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W. J. SANDERSON, Supt.
PREFACE.
This booklet is not intended to give a history of the Missionary
efforts of the Reformed Presbyterian Church among the Freedmen in the
regions of Selma; nor is it intended to contain a full account of the work
being done at the present time, for to contain such an account a book of no
mean proportions would be required; nor yet is it intended to be a manual
for those who might wish to study this field to learn more of the work that
is being done and the greater work that needs to be done if conditions are
to be adequately met, and great moral and social problems rightly solved.
These few pages are intended simply to give to those who may not
be able to visit the field a few glimpses, by word and picture, of the work
being attempted in the hope that by thus seeing a little, a more intense and
self sacrificing interest may be awakened in behalf of this corner of the
Master's Vineyard until abundant gifts for it shall be offered and hearts en¬
larged in the prayer that "Ethiopia may stretch out her hands unto God"
Observer, catch the glimpses here presented of a work in progress
and invest your means and life in it for the Lord's sake and humanity's is
the prayer of your servant who with others is attempting to fill a place in
carrying it on.
3
KNOX ACADEMY PUPILS
KNOX ACADEMY BUILDING
Is a three story brick structure and is the hub of the school life. The
building was erected in 1881 and is located in the west side of Selma, a city
of 16,000 inhabitants, of whom over 10,000 are colored. The first floor of
the building is occupied by Grades Nos. 1, Annex 1, 2 and 3. On the sec¬
ond floor are the Grammar School, High School, Superintendents Office,
Recitation Room and Chapel with a seating capacity of 450 which is often
more than taxed with an enrollment of 600 in the Academy. On the
third floor are Grades Nos. 4, 5 and 6, the sewing room where the girls
are taught sewing, and the clothes room where the barrels and boxes sent to
the Mission are unpacked and whence the contents are distributed. The
pupils are under discipline from the time they enter the grounds. They
line up, the girls on one side of the building and the boys on the other, and
march into the rooms and chapel accompanied by music on piano and tri¬
angle, and in like manner they march out. The sight is more than impres¬
sive to see them march thus five and six hundred strong. One is made to
feel a responsibility and wonders what of the future. The Bible and Cate¬
chisms are taught one-half hour every day and recited once a week by
grades in Chapel. The upper grades commit from 10 to 20 verses every
week and thus the word is not only studied but well planted and some
glorious fruitage it must bear.
HIGH SCHOOL
The High School department of the Academy has four grades, 9, 10,
11 and 12, and 45 pupils are in it this year. Few, comparatively, of those
who pass the lower grades go through the High School. In Grade 6 and the
Grammar school the dropping out of pupils is most noticeable. The lack of
means is often given as the reason why schooling must terminate at this
stage. It is to be regretted that the school life of the average negro youth
is as short as it is but it is encouraging to see it lengthening. The course in
this department compares favorably with the High School Course in White
schools. Literature, Economics, Pshysics, Algebra, Geometry and Latin
represent the highest studies taught. This course furnishes the negro
youth with none too much mental equipment with which to face success¬
fully their higher problems of life.
BOYS INDUSTRIAL BUILDING
Industrial education is important for any people; for the Negro it is
imperative. It is imperative for two reasons, first to eliminate from the
mind the thought that any legitimate manual labor is degrading, and to in¬
still the opposite thought, the dignity of it. One of the fruits of slavery is
a wrong conception of work. Second, to give the ability to do the most
necessary kinds of work skilfully and well. In slavery the negro did not
depend upon a calling for a living. He was worked in an occupation (for
7
HIGH SCHOOL ROOM
the most part the cultivation of cotton) and was fed for it. In freedom he
is to be taught that his dignity lies in being a workman and not a worked
man. Besides there is not complete industrial freedom for the Negro.
Some trades are comparatively closed to him. His hope of success as the
hope of any other lies in absolute efficiency. That is necessary to win the
way for any people. The economic factor, skill in the manual trades, abil¬
ity to supply his needs lie near the heart of the Negro's emancipation, and
hence the reason that the more important industries, such as carpentry,
blacksmithing, cooking, sewing and agriculture are given due attention in
the educational efforts that center about Knox Academy.
BOYS INDUSTRIAL BUILDING
BLACKSMITHING DEPARTMENT
This scene presents some of the Knox boys at work in the Blacksmith
shop. No doubt forty-five years ago freedom meant to many Negroes to be
free from work with the hands. But the lesson taught here and elsewhere
in the school means the opposite. The boys in all the grades above the fifth
are permitted to choose between blacksmithing and the carpenter course.
The aim is to acquaint the boys with blacksmithing tools, their names, uses,
0
BLACKSMITH SHOP
their care and how to handle them. They are taught how to temper and
weld iron. Custom work is taken in and this gives a practical side to the
training and affords experience in forging, wheelwrighting, work in both
wood and iron, shoeing and almost anything that pertains to general black-
smithing.
CARPENTER DEPARTMENT
That the Carpenter Department is an important adjunct to the course
prescribed for Knox Academy is substantiated by examples of practical re¬
sults. The time since this department was introduced into the school has
been short but already young men have gone out from it who are now mak¬
ing a success in carpantry and some of whom are getting positions of teach¬
ers of it in other schools, the boys are introduced into this department
from the fourth grade. The course embraces the following: Sloyd knife
work, Names and uses of tools, Sawing, Plaining, Squaring, Beveling, Lev¬
eling, Grinding of tools, Selecting material, Names of parts of a house,
Forming rafters, Mitering, Saw filing and setting, Drafting plans, Estimat¬
ing, Making Screens, Doors, Sideboards, Bookcases, Chiffoniers and such like.
11
SEWING ROOM
SEWING DEPARTMENT
The picture on the adjoining page is a glimpse of the girls at work in
the Sewing room. This means much in the preparatory life of young women
From the Third Grade sewing is taught; below that paper cutting, fold¬
ing and pasting is the industrial work for the girls. The course in sewing
includes class drill practice in position, making the different stitches on
sample pieces, making plain garments, cutting from patterns, taking
measurements and drafting patterns, study of cloth, color and form, harmo¬
nizing colors, taking measurements and cutting by system, sponging, shrink¬
ing and pressing, and testing fabrics. The girl graduates appear at com¬
mencement in dresses made by themselves.
KITCHEN
The Domestic Science course is of the greatest value to girls who come
from homes which are sadly deficient. If they are to receive training for
this side of life they will get it for the most part at school and not at home.
This course at Knox includes Combination of materials, Composition of
foods, Chemistry of foods, Chemistry of cooking, Food economics, Calcula¬
tion of dietaries, Household science and sanitation, Household arrangement,
Home nursing and hygiene, History of vegetables, fruits and cereals, Cook¬
ing and demonstrations.
13
FACULTY
From left to right; 1st row sitting—Miss Ella Frazier, Miss Anna
Sims, Miss Mable Gill, Miss Elvira Sims, Rev. S. F. Kingston, Mrs. King¬
ston, Miss E. M. Hays.
2nd row—Mrs. Kynett, Mr. T. Kynette, W. J. Sanderson, Mrs. San¬
derson, Miss Ada Hamilton, Miss Gussie Ware, Mrs. G. M. Sims, Miss Pat-
tie Anna Kingston,
3rd row—Prof. W. M. Bottoms, Mrs. Bottoms, Miss Margaret Martin,
Mrs. M. J. Robb, Miss Mary Wilson, Miss Lulu Lavander, Miss Mary Fow¬
ler, Miss Sophia Kingston, Mrs. W. J. Anderson.
To meet the present demands of the work about 22 teachers and
workers are required. Seven of those now at work are from the north, the
rest are colored, several of whom are graduates of Knox. Once a month all
come together for an evening in a Teachers Institute to consider the prob¬
lems of the work and the best methods of meeting them.
The faculty is required to be a band of workers not for five days in
the week but for seven, always giving their lives in service educationally,
morally and spiritually to those to whom they are sent to help.
14
THE WELL
In this picture the reader may see what was once Knox's much prized
overflowing well. A constant stream two inches in diameter of pure health-
giving water came gushing from depths 600 feet below the surface. The
good health which has prevailed for the past five or six years in the school
has been due doubtless in good measure to this well whose Waters would
make most any place a health resort. This last fall however to our great
regret the flow ceased, the water rising only to about three feet of the sur¬
face. While the water seems quite as good as formally, yet we are deprived
of the service of the tank into which water was pumped by a ram and from
which water was forced to different quarters for use. There is hope that
by some expense the flow may be started again.
15
EAST SELMA BUILDING AND PUPILS
The work in East Selma was begun six years ago, in a part of the city
with scarcely no school advantages. There was considerable hesitancy in
opening work here but the success that has followed is sufficient proof that
it was the right thing to do. The work was started in a two-room cabin,
and now there is a commodious two story cement-block building, in which
EAST SELMA SCHOOL
there are four grades with 146 pupils. The building is the work of Knox
boys under the direction of Professor Bottoms. Miss Sophia Kingston
.the efficient principal in charge, conducts Sabbath School every Sabbath
with an attendance of 125, holds monthly mothers meetings and constantly
devises such other meetings as may be thought best for the educational and
religious interests of the community.
PLEASANT GROVE SCHOOL
This school is situated four miles north of Selma, and is properly a
Country school, a thing that is needed throughout the South especially in the
Black Belt. There are sections four and six miles square without a school
for the Negroes, and the schools that are found are only makeshifts, tempo-
16
V \
4)
PLEASANT GROVE SCHOOL
rary expedients, a house loosely built of roughest boards, no windows but
the doors which are open in many cases only three months in the year for
service, and during even that time only an excuse of a teacher is at the desk.
Not much light for the dense darkness of ignorance that exists. The color¬
ed population in country districts in the "Black Belt" is dense. From with¬
in the radius of one mile or a little more Pleasant Grove has 95 pupils. The
school is located in a pleasant place, has a good building and is representa¬
tive of what a country school ought to be.
A Sabbath school is conducted here every Sabbath, also Junior meet¬
ings, and preaching service at least once a month.
The school is on the Pleasant Grove farm, a farm of 24 acres owned
and controlled by the Board in the interests of agriculture. Mr. T. Kynette
and family are the present incumbents, Mrs. Kynette being the teacher of
the sehool.
VALLEY CREEK SCHOOL
The school bearing this name is located three miles north-west of
Selma in the country and is designed to be a little educational oasis in the
desert; while it does not fill as large a place as Pleasant Grove school it is
17
VALLEY CREEK SCHOOL
intended to fill a place with similar needs. There are many spots that need
the lamp of a good school set in their midst, for in 1900 there were 352
Counties in the United States in which one half of the Negro population
was illiterate. There is a six months school at Valley Creek with 20 to 30
pupils. A Sabbath school is conducted each Sabbath under the superinten-
dency of Mrs. S. F. Kingston and once a month there is preaching service.
RUSTIC FARMER
The two views on the following pages illustrate a way and a better
way of farming. Both views are true to life. The above is a picture of a
farmer at work in the vicinity of Valley Creek as he was caught in the
camera by our artist Prof. Anderson. While a mule to the plow is the most
common outfit for breaking up the ground, a bony milk cow or a diminutive
ox is frequently seen doing the work, and the plow used in such cases is
also a very diminutive tool. The farming as a rule is exceedingly poorly done.
It takes only a superficial glance at many a patch that is said to be plowed
to discern that one-half or two-thirds of the surface has never been disturb¬
ed while the part that has been touched has not been loosened to a depth of
more than three or four inches. When one considers that much of the work
18
of cultivation is after the same order of deficiency it ought to become at once
evident to most any one that agricultural training is a necessity for the Ne¬
gro's emancipation from poverty, and especially so in view of the fact that
for the most part farming is the Negro's business. The great mass of the
race, 83 per cent, of them are in the country, and it is here the real African
earns his livelihood and makes his home, or what he has for a home. In
1900, 732,362 farms were operated by Negroes in the South. In the country
in the Black Belt nine out of ten of the population are colored. So farming
as a business concerns masses of the people.
A RUSTIC FARMER
The second picture is Mr. Kynette, the mission farmer with his team
at work on the Pleasant Grove farm. He is given the management of this
farm that he by example, the employment of better methods, and farmers'
institutes might set before others of his race better ideals and lead them to
greater success in farming. Mr. Kynett is energetic in his line of work,
has already greatly improved the Pleasant Grove place, and is proving what
great good the right kind of a Negro farmer may do for the industrial prog¬
ress of his race.
19
MR. KYNETTE AND TEAM
THE NEGRO HOME
This is a typical Negro cabin photographed for this booklet. It is not
the best nor is it by any means the worst, but a fair example of the dwell¬
ings in which the masses of the race in the country districts of the Black
Belt live. And when one touches the home life of the Negro there is touch¬
ed one of the most deplorable features of his present condition. The great¬
est lack of the race as a whole is proper home surroundings and training,
and proper notions of the fundamental principles of pure family life. The
housing conditions of the race in many country districts have not changed
radically since the war. Proffessor Dubois writes of the conditions thus;
"The form and disposition of the laborer's cabins throughout the 'Black
Belt' is to-day the same as in slavery days. Some live in the self same cabins,
others in cabins rebuilt on the sites of the old. * * * All over the face of the
land is the one room cabin. * * * It is nearly always old and bare, built
of rough boards, and neither plastered nor ceiled. Light and ventilation are
supplied by the single door and by the square hole in the wall with its wooden
shutter. There is no glass,, porch, or ornamentation without. Within is
a fire place, black and smoky, and usually unsteady with age, a bed or two, a
20
table, a wooden chest, and a few chairs compose the furniture, while a stray
show bill or a newspaper makes up the decorations of the walls." The
writer has seen a man and wife and six children before a one room cabin
sixteen feet square with a single door as the only opening in its walls, with¬
in which all their cooking, sleeping, the forming of ideals and preparation
for life must take place.
Early marriages, divided families, husbands living apart from their
wives and wives from their husbands, concubinage, incests, illegitimate
children, unlawful divorces and remarriages abound and make up a mighty
NEGRO CABIN
stream of evil, polluted from the very fountain head, the home. If the
home is the mark of civilization it is also the maker of it and the crying
need in the Christianization of the Negro is houses with more rooms and
light in them, home surroundings with improved moral standards, and
better notions of the Christian principles that regulate the family.
KNOX CHAPEL
The following page is a picture of the pupils of the Academy assem¬
bled in chapel where they gather every morning for religious services, and
21
on other occasions for literary exercises, musicals, temperance programs
and such like. Often there is brought to bear upon schools among Negroes
a pressure to have entertainments and plays whose value intellectually and
morally, no matter what their value may be financially, is below par. It is
the constant aim to keep Knox chapel free from all such associations and
have exhibited here that only which is in the highest sense profitable.
SUPERINTENDENT'S HOME
Is a seven room cottage, conveniently located just across the street
from the Academy. It was purchased by the Board, November 1902 and is
a part of its possessions in this field.
TEACHERS' HOME
Was erected in the summer of 1894. It stands on the same side of the
street as the Academy and is separated from it by the church building and
yard. It is owned by the Board; has eight rooms, and makes a suitable
dwelling place for the five or six white teachers who are sent to labor in the
mission from the North. The Board owns four other small dwellings in
this same block.
23
TEACHERS' HOME
LADIES QUARTETTE
In the Academy there are various organizations among the pupils to
help to further the interests of the musical, literary and religious work of
the school. There is a literary society which presents an hour's program in
the chapel every other Friday afternoon. Essays, orations, current events,
debates, music, instrumental and vocal make up the program. This is
designed for literary improvement and training in conducting meetings
according to parliamentary order.
There is a Y. W. C. A. and also a Y. M. C. A. which have regular
meetings. These organizations have as their object the winning of souls
for Christ, the deepening of spiritual life and preparation for service. This
winter the girls have been studying missions and how to help in them,
while the boys have been seeking profit from a study of Bible characters.
There are several musical organizations such as a Ladies Quartette,
Male Quartette, Glee Club, Girls Orchestra and Boys Band. These are
formed both for the musical training resulting to the members and to pro¬
vide for plenty of music on the various programs that are given by the
school. About twenty-five public programs have been given this year.
24
The members of the present Ladies Quartette have sung together
only this year, but have done their part in furnishing music and have filled
their place with credit.
MALE QUARTETTE
For the past two years Knox has been favored with a good Quartette
of male voices notwithstanding several changes in the membership of it
have been necessary. The excellency of its work merits a place for it on
almost every program. It meets once a week regularly for practice and has
studied some twenty-five different selections this year.
The singing is a delightful part of the school work as the pupils take
readily to it and make good progress in it. The Negroes as a race are more
naturally singers and musicians than are the whites. They possess two
important essentials for singing, first rythm which with them is innate;
second they have a characteristic chest, throat and face which are admirably
suited to the production of musical tones. There is a material basis for
singing just as there is for violin music a material basis in the wood, glue
and strings of which the violin is composed. For singing the physical
structure of the average Negro is of a type among races that corresponds
with the Stradivarius type of instruments among violins.
25
In all the grades singing is taught and for instruction and practice in
piano music the Academy possesses two instruments. The services of an
efficient, consecrated musician are always needed.
KNOX BAND
For the past five or six years under the faithful management and effi¬
cient instruction of Professor Bottoms a desirable adjunct to the institution
has been a good band. It helps out on many an occasion and the melodious
strains it sets afloat about the premises lend an additional attractiveness to
the place. The Band has its place on many a public program at Knox and
elsewhere. It generally consists of about 16 members. There are many
changes, old members dropping out and new ones coming in, and while this
makes it difficult to have the Band always at its best, it affords at the same
time to a greater number the opportunity of a musical training under a
leader who is capable of making such a training profitable.
GIRLS ORCHESTRA
While the boys have their opportunity in the Band it is the design to
give the girls a similar opportunity in an orchestra.
The aim of the work in Knox Academy and its associate schools is to
26
represent as many sides of education in the training of the Negro youth as
will best fit them for the duties of real life regarding as fundamental to all
a most thorough religious training. Hence the reason that all the activities
of the school are made to bear upon the four special lines of training, the
Industrial, Musical, Literary and Religious.
MEDAL WINNERS IN TEMPERANCE ORATORY
Knox and associated schools seek to engage themselves actively in
temperance work, not confining the work simply to themselves but extend¬
ing it to the world outside. Of temperance instruction there is certainly
the greatest need from the cook in the kitchen who dopes her cakes and
pastries with brandy to the besotted man and woman toppling into a drunk¬
ard's grave. Christianity can save no race in intoxicants, only from them.
Hence the effort in temperance work. And one of the impressive sights in
the school work is to see and hear young men and women as they stand be¬
fore audiences in chapel and elsewhere throughout the city and community
and deliver messages to the members of their own race that mean to multi¬
tudes of them life from death.
On a following page is a group of pupils each of whom during the
past year has won two medals in temperance oratory.
27
Since January a year ago 24 contests have been held, 170 temperance
orations have been delivered, a little over half of them in Knox chapel and
the remainder in churches, halls and schools situated within a radius of a
little less than ten miles and 64 different young people have spoken in these
contests.
Miss E. M. Hays is the superintendent of this work with Miss Mary
Fowler assistant. Much seed has been sown by these young people and the
increase is with God.
R. P. CHURCH BUILDING.
As a result of Missionary work among the Negroes by the Reformed
Presbyterian church a Congregation was organized in 1875. Three years
later the present church building was erected. It is two-story, the upstairs
being the main auditorium with a seating capacity of 500 while the down
stairs is divided into four rooms for Sabbath School work. The following
have served as pastors: Rev. Lewis Johnson, pastorate brief; Rev. G. M.
Elliott followed with a much longer service. The present pastor is Rev.
S. F. Kingston, an able and faithful preacher of the word with twenty years
of service to his credit.
28
The membership of the Congregation is one hundred, four elders and
five deacons. There is a Woman's Missionary Society, a Ladies Auxillery,
a Sabbath School and a Young Peoples Society. While the people's practice
of moving about from place to place is in one way a hindrance to the congre¬
gation's rapid growth and most efficient service among the Negroes, yet in
another way it is an advantage in that it forms a dispersion by which the
church's life and influence are extended. During the 36 years of the Con¬
gregation's history a great host have been identified with its life and work
and have caught its spirit for service elsewhere and we trust for glory
hereafter.
THE MEDAL WINNERS IN TEMPERANCE ORATORY
OFFICERS OF CONGREGATION
This group is a partial representation of those who at present are
serving the Congregation as officers. This band of men and women are
joining hands in a consecrated effort to lead the Congregation to financial
and spiritual success and to aid their brethren according to the flesh out of
bondage into life and liberty.
29
OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH
SUPPORT OF THE MISSION
To carry on the work in this field as operated at present approximately
$8,400.00 is required annually. A regular Endowment Fund of $5,481.28
furnishes $301.40. One share of the yearly profits of the David Gregg
Endowment fund comes to the Mission annually and amounts to $600.00.
$400.00 is being now received yearly from the five annual payments to be
made from the estate of Mr. Charles Mcllroy. From Mr. Andrew Alexan¬
der for ten years annually $1000.00. The average each year for the past
four years from congregations $3,200.00 and the local receipts for the same
time about $2,000.00. Contributions of clothing, household goods and
material for the sewing room are always acceptable. Everything should be
plainly addressed to Knox Academy, Selma, Alabama, with the name of the
sender inside as well as outside of package. Have the package labeled
household goods, which they mostly are, and ask that they be released when
shipped and so reduce freight bill. The Louisville and Nashville and the
Southern Railroads pass through Selma.
30
AGED MEMBERS
Here is a picture of the most aged couple in the congregation, Joseph
Shearer and his wife Barbara. They have lived together 56 years and their
combined ages are 160 years, making their lives to extend far back into
slavery, a condition in which they were deprived of the privilege of hearing
the letters of the alphabet, although now they are privileged to hear much
more, even the word of life which they hear with gladness. They are child¬
like Christians, faithful to the church, rich in grace, and their lives are a
sample of the glorious fruits being gathered from mission fields. In charac¬
ter and life they are like the ripe fruit which the Lord desires.
Once in slavery they are now free, truly free, because free in Christ.
But the multitudes of their race are not free. In bonds of poverty, igno¬
rance and evil passions they yet "groan within themselves waiting for their
adoption to-wit, their redemption."
There was a shout of victory in the land the day Lincoln proclaimed
liberty for four million slaves in chains but we labor for a better day when
to eleven million souls the call can go out,
"Shout, 0 children!
Shout, you're free!
For God has bought your liberty."
31
But their emancipation is not yet, and if the hopes of all for their
upward progress have not yet been realized remember,
"Slow moves the pageant of a climbing race
Their footsteps drag far, far below the height."
Only unfaltering faith and untiring patience in God's service can win
the day of a truly ransomed people. Whoever is willing let him lend a
helping hand.
«»»•*••
CHURCH BUILDING
KNOX SONG
Of Knox we sing with all our might, We learn the song of plane and saw,
Our boys, you know, why they're all right, The hammer's merry tat, tat, ta,
Our girls are trim, and nice and sweet, The jolly tune of clang, clang, clang,
And neatly dressed from head to feet, Of hammer when on anvil rang,
Our school is just a big bee hive; Our girls don't fear to soil their hands,
Our bees are very much alive; Or tackle dishes, pots and pans.
We've no room here for drone or shirk; Our school has got a dandy Band
Our motto word is, work, work, work, The finest chorus in the land.
Chorus—We'll shout and sing
In Selma Knox has come to stay,
We'll shout and sing
For Knox till we are gray,
Tra, la, la, Tra, la, la, Hurrah for Ivnox!
Hurrah for Knox!
Tra, la, la, Tra, la, la, Hurrah for Knox! Hurrah!
For Knox Hurrah!
32