6,379, contributed by the 62d and 65th Regiments of U.
S. Colored Infantry, when discharged from service in January, 1865, of
which the 62d gave $5,000. The only condition of the gift was that a
school be established in Missouri open to the colored people.
The Board of Trustees, ten in number, was organized on June 25, 1865,
and the school was opened September 17, 1866.
Mr. R. B. Foster was principal for the first two years, Mr. W. H. Payne
the third year, and Mr. Foster again for two years. During all this
time the school was taught in rented buildings, and had many obstacles
to meet.
In June, 1871, the main building was completed. It was a substantial
brick building, 60 × 70 feet, three stories, conveniently arranged,
and eligibly located upon a prominent hill, just outside the limits of
Jefferson City, commanding a view of a large part of it. The grounds
contain twenty acres.
"The Legislature of 1879 appropriated $15,000 for the support of
the institute, provided $5,000 should be applied to the payment of
its indebtedness. This appropriation was contained in the general
appropriation bill, and was a grant to a corporation managing a
charity. The Constitution provides: 'The General Assembly shall have
no power to make any grant * * * * * * of public money or thing of
value to any individual, association of individuals, municipal, or
other corporation whatever.' The grant was in violation of that part
of the Constitution just quoted." Governor Phelps, from whose message
to the Legislature the above is taken, held the bill until the Board
of Trustees met and unanimously voted to transfer the institute to
the State. The bill was immediately approved. This friendly act of
the late Governor enabled the trustees to pay every dollar of the
debt which for several years had embarrassed them, and to place the
institute on a more permanent basis.
Since the institute became a State school, the Legislature has not
only made large appropriations for its maintenance, but has also given
money to erect dormitories, to purchase scientific apparatus, to make
additions to the library and repair the main building.
By an act of the Thirty-fourth General Assembly a college and a college
preparatory school were established in connection with the institute.
The same Assembly also passed an act which provides that the Normal
diplomas shall entitle their holders to teach in the schools of the
State without further examination; also that the graded certificates,
which are granted upon the completion of the two years' course, shall
entitle their holders to teach the several branches therein named for
a period of two years from the day of graduation. Provision is made in
the act for annulling these diplomas and certificates whenever it is
found to be necessary.
By an act of the Thirty-sixth General Assembly an industrial department
was established in connection with the institute.
There is no doubt but that Lincoln Institute is one of the best
equipped State schools in the country for the education of colored
people. Prof. J. H. Jackson, A. B., A. M., a graduate from Berea
College, is President of Lincoln Institute. President Jackson has just
entered upon the first year of his presidency of the institution, and
it is fitting that a sketch of his life, though brief and inadequate,
should be given to our readers.
[Illustration: PROF. J. H. JACKSON, A. B., A. M.]
Having been born in Kentucky, his early education was in the public
schools of that old Blue-Grass State. Having the advantages that many
others had not, he entered Berea College soon after he completed
the public school course, and was graduated in June, 1874, with
high honors, having the distinction of being the first Negro to be
graduated in Kentucky. After his graduation, he taught for a number of
years in the public schools of Lexington, Ky.
Prof. Jackson had a desire to retire from school life. He left Kentucky
in 1881, and went to Kansas, to engage in tilling the soil. After
reaching Kansas City, however, he was called to the principalship
of the Lincoln High School in that city. He remained there until
1887, when he was recalled to Kentucky to take charge of the State
Normal, located at Frankfort. Prof. Jackson remained at the head
of that institution until June, 1898, when he was elected to his
present position, to which he comes with ripe experience and scholarly
attainments.
Few men are better fitted to take charge of such a school as Lincoln
Institute than Prof. Jackson, and the people of Missouri have reason to
be proud of the fact that he has been secured.