“Very small encouragement do workers in this field get from us of the white race in the Southern States, although, next to the Negro race, we are of all men on earth most concerned in the success of your work, and most concerned because we have most at stake.”
The total annual contribution of the North for the current expenses of the private schools aggregate $2,500,000. Of this fully a million and a half is given by the white churches for their denominational schools, and another $1,000,000 is contributed by individual donors and churches for the maintenance of the independent institutions. Property valuations in the private institutions founded by northern gifts now amount to $24,000,000.
ATLANTA UNIVERSITY, ATLANTA, GEORGIA.
One of the best schools of higher education. A number of notable colored men are graduates of this institution. It was founded in 1867 by the American Missionary Association (Congregational), but it now has an independent board of trustees. It has 35 teachers, nearly 600 students and property valued at $405,000.
Without the institutions thus erected and maintained, the industrial and agricultural education of the colored people would be almost entirely confined to the very limited facilities of the public schools, and the inadequate work of the land-grant institutions. Teacher training would be almost negligible, secondary courses would be conspicuously inadequate and no college work would be offered. Upon the North therefore, and the Negroes must rest the responsibility of providing higher training. While constant effort should be made to induce public authorities to provide for every phase of education, any plan to diminish private support should be adopted only after careful consideration of the local situation. The per capita public school expenditures for white children of the Southern States is four and five times that for the Negroes. All the available facts indicate that the financial aid of the North would be needed for some decades to come.
Essential as northern philanthropy has been to the education of the Negro, the greatest contribution of the North has been the teachers, sons and daughters of the best families, who have been willing to work in colored schools, and to show their colored pupils by precept and example that education is not only head knowledge, but the formation of habits that guarantee such fundamental virtues as cleanliness, thoroughness, perseverance, honesty, and the essential elements of family life.
The work of the Northern teachers is no less important than that of the northern soldier. While the one emancipated the Negro from slavery, the other laid the foundation for the greater emancipation from ignorance. In the conduct and management of colored schools, it is to be expected that the South should stress contact with the white neighborhood and conformity to the community standards. The concern of the Negro is naturally the preservation of his self-respect and the increase of opportunities for employment and influence. The concern of the North is the maintenance of such school activities as will produce manhood and womanhood of good physique, discerning minds and sound morals. In accordance with this purpose, northern people have erected schools of all types for the Negroes, including industrial, agricultural and collegiate institutions. No greater loss could befall the Negro schools than the elimination of northern philanthropy and northern teachers.
The two types of institutions which are largely supported by northern philanthropy are designated as independent schools, and schools under white denominational boards. Many of these schools also receive large sums from their colored patrons. The following table gives the important facts concerning the independent schools in the several States. The names of the larger institutions of this group are given in the table at the end of this Chapter.
DINING HALL. BIRDSEYE VIEW OF GROUNDS.