In connection with the sketch given above the following account of the work of the Catholics at Van de Vyver College, Richmond, Virginia, from 1885 to the present time should also be interesting.
Among the many signs of the progress of the colored people in the city of Richmond is the Van de Vyver College on North First street, which is equipped with all modern improvements, and has accommodations for five hundred pupils.
This elegant plant was erected at the sole expense of the Catholics who, abreast of the times, met at every turn the requirements of an aspiring class of colored boys and girls.
It was not erected with the idea of drawing the attention or of eliciting the applause of the people of Richmond; it is an institution which, by its growth and development, has marked time with the demands of the younger generation of the colored people, whose endeavor is to follow the higher ideals as they are set before them.
This grand building, with its large auditorium, now covers the site, together with additional area, of a former two-roomed schoolhouse, which thirty years back first gave the Catholic Sisters from Mill Hill, England, a place and opportunity to show their zeal for, and their interest in, the future welfare of the colored youth of the principal city of the Old Dominion.
These Sisters are known as the Sisters of St. Francis of Baltimore. They have the privilege of being the first of all the white sisterhoods in this country to take up the work of teaching colored children exclusively. Today there are many colored citizens who are not backward in their praise of the successful and unselfish efforts of these same good sisters, whose energetic endeavors have led many a colored boy and girl to a happy and prosperous career.
On the college grounds is an excellently equipped kindergarten, in which many pupils, who later on were graduated from the commercial and academic courses, made their first start.
Special classes in music, fancy needlework, Latin and French are also taught to those desiring to pursue such lines.
For the working boys and young men, there is a night session, wherein is given a theoretical and practical knowledge of the automobile. Many a young man has gone forth from this class qualified as an expert mechanician and chauffeur.
The church adjoining the college, attendance at which is of course optional, affords all the opportunity of gaining a knowledge of the doctrine of the Catholic Church. Affiliated with this church are four flourishing societies, one for the men called the Holy Name Society; one for the women called The Sodality of the Mother of Jesus; one for men and women called The League of the Sacred Thirst—a Temperance Society; and one for the boys and girls called the Knights and Ladies of the Cross. The members of these societies are very faithful in the duties required of them, and hence give great edification to the people of both races.