JUST as the late Dr. Booker T. Washington, founder of the wonderful school, Tuskegee, was the greatest agricultural and industrial leader of his race in the United States; so Dr. Robert R. Moton, former educator at Hampton Institute and present principal of Tusgkee Institute, is today the foremost leader of the American Colored people in industrial and agricultural education. And the tireless efforts and uplifting influence of those two great industrial leaders have either originated or greatly encouraged and advanced much of the skilled industrial and intensive agricultural progress made by the Colored people in America during the past thirty or more years.
But the pioneer and greatest industrial educator of them all was General Samuel Chapman Armstrong who founded in 1868 the famous Hampton Institute, which is said to be the leading school of its kind in America, and among the best in the world. For years not even many intelligent white and Colored people looked with kindly favor upon General Armstrong’s then new and strange methods of teaching the head, the hand and the heart to work together for the highest development of an individual or a race. People then generally thought that it was foolish to go to school just to learn the trades or how to work on a farm, as they had always been taught that schools were places where one went to learn to study books alone. And that was what nearly every one wanted to do as it was thought to be a disgrace and dishonor to work with the hands. But many years had not passed before it was seen and proved that General Armstrong’s methods were among the most valuable educational teachings in the world.
And today civilized countries throughout the world are using in their private, public and government schools vocational and industrial plans and methods copied after those originated by the far-sighted General Armstrong and so successfully carried on after his death by Dr. Hollis Burke Frissell. The unusual beneficial careers of those two life long friends of Colored peoples stand with the foremost among the careers of many brave white men and women who have not been ashamed to follow the footsteps of Christ by unselfishly giving their lives and fortunes for the encouragement and uplift of an oppressed people. Since the death of Dr. Frissell a few years ago, Hampton has been under the careful and progressive leadership of Dr. Jas. E. Gregg who has kept up the high grade of industrial education he found there. He has also raised the academic standards to higher planes, in order to better fit his graduates to more successfully face the advanced educational requirements they have to meet when going out into the world to wring success from the opportunities that will constantly come into their callings.
Below are named a few of the other Colored industrial schools that are yearly turning out hundreds of skilled and practical auto repairers, blacksmiths, bricklayers, carpenters, cabinetmakers, domestic science teachers, dressmakers, engineers, house matrons, machinists, milliners, painters, printers, plumbers, school teachers, shoemakers, steamfitters, tailors, tinsmiths, upholsters, wheelwrights and other artisans.
Albion Academy, Franklintown, S. C.; Americus Institute, Americus, Ga.; Berean Ind. School, Phila., Pa.; Calhoun Colored School, Calhoun, Ala.; Camden Colored High School, Camden, Ark.,; Coleman College, Gibsland, La.; Betts Academy, Trenton, S. C.; Cheyney Training School, Cheyney, Pa.; Christiansburg Ind. Institute, Cambria Va.; Clayton Ind. School, Manor, Texas; Clinton Nor. & Ind. College, Rockhill, S. C.; Colored Industrial School, Cincinnati, O.; Cookman, Institute, Jacksonville, Fla.; Daytona Training School for Girls, Daytona, Fla.; Delaware Nor. & Ind. School, Dover, Del.; Dunbar Training School, Brownsville, Tenn.; Florida Bapt. Academy, St., Augustine, Fla.; Fort Valley High & Ind. Inst., Fort Valley, Ga.; Fort Worth Ind. & Mech. Col., Fort Worth, Tex.; Georgia State & Ind. College, Savannah, Ga.; Greenville Ind. Inst., Greenville, Miss.; Haines Nor. & Ind. Insti., Augusta, Ga.; Henderson Normal Inst., Henderson, N. V.; Joseph Brick Ind. School, Bricks, N. C.; Lincoln Normal School, Marion, Ala.; Lincoln Inst, of Kentucky, Lincoln Ridge, Ky.; Knox Academy, Selma, Ala.; Manassas Ind. School, Manassas, Va.; Mary Potter Memorial School, Oxford, N. C.; Mayesville Ind. Inst., Mayesville, S. C.; Mound Bayou Ind. Col., Mound Bayou, Miss.; National Training School, (women) Washington, D.C.; New Jersey Nor. Training School, Bordentown, N. J.; Oklahoma Nor. & Ind. Inst., Boley, Okla.; Penn Normal & Ind. School, Frogmore, S. C.; Princess Anne Academy, Princess Anne, Md.; Prairie View State Nor. & Ind. School, Prairie View, Texas; Schofield N. & Ind. Inst., Aiken, S. C.; Sater State Normal & Ind. School, Winston-Salem, N. C.; Snow Hill Inst., Snow Hill, Ala.; St. Augustine School, Raleigh, N. C.; St. Paul Nor. & Ind. Inst. Lawrenceville, Va.; Vicksburg Ind. School, Vicksburg, Miss.; Voorhees Ind. School, Denmark, S. C.; State College for Colored Youth, Dover, Del.; Walker Bapt. Inst., Augusta, Ga.; Waters Normal Inst., Winton, N. C. (extracts from Work’s Negro Year book, 1918-1919 edition, pages 309-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20).
IN THE TRADE SCHOOLS
While a great many of these schools are kept going through the donations of money by Northern white individuals and organizations as well as by the aid of several state appropriations, the majority of them are supported and run by Colored people themselves. “The African Methodist Episcopal Church is raising each year about $500,000 for the support of its twenty colleges and normal schools. The Negro Baptists are giving support to about 110 colleges and academies.” All together there are about 175 such schools supported by different Colored church denominations that raise each year for this purpose about two million dollars. The properties of these schools thus supported are worth about two million five hundred thousand dollars. (Ref: Works Negro Year Book 1918-1919 edition page 286.)
Among the foremost Colored leaders in industrial education are J. B. Dudley, Winston-Salem, N. C., W. J. Edwards, Snow Hill, Ala., J. M. Gandy, Petersburg, Va., W. H. Goler, Salisbury, N. C., W. J. Hale, Nashville, Tenn., J. R. E. Lee, Kansas City, Mo., E. A. Long, Cambria, Va., R. R. Moton, Tuskegee, Ala., J. S. Russell, Lawrenceville, Va., Emmett J. Scott, Washington, D.C., R. R. Wright, Sr., Savannah, Ga.
