CHAPTER XXX.
STATE SCHOOLS AND CALHOUN SETTLEMENT—VIRGINIA
NORMAL AND COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE.
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.
STATE NORMAL INSTITUTE, PETERSBURG, VA.
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.
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.
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.