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Reports of committees.

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Report on educational work.

By Rev.  Lewellyn Pratt, D.D., Chairman.

The report of the Educational Work of this Association shows steady advance, in spite of straitened means.  New responsibilities have been assumed in consequence of gifts of school buildings, and of the appeals from the people themselves, taxing—­beyond the receipts from the churches—­the resources of the Association.

An important feature of the Educational Work is represented in the twenty Normal Schools, from which have gone out seven thousand young men and women now engaged in teaching at the South.  It is probable that nearly half a million of scholars have been under their care.  These, together with the Normal Departments in our chartered institutions, Talladega College, Atlanta University, Straight University, Tillotson Institute, Tougaloo University and Fisk University, (with Hampton Institute, Berea College and Howard University, formerly under the care of the Association) are doing a great work in training teachers, as well as leaders in industrial pursuits and in the professions of the law and the ministry.

In all these, the fact, now so generally received in mission work, is fully recognized, that the leaders and teachers of a people must be found among themselves.  They have abundantly proved their eagerness for education, their capacity for scholarship and leadership, and their ability to meet the problems resting upon the future of their race and of the nation.  This is true, also, of the schools among the Indians and the Chinese.

Still, the work done by the Society and by all other agencies—­State and denominational—­has not kept pace with the growth of population, and official statistics in some portions of the South show that the percentage of illiteracy is steadily increasing.  In Louisiana, for instance, in the last eight years—­i.e., from 1880 to 1888—­the number of illiterate voters increased from 102,933 to 126,938, changing the relative percentage from 52.3 per cent. who could read and write, and 47.7 per cent. who could not read and write—­in 1880—­to 49.2 per cent. who can read and write and 50.8 per cent. who cannot read and write in 1888.  During that period, of the new white voters a majority were illiterate (7.502 :  7.609); of the new negro voters ten out of eleven were illiterate (1.588 :  16.387).  Facts such as these call for great enlargement in the direction of common school education, and the number of teachers; make imperative demands upon State Governments; and lead many to appeal to the National Government for relief.  They certainly justify the efforts of this Association and necessitate a great increase of the yearly contributions from churches and individuals.  Measures should be taken to supplant the notion that by moderate annual contributions to ordinary schools for a few years the great task can be accomplished of lifting up a race that had been held in bondage for centuries, that started in its career of freedom in absolute destitution and that pursues its course here under many disabilities; and preparing liberators, missionaries, guides and saviours for the Dark Continent.