Twenty-Five Years in the Black Belt

by William James Edwards

TO MY LOVING WIFE WHO ENCOURAGED ME IN ALL MY
EARLY STRUGGLES AND AIDED ME IN
ALL MY ACHIEVEMENTS

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CONTENTS

chapter			page
[1.]	Childhood Days		[1]
[2.]	Shadows		[7]
[3.]	A Ray of Light		[13]
[4.]	Life at Tuskegee		[18]
[5.]	Reconnoitering		[26]
[6.]	Founding the Snow Hill School		[35]
[7.]	Small Beginnings		[37]
[8.]	Campaigning for Funds in the North		[43]
[9.]	Results		[49]
[10.]	Origin of the Jeanes Fund		[54]
[11.]	Appreciation		[56]
[12.]	Graduates and Ex-Students		[63]
[13.]	The Solution of the Negro Problem		[77]
[14.]	The Greatest Menace of the South		[86]
[15.]	The Negro Exodus		[94]
[16.]	The Negro and the Public Schools of the South		[100]
[17.]	Where Lies the Negro’s Opportunity?		[104]
[18.]	School Problems of a Tuskegee Graduate		[109]
[19.]	Benefits Wrought by Hardships		[115]
[20.]	The Negro and the World War		[120]
	Appendix		[127]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

William J. Edwards			[Frontispiece]
Uncle Charles Lee and His Home in the Black Belt		Facing	Page	[32]
First Trustees of Snow Hill and Two of Their Wives		“	“	[36]
Partial View of Snow Hill Institute		“	“	[48]
A New Type of Home in the Black Belt		“	“	[52]
Typical Log Cabin in the Black Belt		“	“	[60]
Home of a Snow Hill Graduate		“	“	[60]
Graduates of Snow Hill Institute		“	“	[72]
Teachers of Snow Hill Institute		“	“	[100]

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PREFACE

In bringing this book before the public, it is my hope that the friends of the Snow Hill School and all who are interested in Negro Education may become more familiar with the problems and difficulties that confront those who labor for the future of a race. I have had to endure endless hardships during these twenty-five years, in order that thousands of poor negro youths might receive an industrial education,—boys and girls who might have gone into that demoralized class that is a disgrace to any people and that these friends may continue their interest in not only Snow Hill but all the schools of the South that are seeking to make better citizens of our people. I also hope that the interest may be sustained until the State and Nation realize that it is profitable to educate the black child as well as the white.