Of Mr. Washington, the whole country knows how he struggled for an education at Hampton, was selected by General Armstrong to take charge of the work at Tuskegee, and with one bound has leaped to the front, making himself the most prominent figure among living colored men and his school the greatest educational influence in the South at the present day.
This brief mention gives some idea of the status of the men and women who compose the teaching force of the school at Tuskegee. The best talent is none too good for such work. The school is in the centre of a vast Negro population, where the blacks outnumber the whites three to one. Here are unparalleled opportunities for helping the masses of the people; and in their redemption, even more than in the higher education of a gifted few, the welfare of the country is involved.
While the State Normal and Industrial School, at Normal, Alabama, has made little display through the public prints, it is a fact that it is doing a great work for Negro Education, and stands among the best schools of the land.
This institution, like many others in the South, is the work of sacrifice and charity. The early teachers taught for a bare living in order to make the school a fixture. Prof. Councill, the founder and president of the school, gave his entire earnings for more than ten years to the work. The documents which the teachers signed, donating their salaries to the cause of education of the Negro race, is a part of the records of the institution, and a witness of their devotion and consecration to the work.
[Illustration: OLD SLAVE CABIN--PRESIDENT'S OFFICE, 1891-94.]
The school began its existence in the city of Huntsville, Ala., May 1, 1875. It was first taught in a little church, and then in rented houses about the city until, September 1, 1882, a beautiful lot consisting of five acres of land, on which stood several buildings, was purchased and the school permanently located.
[Illustration: ONLY SCHOOL PROF. COUNCILL EVER ATTENDED.]