Atlanta University

“ The varied and powerful influence of Atlanta University is seldom adequately estimated by the casual reader. Situated almost exactly midway between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers on the one hand, and the Atlantic and Gulf coast on the other, it has an unsurpassed opportunity for reaching the colored people of the South. ”

“ In conclusion, we think it proper to dwell for a moment upon the fact that the Atlanta University, besides the influence which it wields directly upon its scholars, reaches, through the many who pass out from its walls as teachers, almost the entire colored population of our State. While the mental man is being developed, the moral man is carefully trained, and temperance and religion are important parts of the instruction given. ”

“ EDMUND ASA WARE. In another chapter of this book I have told you, boys and girls, something of the story of General S. C. Armstrong, the founder of Hampton Institute. I am now going to tell something about another white man, who was the founder of another great school for colored people. His name is Edmund Asa Ware, and he was the founder of Atlanta University. Of course you know that I must love Atlanta University because I was graduated there myself a long time ago; but I think that Atlanta University should have a warm place in the heart of every black boy and girl in America. ”

“ There is a tendency in some parts of the South to use the terms "college" and "university" loosely. Some schools for white persons, doing little if anything more than grammar and high-school work, are called "colleges," and negro institutions doing similar work are sometimes grandiloquently termed "universities."
Atlanta has thirteen public schools for negroes, but no public high school for them. There are, however, six large private educational institutions for negroes in the city, doing high-school, college, or graduate work, making Atlanta a great colored educational center. ”

“ In most cases the college departments are small adjuncts to high and common school work. As a matter of fact six institutions—Atlanta, Fisk, Howard, Shaw, Wilberforce and Leland, are the important Negro colleges so far as actual work and number of students are concerned. In all these institutions, seven hundred and fifty Negro college students are enrolled. In grade the best of these colleges are about a year behind the smaller New England colleges and a typical curriculum is that of Atlanta University. ”

“ As a result of this program, the principal institutions established were Hampton Institute, Atlanta University, Fisk University, Straight University, Talladega College, Tougaloo University, and Tillston College. ”

“ It failed to pass; but the bitter agitation, the obtrusive visits of politicians and the excited state of public feeling, have been a terrible tax upon the strength of those who were already burdened with the regular work of the University. Notwithstanding these discouragements, Atlanta University has increased the enrollment of pupils from 291 of last year to 413. “The wrath of men shall praise Him,” is a truth that is always true. ”

“ As I have said elsewhere in this book, many colored people in Atlanta are doing well in various ways. At Atlanta University I saw several students whose fathers and mothers were graduates of the same institution. Higher education for the negro has, thus, come into its second generation. More prosperous negroes in Atlanta are doing social settlement work among less fortunate members of their race, and have started a free kindergarten for negro children. ”

“ Talladega College has had 365 students. This was more than it could comfortably care for. The girls' hall was crowded. Some applicants had to be refused for lack of room. The new Cassidy School building, having been used by over 200 pupils, continues to justify its right to be. Prosperity has marked the life of this college in all its departments.
Atlanta University maintains its well-earned reputation for school work of the highest order; 297 students have shared its privileges. ”

“ We do not believe that we have ever seen better teaching than we find done at the Atlanta University. Evidences of the same thoroughness appeared in all grades of the grammar school and throughout all the classes of the higher departments. ”

“ Atlanta, Ga.—There are known to be more than 142 of the present pupils of Atlanta University engaged in teaching during their three months’ vacation. This short term is all the present school system of Georgia contemplates during the year. Although many are prepared every year to take up the work, the demand is constantly larger than the supply. A short time since, application was made at the institution for three teachers in one day, to take schools already organized in the country, and none could be found to go. ”

“ Several new scholars have come into our school, and a larger number will yet come through the efforts of these young teachers. The attendance at opening is larger than for several preceding years, and indications point toward a steady increase. Atlanta University being within one hundred miles, draws off many of the older students, but what is our loss is their gain. ”

“ Anniversary exercises are apt to afford but meagre indication of the real work accomplished by any school. To those of us who know the work of Atlanta University, such exercises seem especially inadequate to the faithful telling of what is being done here. When our good Christian friend, Philander Veryrich, hints that he is ready to come down here with a hundred thousand dollars in each pocket, to be emptied out wherever they will do the most good, I shall not especially urge his attendance upon our Commencement exercises. ”

“ I sent for catalogues of all the prominent schools in the East and eagerly gathered all the information I could concerning them from different sources. My mother told me that my father wanted me to go to Harvard or Yale; she herself had a half desire for me to go to Atlanta University, and even had me write for a catalogue of that school. There were two reasons, however, that inclined her to my father's choice; the first, that at Harvard or Yale I should be near her; the second, that my father had promised to pay for a part of my college education. ”

“ In Richmond a man who was then editing a very creditable colored newspaper gave me a great deal of his time and made my stay there of three or four days very pleasant. In Nashville I spent a whole day at Fisk University, the home of the "Jubilee Singers," and was more than repaid for my time. Among my letters of introduction was one to a very prosperous physician. He drove me about the city and introduced me to a number of people. From Nashville I went to Atlanta, where I stayed long enough to gratify an old desire to see Atlanta University again. ”

“ We, the students of the six affiliated institutions forming the Atlanta University Center — Clark, Morehouse, Morris Brown, and Spelman Colleges, Atlanta University, and the Interdenominational Theological Center — have joined our hearts, minds, and bodies in the cause of gaining those rights which are inherently ours as members of the human race and as citizens these United States. ”

“ The peculiar fascination which the South held over my imagination and my limited capital decided me in favor of Atlanta University; so about the last of September I bade farewell to the friends and scenes of my boyhood and boarded a train for the South. ”

“ But are the colored people idle? In one of the classes which graduated from the Atlanta University not long ago, were two married women who did their own house-work, walked more than three miles through the red mud of Georgia to school, were punctual in attendance and graduated with honor. ”

“ A large portion of the participants were graduates of Atlanta University, and were in attendance upon its closing exercises.
Rev. S. S. Ashley has resigned the care of the First Church in Atlanta, and Rev. Geo. E. Hill, of Marion, Ala., is supplying the pulpit during the summer.
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Woodville, Ga.—The Sabbath-school is growing, and God is with us. It is in a better condition now than ever before since its organization. Last Sunday we had both white and colored people, who came seven miles to our Sunday-school. The day-school has never been as prosperous as it is this year. ”

“ The lake is about 24 miles long and 10 broad; the mountain is an active volcano 12,160 feet high.
Atlan ́ta, a city in the United States, capital of Georgia, on an elevated ridge, 7 miles south-east of the Chattahoochee River. It is an important railway centre; carries on a large trade in grain, paper, cotton, flour, and especially tobacco, and possesses flour-mills, paper-mills, ironworks, &c. Here are Atlanta University for negro men and women, a theological college, a medical college, &c. Atlanta suffered severely during the Civil War, and a battle was fought there on 22nd July, 1864. ”

“ Everybody who has grappled with the Greek language knows how difficult it is to render the “Oration” properly. Special proficiency was shown in the several other branches upon which the students, both male and female, were subjected to rigid questioning. Our citizens are cordially invited to visit the Atlanta University, and see for themselves the great good which the management is doing for the colored people in our midst.”
TALLADEGA COLLEGE. Commencement Exercises—Standard of Instruction—Literary Society—Needs. ”

“ The anniversaries of the different colleges of the land are calling the attention of the benevolent public to their growth and wants. We especially urge the claims of the colored people South to a full share of the gifts made for endowment purposes.
THE FREEDMEN. REV. JOSEPH E. ROY, D.D., Field Superintendent, Atlanta, Ga.
ANNIVERSARY REPORTS. ATLANTA UNIVERSITY, GEORGIA. BY REV. C. W. FRANCIS.
Unless you could look through our eyes you would not know, from a formal record of the closing exercises of our school, how much interest and hope and pathos are crowded into these busy days. ”

“ Our children are not only hungry—they are crowded into close quarters, and some of them have to be turned out of doors. At the Atlanta University, with accommodations for only 40 girls, 62 are packed in. At Tougaloo, barracks of slabs are erected, and outbuildings and garrets are turned into dormitories, and still the pupils come, so that the teachers inquire if they may put three in a bed and twelve in one large room. ”

“ The first one says: “I have the same old story to report, except a few new things. Have taught in Monroe Co. for four summers. The first year no white people visited the school; the second two came; the third year four; this year thirty or forty. All think highly of Atlanta University, and the Commissioner begged me to supply the county with teachers from this school. People are not willing to sell land. Colored people doing well as they can; anxious to get up higher and want teachers to help them up.”
Another says: “I had a half hour of Bible study each morning. ”

“ The third graduate is employed by a wealthy resident of Atlanta, at whose home he always has lived, as collector of rents, etc., and may be said to be “in business.”
So, instead of the young man in question having a university education, he did not finish his freshman year; instead of his being a member of a class of thirty, his class numbered only eleven; and instead of thirty falling from the sublime heights of university graduates to the low estate of porters in cotton houses, the three of that class who completed their college course are occupying the important positions mentioned above. ”

“ In the law department of the Straight at New Orleans there are more white than colored students. Some of the best teachers in the white public schools of Atlanta have visited the class-rooms of our University there, with the purpose frankly avowed of making improvement in the art of teaching. In the country white teachers have gone to those who had been trained at Atlanta to learn their normal methods of instruction and of management. May not such yet say we will go to that training school for ourselves, and get those improvements at first hand? ”

“ Theta, Oglethorpe University, 1870 (died 1874) . Theta, Atlanta Medical College, 1879. Iota, Furman University, 1872. Kappa, Mercer University, 1873. Eta, Richmond College, 1870. Lambda, Virginia University, 1873. Mu, Newberry College, 1873. Nu, Philadelphia College of Dental Surgery, 1877. Xi, Virginia Agricultural College, 1878. Pi, Gordon Institute, 1879. The Alpha was suspended for a short time in 1878, but is now in full operation. The Theta became extinct when the college was closed, but has since been revived and transferred to Atlanta. There is also an alumni chapter at Richmond, Va. ”

“ The world's great men have not commonly been great scholars, nor its great scholars great men.—O.W. Holmes.
See also Harvard university; Scholarship.
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
The college is a coy maid—
She has a habit quaint
Of making eyes at millionaires
And winking at the taint.
—Judge.
"What is a 'faculty'?"
"A 'faculty' is a body of men surrounded by red tape."—Cornell Widow.
Yale University is to have a ton of fossils. Whether for the faculty or for the museums is not announced.—The Atlanta Journal. ”

“ Whatever local interests may clash, the good of Atlanta is always a rallying cry. The Atlanta spirit, which has accomplished so much in the upbuilding of the city itself, is happily contagious, and has much to do with making Georgia the Empire State of the South. The spirit of new life has spread from this to other Southern States which are the most active in the development of their resources, and the spirit of the Southeast is the spirit of Atlanta. ”