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.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
COLEMAN MANUFACTURING COMPANY, AN ORGANIZATION
CHARTERED UNDER THE LAWS OF NORTH
CAROLINA, TO DO BUSINESS OF ALL KINDS OF
MANUFACTURING.
Can the negro race successfully own and operate cotton mills? This question, so long in doubt, is about to be answered, and we believe in the affirmative. The first great stride in that direction was taken when, on the 8th of February, 1898, was laid with Masonic honors the corner-stone of the handsome three-story brick building, 80 × 120 feet in dimensions, of the Coleman cotton mill. It was indeed a marked epoch in the history of the negro race, and pronounced by all present an entire success. Noted speakers from all over the United States were invited, and the railroads gave reduced rates from all points. Following the laying of the corner-stone was the annual election of old officers, who are as follows: R. B. Fitzgerald, of Durham, N. C., president; E. A. Johnson, of Raleigh, N. C., vice-president; and W. C. Coleman, of Concord, N. C., secretary and treasurer. The following gentlemen constitute the Board of Directors: Rev. S. C. Thompson, Camden, S. C.; L. P. Berry, Statesville, N. C.; John C. Dancy, Salisbury, N. C.; Prof. S. B. Pride, Charlotte, N. C.; Prof. C. F. Meserve, Raleigh, N. C.; and Robert McRee, Concord, N. C. Among these are some of the highest lights of the negro race, and under their careful direction we have no doubts as to the final results of the enterprise. The promoter of this enterprise, W. C. Coleman, is the wealthiest negro in the State, and he has rallied around him not only the leaders of his race, but has the endorsement of many of the most successful financiers among our white citizens throughout the State.
