Читать книгу: «The American Missionary. Volume 42, No. 07, July, 1888», страница 4

A DAY AT TOUGALOO

Special Correspondence of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat

Jackson, Miss., May 26.—While the white Mississippians were laying the corner stone of a Confederate monument at Jackson, the black Mississippians were holding the closing exercises of their university at Tougaloo, only seven miles away.

TOUGALOO TO-DAY

For a wonder the war spared Tougaloo. Less pretentious houses within sight of it were fired and destroyed by roving squads. But the mansion, in the midst of a grand grove of oaks, stood intact. When the war was over, the American Missionary Association acquired 500 acres of the estate, including the mansion.

At the beginning the building afforded accommodations for both teachers and students. But at present the mansion is used for the offices of the institution and for class rooms. Tougaloo has developed into one of the largest institutions for colored youth in the South. The mansion, which was the nucleus, is now only one of half a dozen large structures. To the north of it is Strieby Hall, a long three-story brick structure. The clay was dug, the brick made, and the walls laid, chiefly by student labor. To the south is another three-story dormitory. Another notable structure in the group is the Ballard School Building, every nail in which was driven by the students. About these larger buildings are grouped the Ballard Industrial shops and cottages.

Three hundred and twenty-six students were enrolled at Tougaloo the past year. The steady growth in the attendance more than keeps pace with the increase in accommodations. They come from all parts of Mississippi, Yazoo County of terrible memories furnishing a representation notable for its numbers. Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee are represented.

A MISSISSIPPI MYSTERY

Nowhere in the South is the negro so totally a nonentity in politics as in Mississippi, and yet nowhere in the South is there a colored institution so heartily commended as is Tougaloo University by the white Mississippians. This seems odd, hardly credible. Tougaloo is not a State institution. Mississippi has a system of instruction including a normal school and other departments for colored youth. And yet every Legislature makes an appropriation for Tougaloo. The institution's management reports the use made of the money, and the Governor appoints a Board of Visitors. This is the extent of State supervision, and still Mississippi continues to make biennially an appropriation for the university. The last Legislature cut down the amount somewhat, but it cut some of the white institutions worse than it did Tougaloo.

Perhaps a stronger evidence of the esteem in which this university is held by white Mississippi is the social consideration bestowed upon those connected with the institution. The prejudice which ostracises "a nigger teacher" and which is so pronounced in most communities where there is a colored institution, is rarely observable here. On the Board of Visitors are men of the highest standing, like Col. J.L. Power, for almost a lifetime the head of the Clarion; Oliver Clifton, the Clerk of the Supreme Court, and F.A. Wolfe, the former Superintendent of Education. Mr. W.S. Lemly, one of the leading business men of Jackson, is a member of the Board of Trustees. To visit Tougaloo is not to lose caste in Jackson society, but is altogether a proper thing to do.

Of course there is an explanation for this. White Mississippians are much like white Georgians or white Carolinians in their views on the race problem and on negro education. Tougaloo's peculiar relation to the white people must be accounted for by the features in which it differs from other colored institutions maintained by Northern societies.

THE SECRET OF IT

The Rev. Frank G. Woodworth, President of the university, was asked how he accounted for the exceptional esteem in which Tougaloo is held. His reply was: "I think the attention which we give to industrial education has a great deal to do with it. That, and the preparation of teachers, are two things which we make most prominent in our work. The white people can see the good effects of the training we give so plainly that they feel the work we are doing is good."

This view of President Woodworth was abundantly confirmed by subsequent inquiries among white Mississippians. It is the industrial education the negroes are receiving there which so thoroughly commends the university to the dominant race. The shops are considered fully as important as the class rooms at Tougaloo. Carpentry, painting, tinning, blacksmithing and wagon-making are taught, not only the rudiments, but to the extent of turning out finished workmen. The shops were built by the students and are admirably equipped with tools. Wagons from the Tougaloo apprentices sell for $60 in Jackson, and are preferred to the product of first-class wagon-makers.

The desk at which I sit, and which will compare with skilled work anywhere, was made by one of our students. In the blacksmithing and wagon-making they learn to take iron and wood in the rough and turn out a good, substantial wagon. The value to the colored youth of such training can hardly be over-estimated. They are trained to do skilled work, to be self-reliant and self-supporting.

THE FARM SCHOOL

But teaching the trades is but part of the system of industrial education at Tougaloo. Each boy is required to work at least one hour a day on the university farm. For all work over that hour the student receives pay, the highest allowance being 7c. an hour. The farm is not run to make money, but to educate. The idea is to make the operation of the farm an object lesson to the students in the better methods of agriculture and stock raising. Several students, enough to take care of the steady and continuous farm work, are employed all day on the farm and attend the night school, but the bulk of the farm labor comes from the students, who give from one to several hours to it outside of school. Last year the farm was run with but one man outside of the student help. The boys, while getting their book learning, tilled eighty-five acres of corn, fifteen acres of oats, with a second crop of peas, seventeen acres of cotton, eight acres of peas, three acres of sorghum, two acres of garden and five acres of berries and orchard. The stock cared for included 100 head of blooded cattle, forty sheep and forty swine. The farm furnished the boarding department 14,000 pounds of beef and pork, 84,476 pounds of milk, and other products in proportion. The university farm stock has a reputation State-wide, and the exhibits are features of the annual fairs held at Jackson. While every boy in the institution has to do some daily work on the farm, there is set apart for the ninth grade a special course of a year in agricultural instruction designed to make good, practical farmers of those who take it. So much for the boys.

The girls get their full share of industrial training at Tougaloo. They have daily instruction in some branch of household duty, ranging from dish-washing to canning and preserving. Sewing is taught from the plain darning and mending to fitting and dressmaking according to the latest fashion plates. It has come to be well understood that the Mississippi lady of a house who gets one of the trained students from Tougaloo has "a perfect treasure."

THE STUDY OF HOUSEKEEPING

One of the latest additions to the system of industrial training for girls at the university is a novelty. A cottage has been set apart—four girls are assigned to it for a month at a time. There they "keep house" in all details. They not only sweep and clean and cook, but they buy their supplies, keep account of all household expenses, and manage as they will have to do when they get homes of their own. A matron looks closely after the cottage feature, which is intended to teach neatness and economy and to develop executive ability.

With Tougaloo doing such a work as this, how could the white Mississippians feel otherwise than kindly toward her. The cry has been that "education ruins the nigger." It has been asserted over and over—so many times that most Southerners believe it as true as gospel—that higher education makes a negro too proud to work. But here is an education the very central idea of which is work—work with the hands and the eyes. Here is a university which gives to the State skilled mechanics vastly superior to those who "pick up" their trades; farmers who can make two bolls of cotton grow where one grew before; stockraisers who know all the fine points of the various breeds. Governor Lowry could well say in his last message to the Mississippi Legislature:

"This university, by its successful management, commends itself to your favorable consideration."

At the closing exercises of the year yesterday, Tougaloo took another step forward. Instead of turning out a class of graduates, the management increased the course and raised the standard. An institution which does that is certainly progressive.

Two of the notable things on the programme were an essay by Lucy Jenkins, on "What Tougaloo Does for the Girls," and an oration by James Miller on "Industrial Education." Both of them were well considered, well written and well delivered. The essayist and the orator were black, not yellow. Their efforts would have done credit to Anglo-Saxons of corresponding age, North or South. As for the musical part of the programme—ah, there was melody indeed.

A negro boy named Scott, with all the features of the African strongly marked, executed a difficult solo with an artistic appreciation which would have brought enthusiastic plaudits from an audience of critics.

A TRUE FRIEND OF THE RACE

And then the Rev. Dr. William Hayne Leavell, of Meridian, arose to deliver the annual address. What a contrast! Dr. Leavell is a South Carolinian by birth and a relative of the great Nullifier Hayne. He comes of one of the proud old Southern families and has the highest social connections. He stands six feet high, a magnificent specimen of physical manhood, and as chock full of moral courage as he is of blue blood. This man left his home, declined an invitation to participate in the Confederate corner-stone ceremonies, and devoted his birthday anniversary to Tougaloo. Dr. Leavell is a son-in-law of United States Senator George, of Mississippi. He is the man who delivered an address before the Mississippi Legislature last winter, and denounced as cowards, men who go about with pistols in their hip pockets. And when the blank looks of amazement went round he rubbed his sentiments in on the Mississippians and their folly, of making themselves walking shooting galleries. Coming before the students of Tougaloo yesterday, Dr. Leavell said:

"My interest in you, in this whole work, grows out of a memory. Your fathers were the servants of my fathers. I remember that in 1861, when I was a very small boy, the sound of war went through this land. My father, kinsmen and friends went forth to battle to keep your fathers in servitude. I remember that not a few of your fathers knew what that war meant—that if my fathers succeeded, your fathers would be kept in servitude forever and my fathers would remain the master class. All the men that could protect the women and children were away. The fathers and brothers and friends were away fighting. We were in the power of your fathers and of some of you gray-headed people that I see. I remember that when they returned from that war your fathers gave back to mine the women and children without a hair of their heads having been harmed. I have remembered this with deep gratitude; and ever since that time I have felt a deep interest in you. It is therefore, that I have come in response to the call to be here to-day."

THE ONLY LOGICAL RESULT

He proceeded at considerable length with such earnest advice as he might have given to the assembled students of a white university on commencement day. After a time he touched upon the special condition which his audience presented.

"I know," said he, "of no people who have ever lived with a more difficult problem before them. You have before you the duty of saving yourselves. Mark what I tell you, no man of another race ever saved a people. Some man of you, or of your race, has got to go with the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day, and, like Moses, lead you.

"God knows many a man of my race has given his life and service for yours. And not only these men who fought at the end of a gun to make you free have given their lives for you, but some of us from the South, who stood with breasts bared to the bayonets of those who were marching forward to the support of a great principle. We are anxious now to do all we can for your advancement. But we of the white race may do our best. After all we have done for you, it is as when a man goes with a friend to the brink of the grave; he can go no further. There is a limit beyond which we cannot go for you, no matter how great our interest in you. Some man with a skin darker than mine must take up the work and carry it on."