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Training of Colored Students for the Episcopal
Ministry
A very interesting
discussion occurred in the Missionary
Council of the Episcopal Church, held in
Washington, D.C., November 13th and 14th, in
regard to the education of colored students
for the ministry in the Episcopal Church.
The motive for not educating them in the
existing Episcopal Seminaries appeared to be
simply the caste-prejudice, and some marked
utterances and facts were given on that
subject, which we wish to preserve.
The Bishop of Kentucky, whose generous
feelings toward the colored race we have had
occasion to notice heretofore, quoted from
another, and endorsed for himself, the
declaration: "The white man is not fit to
study for the ministry who is not ready to
have his black brother sit by him in the
class room," and he subsequently added: "I
believe I can speak for my brothers, and I
say out of my heart I would just as soon sit
by the side of a black man if he were in the
House of Bishops, as one of my white
brothers." But yet the Bishop suggested and
endorsed the plan for the separate education
of colored students, for two reasons:
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"The power of heredity
is not to be overthrown in a day nor an
hour... This subtle spirit of caste is
perhaps the demon hardest to cast out of
the human spirit, the one that requires
the most prayer and fasting, without
which it will not go out," and
-
"It is certainly true
that the colored men themselves do not
want to go there. It is just as true
that the white men do not want to have
them there."
As to the first point, it is
to be regretted that the good Bishop did not
give himself to fasting and prayer to cast
out this malignant demon, rather than to
yield to it, and that he did not heed the
words which Jesus uttered when his disciples
could not cast out a demon, "Bring him
hither to me." If bishops and churches will
only bring this demon of caste to Jesus, the
work will be done.
The Bishop's second point, that the colored
people desired the separation, was pointedly
answered by Dr. Crummell (rector of St.
Luke's Colored Church, Washington,) who was
invited to speak on the subject. Dr.
Crummell said: "I do not think that any man
in this country has seen any statement by
any number of black men or black students
that they wanted to be by themselves. I do
not think such an utterance can be found
among the race. I myself never heard such a
thing, and wherever they have had entrance
to other schools they have gone to them."
The decision reached by the Council was to
erect, in connection with some of the
colored universities in the South, a hall
under Episcopal control for colored
Episcopal students for the ministry, who
should also attend the college classes in
the University. So far as the principle is
concerned, we regret this decision. How much
better if the wealthy and intelligent
Episcopal Church in this country had lent
its vast influence in repudiating the spirit
of caste by introducing colored theological
students into its own excellent seminaries.
Clippings from Papers Edited
by Colored Men
The only colored daily paper in America is
printed at Columbus, Ga. It is a four column
folio, neat in make-up and well edited.
Colored Exhibitions to the
Front
At the recent Virginia Exposition Mr. J.C.
Farley, the colored photographer, was
awarded the first premium for his work, for
which he is to receive a diploma and medal.
Our esteemed townsman has entered a new
field and ascended to the topmost round of
the ladder at one bound.
A Colored Prize
Winner
Give a colored man a fair show and he is
certain to give a good account of himself.
One of the notable college contests in
Illinois is known as the Swan Oratorical
Contest, and is held annually at Lombard
University, at Galesburg. This contest was
held Thursday night of last week. The first
prize was awarded to Burt Wilson, a colored
student, who lives at Galesburg, and is one
of the most promising scholars in the
university. His oration is said to have been
an unusually brilliant effort.
What the Negro has
Done
In the South there are now 16,000 colored
teachers, 1,000,000 pupils, 17,000 in the
male and female high schools, and 3,000,000
worshipers in the churches. There are sixty
normal schools, fifty colleges and
universities, and twenty-five theological
seminaries. The colored people pay taxes on
nearly $200,000,000 worth of property
valuation. This is a wonderful showing for a
race that has two hundred years of slavery
and four thousand years of barbarism back of
it; it needs no silent sympathy or patient
waiting, when in twenty years it makes such
a showing. American generosity has done for
the South in twenty years what statesmanship
has failed to do in over a century; but
generosity should not be depended upon, as
even that can reach a limit.
Successful in
Business
North Carolina has a colored man whose
business success is hard to find surpassed
by even the white people. The Concord Times,
a white journal, gives the following
interesting sketch of his career:
He was born a slave, and until he was
twenty-one years of age, never had a copper
of his own. Possessed of a keen and
adaptable mind, he has by his energy and
untiring efforts accumulated a competency,
equaled by few of his race in the South.
Warren Coleman commenced business here in
1879. He has lost everything by fire three
times,—one time meeting with a loss of
$7,000 and no insurance. Various purses of
money were made up and sent him at this
time, all of which he very nobly returned.
But by pluck and energy he rose again.
He owns four farms, amounting in all to some
300 acres of land, and employs on them
twenty regular hands. He is the owner of
ninety-eight tenement houses and is still
adding to the list, having in his employ at
this time twenty carpenters and eight or ten
brick masons, laborers, etc.
What The World Says, Black
Saints And White
Do colored folks retain their complexion
when they go to heaven? This is a question
of some importance to the members of the
Diocesan Convention of the Protestant
Episcopal churches of Charleston, S.C. Not
long ago the Convention appointed a special
committee to consider and report upon the
subject of the admission of negro clergymen
and laymen as members of that body. Their
action was taken with the view of bringing
the Charleston churches, if possible, into
harmony with the other Episcopal
congregations of the State. In 1887, the
former had seceded in consequence of the
adoption of a resolution which the
Charleston brethren regarded as a virtual
obliteration of the color-line.
Thursday, the report of the committee was
made public. It proposes a separate
convocation for the colored churches under
the ministration of the bishop, and consents
to the admission to the Convention of
colored clergymen who have been associated
with the church for twelve months prior to
May, 1889. If the report is adopted, three
negro ministers will sit as members, but no
lay delegates will be eligible. The
committee were willing to forego their
prejudice out of deference to the holy
office. They felt that the color of a
clergyman's skin, although it was no doubt a
very serious ground of objection when it
happened to be black, should not overcome
the respect due to the sanctity of his
official calling. His cloth, so to speak,
saved him, and what would have been denied
to the man it was possible to concede to the
priest.
Under these circumstances the gravity of the
question, "Do colored folks retain their
complexion when they go to heaven?" is
obvious. The concession which the committee
of the Diocesan Convention make is but a
re-affirmation of the Charleston brethren's
aversion to anything that smacks of an
approach to association of the two races on
terms of equality. If there are colored
saints in Paradise, it will be utterly
impossible for the Charleston white saints
of the Episcopal denomination to feel at
home there. The only chance of reconciling
them to a heaven so liberally disposed would
depend on the adoption of some such plan as
that recommended by the committee as a modus
vivendi in the church on earth. That is to
say, if the colored saints were corralled by
themselves—if their convocations were
separate from the convocations of the white
saints—if they were not admitted to the
white circles of celestial society as equal
partakers of the privileges of the heavenly
kingdom—the Caucasian angels from Charleston
might be willing to pass their eternity in
such a place.
It is very essential for them, therefore, to
know whether there are in fact any colored
saints in heaven; and, if there are, whether
the divisions of the Father's house into
"many mansions" admits of an arrangement
whereby the angelic brunettes may occupy one
set of quarters and the Charleston blondes
another. Until these problems are solved to
their satisfaction, we do not see how our
Christian friends of the chief city of South
Carolina can contemplate a future life with
any degree of equanimity. Their faith may be
equal to the removal of mountains and their
virtues may entitle them to all the felicity
of the spirits of just men made perfect, but
if it is the rule of the "happy land, far,
far away" that a black saint is just as good
as a white one, how much more rational it
would be for them to prefer annihilation to
immortality.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
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American Missionary Association, 1888-1895
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