Evidences of Progress Among Colored People

by G. F. Richings

In 1887, Mr. Stephen F. Ballard of New York erected the Ballard Industrial Hall (60 × 39) and fitted it up with complete outfits for the department of carpentry, shoemaking and printing. The entire valuation of the buildings and grounds (now about fifty acres) is estimated at $100,000.

The aim of the school has been to give a thorough literary training to colored young men and women. The industrial feature has not been neglected, although recently the school has not been able to do as much in that line as formerly. The reason for this has been the withdrawal of the Slater Fund. However, this department has been operating with such means as the officers have been able to obtain. The students in the carpentry shop make and repair all the furniture used in the school, such as bedsteads, chairs, tables, desks, washstands and dressers. The printing office is well equipped and much minute and pamphlet work has been done besides the publishing of the College journal, which is now conceded to be one of the best, if not the best, College magazine published by a colored institution in the country. The institution has been running but little over a decade. It boasts, however, of a prominence equal to any institution in the south founded and sustained by colored men. The character of its graduates and the showing they have made bespeak the thoroughness of its work. In fact, the officers of the institution, while recognizing the need and the cry for the industrial training of the Negro, have stoutly maintained that industrial education should not supplant the higher educational development of the Negro. The success of the 130 graduates since '85 has been sufficient argument for them to hold this point.

The young men who have entered the ministry are all prominent in the great church under whose auspices the school works. Many of the largest and most prominent churches in the connection are held by them, and they have merited each place. In the law and in medicine they are not behind, and in the schoolroom as teachers, many brilliant records have been made by its young men and women. As teachers, they are in demand, and in most cases give entire satisfaction.

The work of Dr. Price, in his efforts to lift the race to a higher plane of intellectual and moral development, is well known on both sides of the Atlantic. To speak of Livingstone and its aim is to speak of the one great desire of its lamented president. So thoroughly wedded was he to this idea and its development through the work of Livingstone College that no honor in church or state, however tempting the emolument attached to it, could induce him to give it up.

His great influence rests upon his successor and his associates—ten in number. These are making noble self-sacrifices to carry on the work.

The maintenance of this work is wonderful when it is remembered that Livingstone has no endowment fund for teachers, no scholarship fund for students, and only a small appropriation from the church under whose auspices it is operated—only a little over half of this being received annually to carry on the work and pay teachers.

The death of Dr. Price occurred Oct. 25, 1893. To him directly is due the permanent establishment of the institution.

Dr. W. H. Goler, the new president, took charge with a vim that delighted all. His ability, his friendship for and acquaintance with Dr. Price, and his experience give him a confidence that makes success doubly sure.

During the past five or six years the school has averaged an enrolment of over 200 students. The enrolment one year was about 300. Students representing New England, Michigan, Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois, and all the States along the coast, from Massachusetts to Florida, as well as Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee, have been enrolled. Besides these, representatives of Liberia, West coast of Africa, and the West Indies are among the number.

The death of Dr. Price was a great blow to Livingstone. Its friends were thrown into a state of anxiety for its future. But many believed that Price's work was accomplished when he demonstrated to the world his practical production of his great lectures—"Negro Capabilities." When Livingstone started, the world had not learned that a College could be established and controlled entirely by Negroes.