Evidences of Progress Among Colored People

by G. F. Richings

The history of the University is a record of steady growth and expanding influence. It was the pioneer school in this section of the South, in offering the recently emancipated race the opportunity for an education leavened with the spirit of the Gospel—an opportunity of which, from the very first, they availed themselves with grateful appreciation. During all the years since, though not without those trials which have tested the faith and devotion of her friends, her progress has been steady and salutary, keeping pace with the growing intelligence of the people, her courses of study being enlarged from time to time to meet their higher intellectual wants, the manifest fruit, in large part, of her own faithful educational ministry.

Thus her history is, in some respects, the intellectual history of the colored people in this part of the South, since they received the gift of freedom, the successive additions of the Normal, Collegiate and Theological Departments marking and measuring the moral and intellectual advancement of the race.

The institution received its name from Hon. Seymour Straight, of Hudson, Ohio, in grateful acknowledgment of his liberal gifts and wise counsel. Mr. Straight is still the President of the Board of Trustees.

Stone Hall, with the ground upon which it stands, is a fine monument to the considerate generosity of Mrs. Valeria G. Stone, of Malden, Mass. It is a dormitory for the girls, and the home of the President and most of the teachers. Here, too, are the kitchen and the cool and spacious dining room.

The general housekeeping is under the supervision of an efficient matron, and an experienced and competent preceptress teaches the girls how to care for their rooms and their health, and trains them in the manners of a refined, Christian home. In a word, the whole management of Stone Hall, with the constant inculcation of the principles of good breeding by precept and example, is an impressive object-lesson to the students of what constitutes the ideal Christian family.

Whitin Hall, a dormitory for boys, is a memorial of the generosity of Hon. Seymour Straight and the late John C. Whitin, of Massachusetts. This is under the charge of an accomplished matron.

BEACH INSTITUTE.

Beach Institute is located at Savannah, Ga.; Miss M. L. Graham, Principal.

The educational movement which finally took the name "Beach Institute" began thus:

Soon after the surrender of Savannah to General Sherman, educational work for colored people was begun under the direction of an "Educational Commission," organized by Rev. J. W. Alvord and Rev. M. French. The first schools were opened by Rev. W. F. Richardson with the aid of colored teachers in the old slave mart and the Styles building in Yamacraw.