CHAPTER XI.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.