The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-06-06
At Tuskegee.
II N COMMEMORATION of the 21st
commencement exercises at Book
j er Washington's industrial school

at Tuskegee. the Montgomery
Advertiser on Memorial day printed q
most instructive review of the schools
| work. While some of the facts present.
| ed in this review are more or less famil
lar to northern readers, they merit
| repetition.
Twenty-one years ago the Tuskegee
| school had one teacher and thirty pu-
| pills. with no grounds or buildings. The
graduates now number 461, while it has
given more or less instruction to over
| 5000 others. They are in every southern
and many of the northern states and,
| the Advertiser adds, in almost every in
stance they are carrying out the Tuske-
gee idea of home getting. tax paying and
| materially helpful citizenship. The first
class went out in 1885. One Of the class
founded a school of which she has been
the head for fourteen years. This school
has sent out sixty graduates, many of
whom have also graduated at Tuske-
gee and are now successful tradesmen,
business men, farmers and teachers.
One who graduated in 1892 founded
school in Wilcox. county, Ala, on
plantation where he was born, which
now has an attendance each year OF
900 students, with Il property of over
$780, 900. Last year twenty-five teach
ers and superintendents We're employed
in this school. They carried on, by stu
dent labor, farm, sawmill. brick
yard wheelwright, blacksmith shop.
printing office, carpenter and paint
shop. laundry cooking school and. sew
ing rooms. Nearly all these teachers
We're Tuskegee graduates. This school
has sent out seventeen graduates, and
every one of them is honOrably employ
ed in developing the best interest of
Wilcox county. The number of these
schools with Tuskegee graduates at the
head of them is now seventeen: thir-
teen of these We're founded by them.
They are in eight different states, eight
in Ala bama. one in Florida, two in
Georgia, one in South Carolina, two in
Louisiana, one in Virginia. one in Tenn
essee and one in Kansas. Various grad
yates have their eye on other states and
it will not be long before there will not
Il real Tuskegee school.
AT Tuskegee the past year the enroll
ment amounted to 1890 in the normal
department. $50 young men, AGO young
women, representing thirty different
states and territories and five foreign
countries. Besides these the kinder
garten and training school enrolled 232
tlin rilcly tow i1h STh
making Il total enrolment, for the year
of LAB. The social settlement school,
on the Thompson plantation, supervised
by Mrs. Washington and taught by
Tuskegee graduate, would bring the
number up to 1900. 1t has required 125
officers and teachers to carry on this
work.
The children in the training school
have been taught carpentry, cook
ing. sewing and gardening. Many of
the students in the night school
are married people often the hus-
band and wife coming to school to-
gether; others are young men and wO-
men of the town, who are unable to go
to school during the day They have
y,
sewing, cooking and housekeeping.
Some who are employed AS servants
and unable to come at night form an
afternoon class and receive instruction
at such hours as their services are not
needed All of this town work and the
social settlement work Is really the out
come OF Mrs. Washingtons efforts be-
gun on small scale some years ago,
for the women and girls who We're ac-
customed to lounge about the streets of
Tuskegee. on Saturdays. 1.-The changes
in the city of Tuskegee are simply re-
markable" the Advertiser says. 1.-The
number of new and comfortable homes
built by the colored people in the yicin-
it of Tuskegee and in the city itself is
very large"
A few items taken from the Adver-
tiser's article will give some idea of the
magnitude of the work done by the
students during the past year. They
made 2,12s.22S bricks. OF these they
have laid 1.S43, $50. The school sold 2S4,-
657 to outside parties, They cultivated
about 500 acres of land, They sawed
from the logs 100000 feet of lumber
large part OF which has been worked
up into furniture, wagons buggies,
wheelbarrows and house trimmings of
various kinds They cut 100000 laths
and dressed 100000 feet of Humber. The
printing office did over $4,000 worth of
work during the year, and made pro-
fit to the school of nearly $500 over all
expenses. The bricklayers and plaster
ers have done business covering s22.-