The school bears the honored name of one who, in the long years of the anti-slavery agitation, was known as an uncompromising friend of human freedom. It stands, with its nearly thirty years of successful work, a most fitting memorial of his life and labors for humanity. A personal friend and an associate of Dr. Strieby of sacred memory, in the anti-slavery crusade, Dr. F. Julius Le Moyne, of Washington, Pa., seeing the great need of education and practical training for the freed people of the South and anticipating a bequest made in his will, advanced to the American Missionary Association some twenty thousand dollars for the establishment of the school at Memphis.
PRINCIPAL A. J. STEELE.
The school building and a "Home" for the workers, made necessary by the needs of the work and the adverse feeling toward teachers of colored schools, were erected and the school was opened in October, 1871. From that time till now the American Missionary Association has had charge of this school.
It was the wish of Dr. Le Moyne that the work of the school should be prosecuted along the most practical lines, to meet the more pressing demands of an untrained race, and to this end he stipulated that the so-called "dead languages" should form no part of its course of study, and that it should be adapted to the relief of the most pressing wrongs and needs of the colored people in the struggle for life to which emancipation had brought them. His wishes have been respected and the school has remained distinctively an English school, with as great attention to industrial training as time and means would allow.
The growth of the school, in all that counts to strengthen and confirm its influence and usefulness, has been steady and uninterrupted from the beginning, with its attendance of 250 pupils of low grades, to the present year, with an enrollment of over 700, distributed through its twelve years of study and training, over 200 of whom are in the Normal Department fitting for the work of teaching.
LE MOYNE INSTITUTE AND MISSION HOME.
The first class of two was graduated in 1876; since that over two hundred young people have received the diploma of the school, most of whom are living useful, self-respecting lives in the many communities where they have found homes.
To meet the needs of this constant growth the buildings have been enlarged repeatedly and a separate building for manual training, woodworking, printing, etc., has been erected.