Education: All educational institutions admit women. The State Polytechnic at Auburn was the pioneer, offering to women in 1892 every course, technical, scientific and agricultural. The State University at Tuscaloosa opened its doors to them in 1896. Two scholarships for girls are maintained here, one by the ladies of Montgomery and one by those of Birmingham. In 1900, out of a class of 178 boys and 23 girls, two boys and four girls took the highest honors.
The State Industrial School for Girls, at Montevallo, was established in 1896. There are two co-educational Normal Schools at Florence and Troy.
The colored men and women have excellent advantages in several Normal Schools and Colleges. The Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, under the presidency of Booker T. Washington, has a national reputation. Colored children have also their full share of public schools.
There are in the public schools 2,262 men and 5,041 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $32; of the women, $25.35.
The most progressive movement in the State is that of the Federation of Women's Clubs, formed in 1895, and including at present fifty-eight clubs. Its work has been extremely practical in the line of education and philanthropy. The most important achievement is the Boys' Industrial Farm, located at East Lake near Birmingham. This is managed by a board of women and has a charter which secures its control to women, even if it become entirely a State institution. The club women have for three years sustained five scholarships for girls, two at Tuscaloosa and three at Montevallo. They have organized also a free traveling library, and in four cities free kindergartens.
In conclusion it may be noted that the strength of the woman movement in the State has been wonderfully developed in all directions during the last five years.
FOOTNOTES:
[158] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Ellen Stephens Hildreth of New Decatur, the first president of the State Woman Suffrage Association.
[159] In the Constitutional Convention of 1901, an amendment providing that any woman paying taxes on $500 worth of property might vote on all bond propositions was adopted with great enthusiasm, but the next day, under the influence of the argument that "it would be an entering wedge for full suffrage," it was reconsidered and voted down. U. S. Senator John T. Morgan urged this amendment. The new constitution did contain a clause, however, providing that if a wife paid taxes on $500 worth of property her husband should be entitled to this vote.