Evidences of Progress Among Colored People

by G. F. Richings

Prof. R. B. Hudson is a resident of Selma, Ala., where he is principal of the city school for colored youths. The school is a very large one, and is regarded by such men as B. T. Washington, W. H. Councill and others as the best public school in the State. Mr. Hudson has been very active in educational and religious work, and for over fifteen years has been superintendent of a large Sunday-school, and president of the largest District Sunday-school Convention in the State. He is also secretary for the Baptist State Convention, and statistician for the Baptist denomination in the State. Prof. Hudson was for six years secretary of the State Teachers' Association, and was then elevated to the presidency. So one can see that in a religious and educational work Mr. Hudson has been a very useful man, and I am glad to inform my readers that he has also done something in a business way, that is of great value to the race in starting a large coal and wood yard in Selma, where he gives employment to quite a force of men. There are six coal and wood yards in the city, and Prof. Hudson has the second in size. His business in that line brings him an income of over ten thousand dollars per year, and his customers are made up of all classes, among them bankers, lawyers and leading merchants among the white people. Prof. Hudson is still young, and I am sure has a great future ahead of him.

DR. L. L. BURWELL.

Dr. Burwell is also a resident of Selma, Ala., and a young man the people seem very fond of. He worked his way through school and graduated with high honors at Selma University, after which he entered Leonard Medical College, at Raleigh, N. C., and by hard work finished the four-year course in three. Dr. Burwell located at Selma, and has built up a very extensive practice. He owns valuable property, and operates one of the largest drug stores in the South, and perhaps the largest owned by a colored man. The country people have great confidence in him, not only as a physician, but as a splendid business man, and from far in the country people come to get his opinion on some business matter. In our late war with Spain the doctor induced over thirty colored men to enlist, on the ground that they ought to show their loyalty to the American government. I regret that I am unable to present a picture of the doctor.

JOHN M. BROWN.

Mr. John M. Brown is to me a very interesting character. My attention was first called to him by a white man who sells the goods manufactured by Mr. Brown. The white man was a Southerner, but seemed quite proud of him. He is located in Macon, Ga., and operates a broom factory on quite a large scale, so much so that most of the time he has fifteen people employed. He makes only a high grade of brooms and sells them to the white merchants. Mr. Brown does not send out a white man to sell his goods, but goes himself and presents his claim for their patronage on the merits of his manufactured article. I am glad to tell my readers that only on one or two occasions has his color been a hindrance to him in the State of Georgia, as far as the sale of his brooms are concerned. Just one other point of interest that will, I am sure, be appreciated, and that is, Mr. Brown has taught colored men the trade of broom making, and employs only members of the race.

MR. CHARLES W. CHESTNUT.

Few people are aware of the fact that Mr. Charles W. Chestnut, whose volumes of character sketches and short stories have made him famous, is a colored man. His home is in Cleveland, and to meet him on the street one would take him for a clerk in a store rather than an author. Until within the past couple of years Mr. Chestnut was a court stenographer in Cleveland and employed several assistants. He has reported dozens of large conventions in this city, and he is known to thousands as a stenographer. Mr. Chestnut is of medium size and of very slight build. His hair is light and he has a small, light mustache. His hair has a slight tendency to kink, but this is hardly noticeable. His complexion is very fair, so much so that many Cleveland people believe him a white man.

PROVIDENT HOSPITAL.

Provident Hospital and Training School, St. Louis, Mo., opened for the care of colored patients in this city on the 4th day of April, 1899, with a staff of nine colored physicians and a consulting staff of nine white.

It has a Board of Managers composed of colored citizens of this city, it is a regular chartered institution, and has a capacity of fifteen beds, modern operating room, and three young colored women in training. Some of the most difficult operations known to surgery have been performed at the hospital during the past year. The hospital has been furnished entirely by the colored people of this city.