CHAPTER I.

GENERAL VIEW.

The condition of servitude of the colored people in the South previout to their emancipation precluded any organized effort to instruct them in schools or by regular teachers; but even before the War there was a disposition in many quarters to give them, as opportunity permitted, oral instruction in the rudiments of knowledge, and a few, through the instrumentality of the master's family, were taught to read, and even became tolerable scholars.

It was hard to realize that, as one of the results of the War, the former subject race were to be on terms of civil and political equality with their old masters, and harder still to comprehend the fact that this condition involved the education of that race by taxation, if need be, of the white race. It was not strange, then, that, in the beginning of the new order of things, the white people generally were unwilling to take any action leading to the education of negro children from their own means or by their own efforts. It therefore naturally came to pass that the Freedmen's Bureau, established to look after the interests of the new "wards of the nation," took the initiative in organizing schools in the South for the instruction of colored children. Several benevolent or religious organizations of the North and West, notably the American Missionary Society, also made an early movement in this direction, and some by themselves, some in connection with the Freedmen's Bureau, started schools in different portions of Alabama. These schools were not popular at first, but the prejudice against them after a time died away, more or less rapidly according to the disposition and deportment of their conductors. Public sentiment with regard to the education of the negro also changed. By the organic law of the State the colored man and his children became entitled to certain rights which could not lawfully be denied them, and it was not long before as sentiment became predominant that, as he was a citizen by law, it was not less the interest than the duty of the white people to see that at least his children were prepared, as best they could be, for the exercise of the duties of citizenship.

Among the earliest school functionaries in the State to take action in this matter was the board of school commissioners of Mobile County.

Some account of the beginning, progress, and extent of their work will be found in the succeeding chapter.

The first school established in Mobile, if not the first in Alabama, for teaching colored children was, undoubtedly, the school organized in the building known as the Blue College, which was purchased for the purpose jointly by the Freedmen's Bureau and the American Missionary Association. These were, necessarily, primary schools, but they have developed into an academic school, and are now under the sole control of the American Missionary Association. Other colored schools have been aided, or maintained, in the State by the American Missionary Association, the Pittsburg Freedman's Aid Commission, the Freedman's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Westchester Aid Society of Pennsylvania.

It is believed, however, that all these societies, except the American Missionary Association, have withdrawn from Alabama, and that the work of educating the colored children of the State is carried on by the latter association, the Mobile school commissioners, and the department of education of Alabama.

CHAPTER II.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOR COLORED CHILDREN.

First Attempt by the American Missionary Association and the Freedmen's Bureau to Establish Schools for Colored Children-Early Action on the Subject by the Mobile School Commissioners-Action of the Board of Education-Difficulties Encountered in the Work-Remarkable Growth and Progress of these Schools in the Last Decade.

During the school year 1868-69 there appear to have been some colored schools taught in several counties of the State, but the statistics of these schools are meagre, and the results attained were probably more meagre still.

The board of school commissioners of Mobile County took official action in the matter of schools for colored children as early as the month of May, 1867, when a committee was appointed "to inquire whether our system of public instruction can be extended to colored children in Mobile, and, if so, to report in what manner, and by what means, such instruction can be most effectually accomplished." In the following August this committee made a partial report to the effect that a correspondence had been had with the superintendent of education of the Freedmen's Bureau, who expressed gratification at the disposition manifested by the board, and stated that the sum of $12,000 had been appropriated by the Bureau to erect buildings in Mobile for the use of colored schools. At the meeting in October, 1867, Rev. E. D. Taylor

(colored) appeared before the board to ask for aid in the erection of a building to be used for school and church purposes. On October 16th application was made by the agent of the American Missionary Association, asking aid to purchase the building known as Pinney's College, for colored schools. This building was subsequently purchased by the Missionary Association, aided by the Freedmen's Bureau.

On January 10, 1868, a resolution was adopted by the board directing the secretary to ascertain the amount of school taxes paid by the colored people, and appropriating the entire amount, when ascertained, to the support of schools for colored children. On August 24th the committee on colored schools reported the "outlines of a system for colored schools, providing for three schools in the city, to comprise all grades that might be found requisite to meet the capacity and acquirements of the pupils, and so located as best to accommodate the different centres of the colored population, and made, with respect to teachers, discipline, and thoroughness, equal to the best schools of similar grade in the city." The committee determined that, for the country districts, schools be established in neighborhoods "where the colored population is large enough to justify it; no school to be kept for a shorter period than three months." This report was unanimously adopted, and the committee on school districts were authorized to make all needful arrangements for school houses for colored schools.

On November 11th the executive committee reported the opening of two colored schools, and a proposition, made by them to the American Missionary Association, to employ the teachers and take charge of the schools in the Blue College, and submitted a letter from the secretary of the association declining the proposition.

The following public colored schools were taught in Mobile during the scholastic year ending June, 1868:

In the autumn of 1868 an additional colored school, called the St. Peter's School, was put in operation, which on December 1st had an attendance of two hundred and sixteen pupils. By the year 1871, when the first accurate statistics of the colored schools in the State were furnished, there were seven hundred and fifty-one primary, one hundred and forty-three intermediate, twenty-six grammar, and two high schools, nine hundred and twenty-two in all, for colored children in Alabama, with a total enrolment of 54,336 and an average attendance of 41,308. Nine hundred and seventy-three teachers were employed in these schools. Ten years later (1878) there were one thousand four hundred and sixty-eight schools for colored children taught in Alabama, with an enrolment of 63,914 and an average attendance of 41,659.

The next year (1879) there were one thousand four hundred and ninetyone public schools for colored children taught in the State, employing one thousand and eighty-nine male and four hundred and ninety-six female teachers. The number of pupils enrolled was 67,386, and the average daily attendance was 46,438. The total school population (colored) for the year was 162,561. The average cost of tuition to the State per pupil, based on enrolment, was, white, one dollar and ninetyone cents; colored, two dollars and ten cents.

Two years later (1881) the enumeration of colored children of school age was 170,413; number of colored schools taught, one thousand five hundred and ninety-one; number of teachers, one thousand six hundred and forty-five; number of pupils enrolled, 68,840; average daily attendance, 48,476.

In 1882 the amount of $152,890.43 was paid by the State to one thousand five hundred and eight teachers of colored schools, who taught an average of seventy-eight days each. This does not include the amount paid to colored normal schools, which will appear hereafter.

In 1884 the amount expended by the State for colored schools increased to $202,130.91; the number of pupils taught, to 81,065; the number of schools to one thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven; the number of teachers to one thousand seven hundred and twentyfour; and the average duration of the schools to eighty-three days.

The annual report of Superintendent Palmer for the school year ending September 30, 1888, gives the enumeration of colored children of school age as 212,821; the amount paid colored teachers, $183,933.97; the number of colored schools taught, one thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight; the number of teachers employed, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five; the enrolment in the public schools, 98,919; the average daily attendance, 66,424; average length of schools, sixtyseven days.

In Mobile County there were thirty-one schools for colored children, employing fifty-one teachers, nearly all colored, with an average enrolment of forty pupils to a teacher. There are now in Mobile County several good buildings for colored schools, and there has recently been erected, for the higher grade colored schools, a large and commodious building, called the Broad Street Academy.

Great care is taken in the selection of teachers, and, to secure the best talent and preparation in this direction, a teachers' class for the instruction of colored teachers is held weekly in Mobile, conducted by the able and untiring superintendent of education, Prof. E. R. Dick

son.

An examination of the statistics herein given will lead the uɔprejudiced mind to the conclusion that, in educational matters at least, the colored children of the State have long had, and now have, their full share of the benefit of the public school system, and that, to a large ex, tent, they are availing themselves of the advantages offered them.