Evidences of Progress Among Colored People

by G. F. Richings

PHELPS HALL.
Built by Students.

Tuskegee stands for the education of the head, the hand, and the heart, the three H's which include the three R's and much more. It gives a good Normal course, which fits one fairly well for the race of life, or serves as an excellent foundation for a more advanced course. Stress is laid on the study of pedagogy and practice in the training school; for the institution acts on the theory, which in most cases is correct, that these young people, after graduation, will teach at some time, whether or not during their schooldays they expect to do so, and, therefore, protects the future pupils of these embryo teachers by requiring every one who aspires to a diploma to receive training in the theory and practice of teaching.

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON'S COTTAGE.
Built by Students.

The Phelps Hall Bible School, connected with the Tuskegee Institute, is the gift of a Northern friend, and is designed especially to help the ministers of the South, among whom it is doing a great work. Many pastors in charge of churches, learning of the advantages of the institution and the possibility of getting through school with very little money, resign their churches to come here and better fit themselves for the work. Others, nearer, enter the school and trudge several miles on Saturday or Sunday to meet and minister to their congregations. Those not pastoring churches while in school, carry on some form of mission work, and so keep in touch with the people and help lift up others even while they are being lifted up.

There are over twenty-five industries operated by students under experienced and efficient instructors. A limited number of young men and women work during the day and attend school at night, in this manner supporting themselves and laying by a surplus for expenses when they enter the day-school, besides fortifying themselves with the knowledge of a trade. In order to teach the dignity of labor, as well as for the sake of the skill thus acquired by each student in some industry, all are required to do a certain amount of work.

Besides the literary societies of the school, of which there are four, doing good service along the lines usually adopted by such student bodies, there are several religious organizations. The Y. M. C. A. has a large membership and is doing a most effective work. The young men belonging to this association are of an especially high type of young manhood, and they are exerting a most helpful and healthful influence on the morals of the school. After a great deal of worthy effort they have succeeded in getting a pretty well-stocked reading-room and library, and they are now bending their energies toward securing a building of their own. They feel that they have outgrown the one little room which is all the school can afford to give them.

The Y. P. S. C. E. is full of vigorous life. Its presidents have always been teachers, while the various committees are composed of both teachers and students. Besides the Executive Committee there is a Lookout Committee, which looks out for the welfare of the society, and keeps trace of the members who are absent from the consecration meetings; a Prayer Meeting Committee which has charge of all the prayer meetings; a Flower Committee, which carries flowers to the sick, and decorates the chapel for special exercises, and a Mission Committee, which does work in the neighborhood among the poor, carrying food and clothing to them from time to time during the year.

The Mite Society is a branch of the W. H. M. S. Besides general work among the poor in the vicinity of the school, it has given special care to the old people of the county poorhouse. This society exacts one cent weekly from its members, and when this cannot be given, accepts, in lieu thereof, a sheet of paper, a stamp, an envelope, or anything which may be sold by a committee appointed for that purpose.

The Tuskegee Women's Club is not, like the organizations already mentioned, for the students; but, as an outgrowth of the school, and one of the most helpful influences in the community, it may be mentioned here. This club is composed of the women connected with the institution, either as teachers or the wives of teachers. At the regular semi-monthly meetings a literary and musical program is rendered, and there is a sub-organization which meets weekly for an informal discussion of current topics; but these efforts for self-improvement do not limit the activity of the club. Among the branch organizations conducted by its members are social purity clubs among the girls of the institution, a humane society, to which both boys and girls belong, a club for the ministers' wives of the town and vicinity, where they are helped to a fuller realization of the responsibilities and opportunities of their position, and are shown how they may best work among the girls and women of the churches, a club for mutual improvement having as members girls attending the institution, but living in town, a Y. W. C. T. U., and a club conducted in the town on Saturday afternoons in the special interest of the country women, who flock in on that day to see the sights and to do their small shopping. This club was organized by Mrs. Booker T. Washington, several years ago, even before the organization of the main club of which it is now considered a branch, and it has done much to elevate the morals and improve the manners of the women in and near Tuskegee.