Tougaloo College

“ The attendance on these schools was 6,922, of whom 5,448 were elementary, 1,380 secondary, and 94 collegiate. All the schools have elementary classes, all but three have secondary, and four offer instruction in college subjects. The number of teachers is 383, of whom 212 are white and 171, or 45 per cent. colored; 92 are men and 291, or 76 per cent. are women; and 270, or 70 per cent., are academic teachers.
GIRLS’ DORMITORY, TOUGALOO COLLEGE, TOUGALOO, MISS.
One of the most picturesque institutions in America, being located in a magnificent grove. ”

“ The late Thomas Lafon, a colored man, left at death $5,800 to this excellent institution; to Talladega College, Talladega, Ala., with 519 students, $2,500; to Tougaloo University, Tougaloo, Miss., with 392 students, $3,000. This institute, under the charge of the American Missionary Association, began twenty-five years ago with one small building surrounded by negro cabins. Now there are ten buildings in the midst of five hundred acres. Most of these institutions for colored people have small libraries, which would be greatly helped by the gift of good books. ”

“ Very few of them will be able to pay anything for their board. They often come to my room in great numbers to talk of Tougaloo.
In speaking with young people about this University, I try to impress them with the knowledge that young men who are willing to work hard and study diligently are those for whom the school is open. I show them my five pound boots, etc. I think those who go there from here will not find it harder than they expected. I go into the country occasionally and meet young men who say: “Please talk to my father in my behalf, and try to induce him to send me to school.” ”

“ They should see those who work by day, diligent students at the books all the long evenings until late. They should see the self help of all. They should go through the grades and notice the quality of the work done and its character, its classes in mathematics and in languages, and its work in the physical sciences. It is a great school—Tougaloo—and if people could see it, they would quote it more for its economy and efficiency. ”

“ 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, [pg 208] 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." ”

“ The recent burning of the boys’ dormitory at Tougaloo, Miss., compels us to build anew, and the over-crowding of students compels us to build larger.
We must rebuild or abandon the school. The latter we dare not do. The colored population in the State exceeds the white, numbering 652,221, and has increased over 46 per cent. in the last ten years. Tougaloo University is seven miles north of Jackson, the capital, and there is no similar school of higher grade admitting colored students nearer than about 200 miles south, east, or north, and none much nearer west. ”

“ Although Tougaloo University is not a State institution, I desire, in its behalf, to convey to you in this parting message a word of warm and sincere commendation. No school in the South is conducted upon higher principles, and its good effects are felt throughout the State. By way of recognition of its great merit, and for the high esteem in which its principal is held in the community, the Board of Visitors has been continued from term to term, and I recommend that a Board be appointed by the Governor for the next biennial year. ”

“ The Institution has 500 acres of land attached to it, giving employment to the students, and it has the good-will of the State Legislature, which makes an annual grant to support teachers.
The school at Tougaloo has long been over-crowded. It has comfortable rooms for 32 young women, but 60 are in attendance, three being put in the small rooms, and sitting-rooms being converted into sleeping apartments. One room needed for the accommodation of teachers was taken and ten young women put into it. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ Industrial training is not a specialty at Straight. What is done in that line is more a recreation than a branch of study. We were told, with evident pride in the fact, that all the outfit we saw was purchased by the students themselves. Not a dollar of the funds of the Association had gone toward it. Every class-room seemed crowded. The statement that applicants had to be turned away every week needed no confirmation.
Coming so recently from Tougaloo it was interesting to note the difference between the two institutions. ”

“ Another feature has been the opening up of the "Tougaloo University Addition to Tougaloo." About one hundred and twenty acres of university land have been surveyed and plotted off into home lots of about five acres each, to be sold to former students of the school and to others who desire to educate their children at Tougaloo. Already several lots have been taken and homes built, and in a few years there will be quite a little educational community. ”

“ The great point is whether these people shall be herded together in rude homes, tilling the soil without skill, and rearing their children in ignorance and vice. It is the part of Christian wisdom and the duty of the Christian churches of this land to see that the people in this densely-packed and fertile region shall be promptly met with the means of Christian education. Our school at Tougaloo should be enabled to meet in some degree the opportunity it has to prepare and furnish preachers and teachers for this growing population ”

“ The normal work is of chief importance, for the future of the race lies largely with the trained teachers of the common schools. Those who have gone from Tougaloo have won golden opinions from both races and do a work which in its scope and missionary character multiplies greatly the influence of the supporters of the school. Strieby has, by crowding, dormitory room for seventy to eighty boys. A separate building for normal work is greatly needed, one having a library, reading room, recitation room, museums and laboratories. ”

“ Tougaloo is admirably situated for industrial departments. Straight has neither room nor time for them, but meets the demand for a higher grade of scholarship, and draws its students from a wider range and from a class who have more home training, more money, and, therefore, more leisure for a full course of study. They come from the whole circumference of the Gulf, from Cuba and from Central America. Many more could be drawn from abroad if there were room to receive them. The most inveterate hatred of puns can hardly keep one from spelling Straight without the gh. ”

“ A white man sends one child and pays for it himself. Some of the whites suggested that it would be a good idea to have a high school here for the colored people.
The editor of the paper sent to my room for me Saturday, and I had a long talk with him. He said he had not known very much about Tougaloo University.
There was such a gathering at the church on Wednesday evening that they could not all get into the house. I extended an invitation to all the people in the county to be present: it was well represented. I invited the people to sign the temperance pledge after a temperance concert. ”

“ He said that the moral influence of the teachers in his county who are students at Tougaloo is quite different from those coming from other schools; that almost invariably they start Sunday-schools as soon as they open their day-schools. He assured the teachers and pupils and friends present, that they might expect with much confidence an appropriation to the institution of a few thousand dollars from the next Legislature, with a visiting committee to see if it is well expended, and make report directly to the Legislature. ”

“ Each member of the legislature is entitled to nominate one pupil for this school, who is instructed gratuitously. In the Tougaloo school, which was established by the act of Jan. 2, 1872, each county is entitled to the free tuition of two students, to be appointed by the county superintendent of education. The beneficiaries in the normal schools are required to sign a declaration of intention to make teaching a profession and to teach in the public schools of the state for at least three years. ”

“ Industrial classes have been organized as a part of the regular school work. In the Law Department at Straight we have the remarkable phenomenon of white and colored students sitting down side by side in the same classes. The whites come from the best Southern families, and are there because the instruction in the Straight Law Department is so excellent. A diploma from this department admits a student to the practice of law in the State, without examination.
Tougaloo, Miss., is situated only eight miles from the capital of the State. ”

“ Large additions have been made to the accommodations of our schools during this year. Three school buildings, and two buildings used for industrial training, have been erected. Tougaloo rejoices in the completion of the two Ballard buildings, one used for class rooms and the other for industrial training. These two buildings were erected by the students, under the direction of the Superintendent of Mechanical Training, who was also the architect. The saving in expense of building was not less than $3,000, and the Industrial classes were thus given the best instruction in this department. ”

“ An unusual number of graduates were present at Commencement, and enjoyed their own separate dinner and “the olive branches” about the table. There were never so many babies at Tougaloo before, and a well-behaved and promising little company we thought them, upon the whole. May God bless the little ones and make them every one burning and shining lights in His kingdom! Our graduating class was small this year—two young ladies from the Elementary, and a young man from the Higher Normal. The exercises were good. ”

“ 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 advocates of industrial training need not hoard their money because Straight has so little manual labor. Tougaloo will gladly and wisely use all they have to give. And those who hold that the moral and intellectual training of teachers and pastors is the only proper work of such schools, need not look askant at the workshops of Tougaloo, lest some of their benefactions should be spent for saws or anvils or solder, while Straight is crying out for room to hold those who want exactly that kind of training. ”

“ At mid-winter a work of grace pervaded the school, and not far from thirty, it was thought, of these pupils became Christ’s disciples, and they go forth with new purposes. The influences for good from Tougaloo are not easily computed; its grand possibilities reach out towards the infinite.
It seems strange to us who are on the ground, glad to man these out-posts and give what we have of life and vigor to the work, that needed supplies are not forthcoming. Give us adequate appliances, and we can greatly multiply our usefulness. We wish to be re-inforced, not relieved. ”

“ A house is also needed as a home for the President, to save room for teachers and pupils in the main buildings. In addition to the $15,000 from the Stone donation, Talladega needs for these buildings and repairs, $10,000. The wants of Tougaloo are even more pressing. The crowd of students defies all means of accommodation. Temporary barracks have been erected, out-buildings and garrets have been used as lodging places, and yet students have been turned away for want of room. ”

“ With the revolution of 1868, the old system of education crumbled away, indeed, even before 1868 the learning of foreign languages, especially English, had been tacitly connived at. A complete reform was initiated—a reform on Western lines—and it was carried out at first chiefly under American advice. The present Imperial University of Tōkyō is the representative and heir of several colleges established some thirty-five years ago, a Language College, a Medical College, a College of Engineering. ”