Negro Education
Gillard, John T.
NEGRO EDUCATION By JOHN T. GILLARD Though the status of the Negro is being more widely discussed than ever before, there is considerable misunderstanding of the agencies working for his...
...He concludes that considering the magnitude of the problem "Catholic attempts to help the Negro educationally seem pitiably weak...
...So far, all Catholic attempts to help the Negro educationally seem pitiably weak considering the magnitude of the problem and the efforts put forth by others...
...In 1925 this, department expanded into a Teachers' College, and at the same time a College of Liberal Arts was opened and a pre-medical course was added...
...Ten years ago a Catholic colored layman, speaking before a section of the Catholic Educational Association, could justly complain that It gives me the greatest apprehension as to the future development of our colored people from the Catholic view-point that there should be just one standard high school in a population of 250,000 faithful, striving souls, and not a single college...
...Incidentally, it is worthy of note that this entire venture in Catholic education of Negroes is financed by the Reverend Mother Katherine Drexel, Superioress of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament...
...Considering the ever-present financial handicaps under which the workers on the colored missions are laboring, the record of Catholic high school development in the past ten years represents a remarkable achievement...
...Louis, Mississippi, are the only two Catholic representatives in the field of higher education for Negroes...
...The Editors...
...In the field of private and personal endeavor but one Catholic name is outstanding-nowhere has the American Negro found a more practical and unselfish friendship than that which is being given by Mother Katherine Drexel and Mrs...
...The first class was graduated from the college department in June, 1928, when three young men and two young women received the degree of Bachelor of Arts...
...The development of Catholic schools for colored students is a particular instance of public failure to keep abreast of events...
...high school, 264...
...The figures for the session 1928-1929 are summarized as follows: all branches of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 38...
...The president of Xavier College is the Reverend Edward G. Brunner, S. S. J. The Dean and responsible administrative head is Sister M. Francis, S. B. S. Philosophy and apologetics are taught by the Reverend Edward V. Casserly, S. S. J. The faculty consists of five Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and six lay teachers, also a registrar and librarian...
...The high schools of the second group (those not yet approved by the state) have not been accredited chiefly because of insufficient laboratory or library equipment-which is not strange if one considers the financial outlay such equipment involves...
...Xavier is the only Catholic lay college in the country for Negroes...
...ONE of the disconcerting things about current literature on the Negro is the consistent inaccuracy of statistics on the work of the Catholic Church in behalf of the Negro...
...Most writers assume that she is doing nothing, while such as occasionally do notice her work are inaccurate and misleading...
...Where, for instance, have the missioners been able to rely on the stimulus, encouragement, and financial assistance of special funds, such as those of the General Education Board, the Ann T. Jeannes Fund, the John F. Slater Fund, the Julius Rosenwald Funds, the Du Pont gifts, the Duke gifts, the numerous other special funds and donations founded by generous-minded men for the promotion of secular and sectarian education among the Negroes...
...This past year seven women and two men received their degrees...
...Edward Drexel Morrel...
...The writer has prepared such a source book (The Catholic Church and the American Negro) and it is now in the hands of the printer...
...Six are boarding schools, eight offer vocational training, practically all offer commercial training, while the children of two institutions receive instructions in outside high schools...
...Extension courses for teachers are included in the college program...
...Given the millions of dollars which are pouring into public and denominational schools of the South, the Catholic high school undoubtedly would be a success...
...Hampered as it is by the necessity of competing with these millions of dollars, its progress, by comparison, must seem meagre and slow...
...The immediate release of a few of the facts would seem to be timely and pertinent in view of the misinformation disseminated by a recent Reference List of Private and Denominational Southern High Schools and Colleges, issued by the trustees of the John F. Slater Fund (occasional papers, number 20, 1929) and not a little current editorial comment...
...In September, 1917, in connection with the high school, a normal department was opened to prepare students for the teaching profession...
...four, a two-year course, and four have recently started with the first year...
...The Catholic Church has thirty-eight institutions reporting some high school or higher work: fourteen full-course, state-approved high schools, fourteen full-course high schools which have not yet received state approval, and ten high schools which are as yet incomplete, the courses varying from one to three years...
...The Reverend John T. Gillard has collected a great deal of information regarding the matter, some of which is crystallized in the following paper...
...It was in response to the urgent request of Most Reverend James Blenk, S. M., D. D., late archbishop of New Orleans, that the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament took up the work of educating the colored youth of that city...
...The faculties are taken from ten sisterhoods, while two schools are conducted by priests, and two by lay teachers who also are employed in six of the institutions conducted by priests or sisters...
...extension courses, 28...
...Their charities, representing their fortunes, and amounting to millions, are the only worthwhile constructive efforts put forth by individual Catholics for the education of the Negroes.ion of the Negroes...
...Congregational, 18...
...The schools in the last group are in process of development and likely will have a complete course within the next five or six years-two already have three-year courses...
...The fault is our own because we have no definite body of accurate information which would serve as a source book...
...Baptist, 60...
...Xavier College, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Saint Augustine's Seminary, Bay St...
...of the Presbyterian, 32...
...The enrolments for the several divisions (according to the latest bulletin at hand) are as follows: college, 37...
...It is conducted and supported by the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament...
...With justice the Survey of Negro Colleges and Universities, published by the United States Department of the Interior (Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1928, number 7) speaks of Xavier College in terms of praise : A careful study of the facts presented in this report [on Xavier] and the observations made at the college, lead the survey committee to believe that Xavier College is rendering a needy service worthy of continued support...
...The Reference List has for its purpose "to give the exact name, location and the affiliation of private and denominational institutions reporting some high school or higher work...
...At present the College includes a four-year standard course, a School of Pharmacy, and a high school...
...The questionnaires returned to me during the preparation of the book referred to reveals a situation quite different from that indicated in the Reference List...
...The School of Pharmacy enrolled 15...
...The buildings which had been vacated by Southern University upon its removal to Baton Rouge, in 1912, were purchased and renovated, and...
...in September, 1915, the high school department of Xavier was formally opened...
...NEGRO EDUCATION By JOHN T. GILLARD Though the status of the Negro is being more widely discussed than ever before, there is considerable misunderstanding of the agencies working for his advancement...
...Since then over three hundred have received its diplomas of graduation...
...The latter is the seminary conducted by the Fathers of the Divine Word for the education of colored candidates for the priesthood, and is yet in the incipient stage...
...These thirty-eight Catholic high schools for Negroes are spread over seventeen states, twenty archdioceses and dioceses, and are located in thirty-four cities and towns, only three being located in northern cities...
...It would be manifestly unfair to make strict comparison between Catholic colored high school achievement and that of secular and sectarian educational agencies...
...Episcopal, 7; Catholic, 5; others, 26...
Vol. 11 • February 1930 • No. 15
