This chapter will be devoted to the work of the Christian Church. The
schools operated by that church in the interest of the race are not as
numerous nor as large as other connectional institutions, but what they
have are doing a splendid work.
FRANKLINTON CHRISTIAN COLLEGE.
Franklinton Christian College is situated in Franklinton, Franklin
County, North Carolina, on the Seaboard Air-Line Railroad, twenty-seven
miles northeast from the city of Raleigh. The college buildings are on
high ground, which is well drained; and there is a grove of beautiful
oak trees on the campus, which, with other immediate surroundings,
makes the location one of special attraction.
The college entered on its mission of education in 1878 as a common
school. Professor Henry E. Long was placed in charge, and the interest
taken in the new movement by the colored people was so general that an
assistant teacher was employed to aid Professor Long in his work. In
1880 Rev. George Young, of Carlisle, New York, was appointed principal
of the school, under the direction of Rev. J. P. Watson, D. D., who
was at that time Secretary of the Children's Mission. It was during
the first year of Professor Young's administration of the school that
the college building was erected and the school formally opened under
the name, "The Franklinton Theological and Literary Institute." The
institute remained under the supervision of the Secretary of Missions
until the meeting of the American Christian Convention in 1886. The
convention at that meeting received the institute to its care, and
appointed a board of control to take direct supervision of its work and
interests. The Board of Control obtained a charter for the institute
in 1890, and its name was changed to Franklinton Christian College. In
this, its corporate name, the college has authority to give diplomas
and confer degrees. It may be said of the college that its work has
from the first been progressive in character. Its constant aim has been
to assist the student to high moral and intellectual attainments.
In addition to the regular course of studies taught they have some
industrial work in the way of sewing and fancy work for the girls, and
it is hoped that this department will soon be extended to include all
that is essential to good housekeeping and home decoration. Rev. Zenas
A. Poste is president, and is assisted by five other teachers.
THE LOUISVILLE CHRISTIAN BIBLE SCHOOL
Is a missionary school, inaugurated by the General Christian
Missionary Convention, now the American Christian Missionary Society:
Headquarters, Cincinnati, Ohio, and under the immediate supervision
of the Board of Negro Education and Evangelization: Headquarters,
Louisville, Kentucky.
While it is not the present purpose of the school to maintain classes
in those branches of study which do not properly constitute part of a
theological course in English; yet, to meet the needs of such students
as have not had the advantage of proper instruction in the subjects of
Course I, classes will be maintained, continuously in a number of them,
and in others will be formed from time to time as the necessity may
arise.
The purpose of the school is to do what it can in supplying one of the
greatest needs of the colored people of this county, namely, preachers
and other religious workers of their own race, who shall be deeply
imbued with the knowledge and spirit of the Word of God. In doing
this work it is not the aim of the school to give extended courses
of instruction in anything save in the English Scriptures. These it
proposes to teach as thoroughly as possible to colored candidates for
the ministry, whether, in the common use of the terms, such candidates
be educated or uneducated.
Adoniram Judson Thomson, A. M., is principal. He impressed me as a
very fine man, who is much interested in the elevation of the colored
people. Prof. Thomson is assisted by Prof. Octavius Singleton, B. L.,
who is a very able young man and a credit to the race.
THE SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE.
The plantation upon which the Southern Christian Institute is located
contains eight hundred acres of land, being a mile and a quarter long
by a mile wide. It is located on the Big Black River, on the direct
road between Jackson and Vicksburg, being twenty-five miles from
the former and eighteen miles from the latter. It is two miles from
Edwards, which is its postoffice. The name of the plantation is Mount
Beulah. The Vicksburg and Meridian Railroad passes directly through
the plantation, in which there is a flag station. It is only six miles
from the famous battlefield of Champion Hill, and Pemberton's soldiers
retreated directly across it; and the battle of the "Big Black" was
fought partly upon it. The east end of the plantation is rolling,
containing most of the timber and all the buildings connected with the
institution: the old plantation building, to which has been added the
dining-room, kitchen and office, and a girls' dormitory; a separate
building for schoolhouse and boys' dormitory; a barn and eight cabins,
six of which are located at this end of the plantation. The timber is
nearly all of the hard-wood variety, such as oak, hickory, sweet gum,
beech, etc. All rough-bark trees are covered with long festoons of
Spanish moss. This part of the plantation has a beautiful situation
on a bluff, which rises about fifty feet from the river. The western
part of the plantation, containing about five hundred acres, is level,
but is located in what is called the second river bottom, and hence is
never overflowed.
The plantation contains such fertile soil, and has such a location,
that all the crops that are raised in the North can be raised here to
advantage.
J. B. Lehman, President, has six assistant teachers, while A. T. Ross
is superintendent of Industrial Department, and Mrs. A. T. Ross is
matron of the institution. The enrollment of the school now reaches
125. We have every reason to believe that it will be much larger
the coming year. The course of instruction is divided into Primary,
Normal, Classical, Biblical, and Industrial Departments. The Industrial
Department includes practical housekeeping, sewing, broom-making, the
making of molasses from sugar-cane, farming, fruit-canning, carpentry,
and printing, and the new machinery plant will add new industries.
THE LUM GRADED SCHOOL AT LUM, ALA.
The Lum Graded School was started four years ago, with Robert Brooks
as principal. Robert Brooks was educated at the Southern Christian
Institute, completing the full course there. He took the Alabama
teachers' examination, receiving the highest certificate given, and
then returned to his home in Lowndes County, Alabama, and opened
a school in a miserable shanty at Lum. In this undertaking he was
encouraged and directed, and to a small extent aided financially, by
the Board of Negro Education and Evangelization. The school having this
humble origin is now known to us and through all the section of the
country where it is located as "The Lum Graded School," and last year
enrolled one hundred and eleven pupils.