Interesting Facts About the Oakwood School
By George I. Butler
At the late meeting of the Southern Union Conference Committee in Nashville much consideration was given to the Oakwood Industrial School for Colored Workers, located about five miles from Huntsville, the county seat of Madison County, Ala. As the impression seems to prevail with some that the needs of the school are nearly supplied, the committee thought it duty to state the present condition of the property and work at Oakwood. Huntsville has a population of about eighteen thousand. There are two railroads and several large cotton mills. Our school is pleasantly situated on a farm of three hundred and sixty acres. On the school grounds are many beautiful oaks, cedars, and other trees. Besides the school grounds, there are about sixty-five acres of timber, which will furnish fuel for many years. The rest of the land is in pasture or under cultivation, except a few acres that are not fenced. The pasture land is too poor for profitable cultivation, and furnishes comparatively little grazing. The farm is one of the best in the section where it is located. Nearly all the tillable land is level and free from ditches. But a good farm in this section will not compare favorably with a good farm in some parts of the country. In the opinion of Brother S. M. Jacobs, there are about fifty acres of land on the farm that would be called good land in the section where he previously farmed. This good land is not in a body. This causes inconvenience in cultivation; for a crop requiring good land must be planted in patches, leaving, sometimes, both ends of a field to be planted with something that will grow on the poorer soil. Brother Jacobs reports that under a proper rotation of crops, the land has improved, and it is believed that a still further improvement can be effected. But our brethren must understand that this farm can not be made to produce as much as an equal area of the rich land of the great plains of the West or of the alluvial soil of the Mississippi Valley. Up to the present, the farm has produced enough to board the school family, with the aid of donations, but no tuition has ever been earned by work on this farm, so that all teachers, as well as the farm superintendent, have been paid by the General Conference or the Southern Union Conference. Our students are poor, and very few are able to pay any money. The tuition in our school is therefore necessarily free. A charge of only seven dollars a month is made for board and other expenses, and when it is known that scarcely any of the students can pay even this small sum in money, but must be allowed to pay in work, it will be evident that the Oakwood school can not be self-supporting. A sum of about twenty-five hundred dollars a year is required to pay the workers in this school. It does not seem right to reduce the force, but on the contrary it is imperative that more help be provided to do the work acceptably. The managers are doing the best they can to reduce expense by planting fruit trees, and introducing industries that will render some aid; but for some time to come, the situation must remain practically unchanged. The Southern Union Conference has the same work to do for the whites that is done in the North, and in addition must maintain separate schools, sanitariums, and churches for the colored people. The tithe in this field is not nearly sufficient for aggressive work among the whites. When this is considered in the light of the statement from the Lord that the burden of the colored work rests equally upon our people everywhere, we can see that it was but just that the Oakwood school was recognized at the General Conference as worthy to receive help from all our people. Oakwood is the only school we have in which to educate workers, not only for the millions of colored people in the South, but also in the Gulf and Caribbean Islands, in Central and South America, and in far-off Africa. Surely, when these perishing millions are considered, no one will ask us to slacken our efforts in making this one school as efficient as possible. Not only is money required to pay the teachers of this school, but the buildings are in great need of some improvements We have no suitable dormitory for the young women. They are compelled to live principally in two large low rooms under the roof, there being sometimes as many as sixteen girls crowded into one room. This state of affairs should not be allowed to continue. We need a cottage for the principal's family. A furnace must be provided for the schoolroom. Some money should be used in making the water supply sure for the entire year. Bath rooms should be built. Farming implements must be purchased, and the farm put in proper condition. The school has no apparatus, and only an inferior library. These are not all our real wants, but enough has been mentioned to show that we are in pressing need of immediate and liberal help. The teachers’ wages can be paid by purchasing scholarships. Fifty dollars a year will maintain a scholarship. Fifty persons could in this way pay the teachers. Donations of any sum will be received to make improvements. Money should not be sent to any individual, but all sums should be made payable to the business manager of Oakwood Industrial School, to whom all letters should be addressed at Huntsville, Ala., Box 414. SOUTHERN UNION CONF. COMMITTEE,
BY GEO. I. BUTLER, President.