BEACH INSTITUTE.
Its History——Its Importance——Its Year’s Work.
MR. B. F. KOONS, SAVANNAH, GA.
Soon after the war, schools for the Freedmen were opened at Savannah in army barracks. In due time a suitable building was erected, and the school continued under the auspices of the A. M. A. until 1874, when the city rented the building and assumed the responsibility of the school. This arrangement continued until February, 1878, when the building was surrendered and the city school removed. The day after it was thus left, a stable standing near took fire, and the flames soon reached the building and destroyed the upper part of it. It was at once determined to rebuild and resume the work, strictly under the Association. During the summer, Pastor Markham remained and superintended the construction of the new building. When we landed here late last September, it was approaching completion, and on the last day of the same month a new corps of teachers began the work of the year. On the first day over 60 applied for admission, and the number has gradually increased to 338, in all grades from the Normal down.
There has been nothing specially marked in the year’s work. It has been one of very quiet, faithful, persistent labor on the part of both teachers and pupils, and a reasonable degree of success has attended their efforts.
The following facts may throw light upon the need of such an institution in this city.
The facilities afforded by the city were not sufficient to fit the persevering pupils to become teachers and leaders among their people, hence the need of Beach Institute. The good accomplished by this school is of a double nature, for the re-opening of it has led the city, for the present, to add one year more to its course of study, and to the enterprising it is an avenue to higher schools and wider culture, and so to greater usefulness.
There are some very efficient teachers in the public schools, but their hands are tied, first by the limited course of study, and then by unusual restrictions on their religious influence. There are two schools for the colored people of the city. In former years the children have been turned away from these by the score for want of room, and even during the present year they have been refused admission in great numbers. We, too, have had all we could accommodate, and even more than we could do justice to with the present corps of five teachers.
One of these buildings was purchased by a wealthy citizen, and by him given to the School Board for a colored school, with the expressed stipulation that no religious exercises of any character should be permitted, not even the singing of “gospel hymns.” It is reported that the same gentleman contemplates the purchase of the other building, which is rented by the city now, and the presentation of the same to the city, and, we may reasonably conclude, with the same restrictions. These stipulations are displeasing to many of the colored people. Ignorant as some are, they feel the need of Christian training for their children. We do not doubt that this restraint is equally unwelcome to many of the School Board and citizens of the city, but as a corporation they are involved, and perhaps they are doing the best they can under the circumstances.
The Catholics have a small school for the colored people, but some of the parents (good Catholics) have applied for admission for their children to our school, saying, “I have concluded that the teaching of the Catechism and but little else is not an education for my child; I want something better.” It seems that the hold they are getting upon the colored people of Savannah is rather feeble.
That the position was well taken in re-establishing the Beach, there can be no doubt, for it was needed as a connecting link between the city schools and the University at Atlanta, as well as for the Christian training which it will be able to give to a large class of the youth of the city.
This week has been devoted to examinations and the closing work of the year. The greater part of the previous days were devoted to written work; but it had been announced that in the morning hours of to-day public oral examinations would be held. At an early hour a good number of parents and friends showed the interest they have in their children and the school by coming in to witness the day’s work. The morning was spent in the various rooms, many of the old people as well as the children showing a lively interest in the examinations. At twelve o’clock our commodious chapel was well filled by an attentive and appreciative audience, to witness the closing exercises of the school, which consisted of essays from the fine members of the normal class and recitations and music from the other departments. After a very enjoyable hour and a half in the chapel, the various grades passed to their rooms, the promotions were read, the school dismissed, the good-byes said, the doors closed; and thus, with its cares and its perplexities, its joys and its sorrows, its successes and its failures, endeth another chapter of the great volume of life.