Work for the Colored by C. B. Stephenson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Feb 25, 1915

Work for the Colored

By C. B. Stephenson

Special Collection on March 6

At the fall council, action was taken to authorize a special collection to be taken in the Division Conference for our school for the colored people. The date for this collection has been fixed as March 6. The purpose of this collection is to secure funds with which to provide a girls' dormitory at the Oakwood Manual

Training School, Huntsville, Ala. The old plantation building, with a small addition, has been used for this purpose. The original building is about one hundred years old, and the plan is not suitable for dormitory purposes. It was voted by the school board last fall to request the Division Conference, at its fall council, to make an appropriation of six thousand dollars for the erection of a girls' dormitory. The council granted this request by authorizing the collection already mentioned. It will very likely require more than six thousand dollars to provide the accommodations that we should have to meet the demands of a growing institution. We shall be glad to receive this amount, and shall make the very best use of it. The rough lumber can be sawed by the little mill connected with the school farm.

The Oakwood Manual Training School is located six miles from Huntsville, Ala. The farm is composed of about three hundred acres, most of which is under cultivation. This school has grown in favor and usefulness from the first. At the present time there is a large enrollment of bright men and women, in training for service for God. About seventy-five per cent of the colored workers in the United States have had more or less training in this school. Ministers, Bible workers, teachers, and nurses are to be found scattered all through the South especially, and quite a number in the North, who owe their training to this school, which is the only institution of its kind operated by the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. We are largely dependent upon this school for workers to carry the message to eleven millions of Negroes in the United States. It is a fact well known to all who have had experience in the evangelizing of this race that the colored man is the most efficient minister to his race. In order to give the students the advantage and comforts needed, we must provide a better school home for them. It is desired by the board that on March 6 all the churches avail themselves of the blessing, and make this collection equal to the amount needed. Will not every one who reads this article lift his heart to God in prayer for a sympathetic and responsive spirit? I am sure we could not place our surplus means to better advantage. The hands of this long-neglected race are extended to us for help. Remember the date, Sabbath, March 6.

C. B. Stephenson,

Secretary of the Department.