Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1907-06-26
OUTLOOK FOR OK0L0NAs
President Of the Mississippi
College for Negroes Ad-
dresses the Congrega-
tional Ministers in
Pilgrim Hall, Boston

Okolona@ College. Mississippi. ID
Creased an Interested company d
Congregational ministers in Pilgrim
Hall. this morning. In the course d
his remarks. Mr.. BsttIe said the chiel
opponents Of race amiiy in this country
are . few Of those who. after Gripping
the negro for two hundred and City
years now deride him because he can.
moi quite keep step with twentieth
century movements; and those "a few
NearOes). who keep high sounding
words on their lips. insisting that the
race Is not crippled.
II requires no committee with mi.
croscope and telescope to observe thai
I IS race we are woetully behind the
march Of American greater life:" said
4 Mr.. Battle. Here about six per cent
Of my race may be eliminated: they
can take care Of themselves: they are
the doers. and not the braGgarts and
oilers. But the great masses Of my
race are today in the Gethsemane Of
ignorance. poverty and dependence;
and we need encouragement and help.
In Mississippi alone we have a
million Negroes one.tenth Of all in
T the country; and half Of these can
neither read nor write a single word.
So crude is the literacy Of the other
half we can state with a degree Of
accuracy that rs per cent Of the en-
tire million could not he classed with
the literate people Of the world. In
this state the blacks outnmnber the
whites three to two: but the school at
tendance is eighteen to eleven. and
the number Of teachers employed FIVE
to three in favor Of the whites. In
some plantation districts for many
miles nothing worthy the name Of a
school is to be found (ninety-6ve per
cent Of the schools for Negroes have
no modern apparatus). school desks
are absent from fully ninety.eight per
cent Of them. Often there are from
two to dozen living in one room.
Seeing this condition ! determined as
soon as | had graduated from Berea to
60 into the iuneles Of Mississippi and
help to ameliorate this condition"
Mr.. Battle then described how. FIVE
years ago. Okolona Industrial School
for the training Of young men and
women was started. Although there
was just two dollars and sixty cents to
begin with | did not set out soliciting
funds" he said. II spent month in
soliciting the friendship and cO-opera-
ton Of the leading white people Of the
town Of OkOlona and Of the State. IL
can succeed in winning your favor
and support in the same degree in
which theirs was won, taking in &C
count the larger support you can give.
the school will never suffer. One Of
the white trustees, q Southern man
living IN Okolona. gave more than a.
thousand dollars. and one Of our build
ings bears his name.
Starting in this way, struggling
against poverty and the many things
peculiar to Mississippi. we now have
the school we'll established. The
plant now numbers two hundred acres
Of land. buildings. stock. etc. Ten in
dustries are taught BY thirteen teach
ers. and there are more than three
hundred students from six States.
For lack Of room. more than the
attendance have been turned away,
many Of whom had been turned away
from other schools before
coming to u.s. There is some
thing touchingly sad ia pronouncing
The word depart when Negro young
men and women are knocking on the
door Of the schoolroom is to deny
them an opportunity to improve them
selves. This was the condition last
October when the destruction Of our
two main school buildings with loss
IF $4,000 above Insurance turned
perplexity into CONSERVATION. The teri
rible Gre On that windy day Was just
{ Fifty minutes il dong It's work. The
Negroes who had put over $4,000 Dc
1 u 4 4