NOTE 12
(Chapter VII, page [197])
Notable among the founders of schools and parishes was John W. Perry, who spent his life in Tarboro, N. C., as rector, founder of a parochial school, and missionary over a wide area. From his school went his gifted son, now Principal of St. Athanasius’, Brunswick, Ga. Another is the Rev. James S. Russell, D. D., founder of St. Paul’s School and many missions, and Archdeacon of Southern Virginia. Had it not been for St. Augustine’s, and St. Paul’s, the Church would be barren indeed of workers. Still another is the Rev. Hutchins C. Bishop, whose strong personality has quickened the life of the negro churches of New York, and helped to treble their growth. Others are the Rev. Henry S. McDuffy, long a worker in North Carolina, now a fine spiritual power, with Dr. Henry Phillips, in the life of Philadelphia; the Rev. Primus B. Alston, founder of the parish and school in Charlotte, N. C., the soldier of steadfast faith and loyalty; the Rev. Geo. F. Bragg, a church-builder in his first years in Virginia, and for thirty years rector of old St. James’, Baltimore, whose intense love for the Church has been contagious, and whose loyalty to his race has been an inspiration to them; the Rev. Geo. G. Middleton, who built his church and rectory in Natchez, Miss., for he was a carpenter and followed his Master in trade and calling; the Rev. William V. Tunnell, Warden and Professor in King Hall and rector of St. Phillips, Washington, an inspiring teacher in classroom and parish; the Rt. Rev. Henry B. Delaney, D. D., Dean of St. Augustine’s Raleigh, his Alma Mater, Archdeacon of negro work, and, since 1918, Suffragan Bishop of N. C., and acting in that office for all the Carolinas; the Rev. Dr. W. T. Hermitage who served nearly all his ministry in North Carolina, building churches and giving a son to the ministry.
Education was bringing about new class relationships within the negro race itself as well as between the Negroes and the Whites; and upon these men and their associates devolved the task of adjusting these relationships. Wisely, with Christian patience and grace and faith, have they accepted the call and met the difficult duties. Looking back upon these forty years, it must fill the student of the story with admiration for these sane, steady, Christian leaders. Reflecting upon the great difficulties which beset them, surely only the most profound sympathy must be felt.