The Phoenix index., 1939-12-30

or SIX dnQ nVe almost enLlTCly
without the benefit of education.
medical care, or religious instruc-
lions.
SYMBOL OF HOPE
The cooperative enterprise which
begin with the Delta Cooperative
Farm and now includes TIE
Province Cooperative Farm, and a
cooperative creamery, affect only a
very small number of these people.
out the enterprise has become one
symbol OF hope FOR them. The
farms are organized as producers
cooperatiVeS in which member
work together and share the fruits
OF their labor according to the
amount of work performed. Goods
are purchased at Rochdale con-
sumers cooperative stores of which
the first has record of patronage
dividends Of about 8 percent for
the past two years. Credit is OBJ
tanned from a credit cooperative
operated by the people themselves
From the beginning, the acute
need of medical care, both fol
farm members and those in the
surrounding country was felt by ali
interested in the farms. In the
first year of the Delta Cooperative
Farm, a young trained nurse, Mis-
Lindsay Hall, now Mrs. A. E. Cox
volunteered ner services without
charge. Her support was later as
sumed by the Presbyterian churcf
USA. With modest donation.
from another friend, a two-stor5
clinic was built from lumber useo
and sawed on the farm.
CLINIC STARTED IN 1888
III 1888 a young physician, Dr.
David Minter, became resident
physician at the Delta Cooperativ
Farm where he has made the elm
ic a center for medical work. IL
one months time the clinic ha,
minisrered to over 800 individuals.
With a miscrocope given by tn
students of Berea College he run,
about ten tests daily which are o
particular nelp IN diagnosing ma
laria, one Of the chief Scorages OF
the low Delta area. Weekly Dr..
Minter and Mrs. Cox hold a luetl,
clinic for which $50 are now reg
istered. Materials for this treat
ment of syphilitics are now fur"
1ished by the county, but the work
was begun long before any aid wa,
received.
Another need of equal importance
| hos been that of general education
supplementing the State program
both for children and adults a
Rochdale. Negro children are gl'-
Ell less than five months OF school
| ing per year. Many of the adults
on the farm and in the surround
ing community have been denies
almost all education opportunity.
COMMUNITY CHURCH
PROJECT
The need is especially felt IL
the field of religion as the Whit
sharecropper is one Of the mos
unchurched groups in the country
and the general level OF Negro
church life in the cotton belt Is
with some exceptions, such as no
to commend religion to thoughttu
mem bers of the race. In partla
effort to meet this need, a com
munity church was organized a.
Rochdale which opens its door
alike to Negroes and whites. Sucf
results as have been secured, now
ever. have been IN no small meas
ure to the director of religious ed
ucation, Miss Dorothy Fisher, Wa
volunteered for service Rochdat
a wear ago. Miss Fischer was for
merly in charge of the natlona'
Young peoples work for the EplS'
copal church. She breaches in tnt
community church, directs relis'
ious education, keeps books for tfit
credit cooperative, is organizer ant
adviser to the women's carmen
making department., manages tn
staff house cooperative, and carries
on correspondence for the farm.