Part 25

_Miner Fund._—The Miner Fund has property valued at $40,000, and the annual income is about $2,100. This income is used for the aid of the Manassas Industrial Institute for Colored Youth of Virginia, and for the Colored Social Settlement of Washington, D. C.

The fund is named after Miss Myrtilla Miner, of Brooklyn, N. Y., who in 1851 established a normal school for colored girls of Washington. In 1862, she incorporated the school as “Institution for the Education of Colored Youth.” The first property purchased by the institution was in the square now occupied by the British embassy. Later this lot was sold and another purchased, on which a new normal school was erected. In 1879 the District of Columbia leased this property from the trustees of the fund, and maintained the institution as a part of the public school system. About 1900 the trustees purchased another building in which they maintained a day nursery and a kindergarten. This work was later taken over by the public authorities. The combined annual income from both properties amounted at one time to $4,000.

In 1915, the city school board purchased a site and erected a magnificent new building to house the normal school. This building was named “The Myrtilla Miner Normal School.” After the removal of the public school from the building owned by the Miner Fund, it was necessary to sell the building and invest the money in other forms of real estate at a reduced income.

_Cushing Fund._—The total amount of the Cushing Fund is $33,500 and the income varies from $1,200 to $1,500 annually. This income is distributed by the executive officer among 28 schools for colored people.

The fund was bequeathed for the education of colored people in accordance with the will of Miss Emeline Cushing, of Boston, who died in 1895. The will designated Mr. Archibald Grimke and two others as trustees and executors. Mr. Grimke is now the sole survivor and administers the fund.

_The Association for Negro Youth._—This Association was organized at Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1913. The plan has been to admit only institutions maintaining work of college grade. So far 10 institutions have been admitted to membership. The following quotation indicates the embarrassment of the association in its effort to be just to the colleges within and without the organization:

One of the most important topics of the several sessions was that of admission of additional colleges into the association. The consensus of opinion prevailed that the association needed more careful detailed information about the colleges, both within and without the organization, and the executive committee was authorized to make a careful study of all colleges both within and without the association that some standards for grading of membership might be established.

The general purpose of the association is indicated by the following list of topics discussed at the four annual meetings, 1913 to 1916:

1. College entrance requirements.

2. The requirements for a college degree.

3. The reception of students dismissed from other colleges.

4. How far should we allow students to specialize in professional work during their college course?

5. Foreign languages as requirements for college entrance.

6. Uniformity in the exchange of records.

7. What should be done with deficiencies of college students in English, spelling, composition and penmanship?

8. The control of athletics and place of physical education in the curriculum.

9. What should be done on the matter of our students who go North to work during the summers, and who thereby do not return to their home communities for several years, thus getting out of touch with the life of their home communities, in which places many of them are needed after they finish school?

10. How far are we preparing teachers for the public schools and the high schools? What is our part in the forward rural school movement?

11. How far are our efforts for religious education giving our students training for religious leadership?

It is evident that the association is rapidly broadening the scope of its interest from the formal topics of the earlier meetings to the vital problems outlined in the questions discussed at the last meeting.

_The National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools._—This association was organized in 1904. Annual meetings have been held each year. State associations have been formed in almost all the Southern States. Teachers representing 21 States were present at the last annual meeting of the national association. These meetings are having a wholesome effect in the development of higher ideals, better methods, and cooperation among teachers in all efforts to adapt education to community needs.

The twelfth annual session of the National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools was held in Cincinnati, July 29, to August 1, 1915. Among the subjects discussed were “The need of a graduate school for Negroes,” “College athletics,” “Standardizing of Negro schools,” “Harmonizing conflicting views of Negro education,” and “National education.” The 1916 meeting of the association will be held in Nashville. In connection with the meeting of the National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools the Annual Conference of the Presidents of Land-Grant Colleges took up “Its mission,” “Its responsibility,” “Its opportunity,” and “Its relation to the public school system.” Other subjects were “The problem of dormitory life,” and “Preparation of teachers of agriculture.” Another organization which met with the national association was the Council of College Presidents.

HOSPITALS AND NURSE TRAINING SCHOOLS.

The changed conditions of modern life have occasioned a wholly new order of things for the care of the sick and disabled; and well equipped hospitals with training schools for nurses are now numerous, where they were almost unknown fifty years ago. This has led to the institution of hospitals for the colored people. These have been very necessary for the colored people, and also for the colored physicians and surgeons. There are now several thousand of these physicians and surgeons who have received diplomas in the regular medical schools and are practicing their profession among their own people. These, however, are not usually admitted to practice in the general hospitals of the Southern States, which is a serious hindrance to their progress in knowledge and skill, as well as a great embarrassment in the care of their patients. There has been a growing demand also for colored nurses with the training that can be acquired only in hospitals. Thus for more reasons than one, hospitals designed particularly for the colored people have become necessary.

The first of these was founded at Hampton, Va., in 1891, by Miss Alice M. Bacon, who was at that time connected with Hampton Institute, though her hospital was independent and bore the name of “Dixie.” In the same year the “MacVicar Hospital,” was established as a feature of Spelman Seminary in Atlanta, and the “Provident Hospital” was instituted in Chicago. Three years later, in 1894, the “Freedmen’s Hospital” was started in Washington and the “Lamar Hospital” in Augusta, Ga. Then, in 1895, came the “Frederick Douglass” in Philadelphia; in 1896, the “Sarah Goodrich” in New Orleans; and in 1897, the “Hospital and Training School for Nurses” in Charleston. Others have followed, one by one, in other important centres; Charlotte, Richmond, Columbia, Savannah, Jacksonville, Nashville, Knoxville, Louisville, Raleigh, Tuskegee, Durham, Atlanta and elsewhere. In all of these hospitals the training school for nurses is a conspicuous feature, and the nurses who receive this training show very great efficiency, finding employment largely among the white people, who frequently prefer them to white nurses with similar training. Some of these institutions have been built up by the sheer enterprise of individual colored physicians. A notable example of this is “St. Luke’s Hospital” at Columbia, founded and maintained in the face of many discouragements by Dr. Matilda A. Evans, who received her education at Schofield Institute, Oberlin College, and the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. Hospitals of this type are held in high esteem by the communities in which they are located, and are centers of beneficence for the country around.

THE THREE IMPORTANT TYPES OF EDUCATION.

In the development of Negro education the various types or kinds of education have received much discussion and the conflicting claims of certain type of education have been ably presented by their advocates. Space does not admit of a full discussion of the conflict which has raged between the so-called “higher education” and the so called “industrial education.” The most notable colored men who have taken sides on this question during the past 25 years have been Dean Kelly Miller and Dr. W. E. Dubois as advocate of the higher education and Dr. Booker T. Washington, and Dr. R. R. Moton, as advocate of industrial education. The result of the various discussions has been that the whole nation has been convinced that there is, and can be no real conflict between higher education for the Negro and industrial education. The conviction is now very general that the Negro needs and should have every type of instruction. The type of education most needed for the full development are college education, professional education and industrial education.

_College Education._—No type of education has meant more to the colored people than college education. There are however very few institutions of college grade among colored schools. Many institutions are called colleges, but they have not been able to do real college work. According to the recent report of the Bureau of Education, only 33 of the private and State schools for colored people are doing work of college grade. These institutions are classified into three groups. The following table presents the facts for these institutions:

──────────────────────────┬──────────────┬───────┬─────────────┬─────── Characterization and Name │ │College│ │ Other of College. │ Support. │Pupils.│Professional.│Pupils. ──────────────────────────┼──────────────┼───────┼─────────────┼─────── _All Colleges_ │ │ 1,952│ 1,093│ 10,089 “_Colleges_” │ │ 722│ 972│ 717 Fisk University │Independent │ 188│ │ 317 Howard University │Federal │ 534│ 467│ 400 Meharry Medical School │Independent │ │ 505│ “_Secondary and College_” │ │ 675│ 22│ 4,789 Atlanta University │Independent │ 44│ │ 542 Benedict College │Baptist │ 45│ │ 462 Bishop College │ „ │ 42│ │ 329 Claflin College │Methodist │ 26│ │ 788 │United │ │ │ Knoxville College │ Presbyterian│ 30│ │ 207 Lincoln University │Presbyterian │ 130│ │ 86 Morehouse College │Baptist │ 49│ │ 246 Morgan College │Methodist │ 26│ │ 55 Shaw University │Baptist │ 24│ 22│ 175 Talladega College │Congregational│ 45│ │ 516 Tougaloo University │ „ │ 20│ │ 424 Wilberforce University │A. M. E. │ 65│ │ 128 Wilberforce C. N. & I. │ │ │ │ Department │State │ 40│ │ 191 Wiley College │Methodist │ 38│ │ 346 Virginia Union University │Baptist │ 51│ │ 204 “_College Subjects_” │ │ 246│ │ 4,583 Arkansas Baptist College │Baptist │ 13│ │ 300 Biddle University │Presbyterian │ 22│ │ 185 Clark University │Methodist │ 32│ │ 272 Florida A. & M. College │Land-grant │ 12│ │ 333 Lane College │C. M. E. │ 10│ │ 208 Livingston College │A. M. E. Z. │ 17│ │ 174 Morris Brown University │A. M. E. │ 10│ │ 498 New Orleans College │Methodist │ 9│ │ 423 Paine College │M. E. South │ 14│ │ 188 Paul Quinn College │A. M. E. │ 13│ │ 273 Philander Smith College │Methodist │ 39│ │ 400 Rust College │ „ │ 16│ │ 320 Sam Houston College │ „ │ 18│ │ 359 Straight University │Congregational│ 11│ │ 567 Tillotson College │ „ │ 18│ │ 215 ──────────────────────────┴──────────────┴───────┴─────────────┴───────

Of the 12762 pupils in total attendance on these institutions, only 1,643 are studying college subjects, and 995 are in professional classes. The remaining 10,125 pupils are in elementary and secondary grades.

In reply to a questionnaire sent to all the Northern colleges, 66 reported a total of 430 Negro students of college grade. Of these 309 were in college proper, 86 were in medical courses, including dental and pharmaceutical; 10 were in theological schools; 18 in law; and 7 in veterinary medicine. It is probable that the total number of students in northern institutions is at least 500.

Only three institutions, Howard University, Fisk University, and Meharry Medical College, have a student body, a teaching force and equipment and an income sufficient to warrant the characterization of “college.” Nearly half of the college students and practically all of the professional students are in these institutions.

_Professional Education._—The standards of professional training are so involved with the development of colleges that for some time to come the professional training of colored people must be carried on largely in connection with college and secondary work. The scarcity of good teachers, the great need for increased library and laboratory facilities, and the small enrollments in all institutions of higher learning for colored people, render the chances of the development of strong professional schools better where they are affiliated with schools of collegiate or university grade.

At present, less than ten institutions for colored people offer professional courses with teaching force and equipment separate from their academic departments. The majority of these are affiliated with colleges. Howard University has a medical, a law, and a theological department, with considerable equipment and a full quota of students in each department. Meharry Medical College has a large student body and a valuable plant. The theological department of Lincoln University, Lincoln, Pa., is fairly well equipped; but the number of pupils is small. Gammon Theological Seminary, Atlanta, Ga., is a well endowed institution owned by the Methodist Episcopal denomination. The teaching force and equipment are adequate, but the number of students is not large. Bishop Payne Divinity School of the Protestant Episcopal denomination, Petersburg, Va., has a scholarly faculty, but a small number of students. Tuskegee Institute maintains a department for the instruction of rural ministers. The instruction is effective and practical. Talladega College provides a separate building for the Theological Seminary, and its teaching force is separate; but the number of students is small. Payne Theological Seminary, of Wilberforce University, is incorporated independently and its work is done by its own teachers and its own building.

Virginia Union University, Richmond, Va., and Morehouse College, Atlanta, Ga., do not have a separate plant for their theological departments; but the instruction is effective and the number of students is fair. Shaw University, Raleigh, N. C., maintains a preparatory medical course, and offers instruction to ministerial students. Other institutions maintaining theological departments are Livingstone College, Salisbury, N. C.; Biddle University, Charlotte, N. C.; Paine College, Augusta, Ga.; and Stillman Institute, Tuscaloosa, Ala. The following table gives the names, together with the number of teachers and pupils in the theological schools:

───────────────────────────────────┬─────────────────┬───────────────── THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS. │ Teachers. │ Students. ───────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼───────────────── Gammon Theological Seminary │ 6│ 78 Tuskegee Institute │ 3│ 77 Howard University │ 4│ 73 Lincoln University │ 6│ 54 Wilberforce University │ 4│ 30 Virginia Union University │ 6│ 24 Stillman Institute │ 2│ 21 Morehouse College │ 2│ 18 Bishop Payne Divinity School │ 4│ 15 Livingstone College │ 3│ 14 Talladega College │ 2│ 10 Shaw University │ 2│ 10 Paine College │ 2│ 9 Biddle University │ 2│ 8 ───────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────┼───────────────── Total │ 40│ 441 ───────────────────────────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────

The one law school of note is at Howard University. It has a separate building, a three-story structure, located near the District Courthouse. Applicants for admission must be graduates of a recognized high school or college. The regular course for the degree of LL. B. covers a period of three years.

The attendance was 106, of whom 104 were male, and 2 female. There were 8 teachers, 5 white and 3 colored; all are men.

The medical profession offers the largest opportunity for the ambitious young colored man. The number of colored physicians, according to the United States Census of 1910, was 3,077; colored dentists were 478 in number. Each group is increasing rapidly. The following table gives the number of medical students in the different colleges.

────────────────────────┬─────────┬─────────┬─────────┬──────────────── │ Total. │Medical. │ Dental. │Pharmaceutical. ────────────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────┼──────────────── All Schools │ 878│ 431│ 287│ 160 Howard University │ 288│ 100│ 116│ 72 Meharry Medical College │ 482│ 291│ 137│ 54 Shaw University │ 22│ 9│ │ 13 Northern Colleges │ 86│ 31│ 34│ 21 ────────────────────────┴─────────┴─────────┴─────────┴────────────────

_Industrial Education._—The phrase “industrial education” as applied to colored schools is very misleading. While the effective industrial schools are making a genuine effort to develop industrial skill, this fundamental purpose is much broader than vocational efficiency or the resulting comfort and culture. The underlying principle of these schools is the adaptation of educational activities, whether industrial or literary, to the needs of the pupil and the community. Leaders in these schools believe that education should include not only the head but the hand and the heart. These broad purposes were strikingly expressed by Gen. Armstrong, the founder of Hampton Institute, in his school reports as early as 1870. The following quotations from these reports illustrate the principles which guided him in the organization of his work:

The past of our colored population has been such that an institution devoted especially to them must provide a training more than usually comprehensive, must include both sexes and a variety of occupation, must produce moral as well as mental strength, and while making its students first-rate mechanical laborers, must also make them first-rate men and women.

Through Dr. H. B. Frissell, his successor as principal of Hampton Institute, and through the late Dr. Booker T. Washington, his pupil, Gen. Armstrong’s idea of education for life has been worthily advocated and extended, until now his thoughts are the common property of all progressive leaders of education.

In discussing industrial education, Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones of the Bureau of Education, has eloquently said:

“Industrial education in the comprehensive sense is the very essence of democracy in education. Civilized society has long been democratic in the advocacy of education for all the people, regardless of race, color, and previous condition. In curriculum and method, however, the schools of the land have continued to be both aristocratic and arbitrary. Subjects introduced in the middle ages to meet the needs of the aristocracy of that time have been retained for their cultural value. Democracy in the content of education demands that the curriculum shall impart culture through knowledge and practice related to the farm, the shop, the office, and, above all, the home.”

According to figures recently published by the Bureau of Education there are 61 public and private institutions which offer some industrial training to their pupils, and 174 with manual training and household arts courses. Of the former group, 29 are maintained by State and Federal funds. The 16 agricultural and mechanical schools largely supported by appropriations from the National Government are fairly well equipped to teach the more important trades and to train girls in household arts. Only a few of them, however, teach the trades effectively, and practically all subordinate the industrial training to the literary instruction. The 13 State institutions are schools of elementary and secondary grade, with some teacher-training courses and some facilities for manual training. Six of them are located in Northern States. In addition to these State institutions, well-managed manual training schools are maintained by the cities of Washington, D. C.; Charleston, S. C., and Columbus, Ga.

The private institutions are divided into two groups: Hampton Institute and Tuskegee Institute, with their large plants, constitute the first group. They occupy a unique position, not only for their influence among the schools for colored people, but also for the part they play in determining the educational policies of the country.

A number of effective movements for the extension of industrial education have been organized within the past ten years. These movements are the result of the cooperation of the Jeanes Fund, the Slater Fund, and the General Education Board with the State and county departments of education. Through this cooperation, State supervisors of colored schools have been appointed in ten Southern States and county industrial teachers are maintained in 131 counties of these and other States. These agencies have organized home-makers’ clubs, encouraged the introduction of industrial courses into the schools, and assisted in arousing public opinion favorable to industrial education.