Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/668

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

with Rev. Charles S. Robinson, the pastor. In 1880 he became chaplain of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute at Hamp- ton, which then had two hundred and fifty students, and upon the death of General S. C. Armstrong, founder of the school, in 1893, he became principal. Under his able management the school has thrived and grown. Today the one hundred and forty buildings, the 1,000 acres of land, courses in thirteen trades, in teaching and home-mak- ing, in business and farming; and over eight hundred students training for leadership are the physical growth of Hampton.

Eight thousand men and women have gone out from Hampton to South, North and West, trained for teaching, trained for home-building, trained for the trades. In taking their places in Negro and Indian schools of the South and West, and in hun- dreds of communities, this army of workers has helped to decrease illiteracy and fit Ne- groes and Indians for the responsibility of owning land. Through Hampton outposts and graduates the method of industrial train- ing has become thoroughly established as the educational solution of a race problem. Hampton today has become the headquar- ters of an army of uplift. The graduating classes take positions at strategic points in leading the advance to better schools, better farming and industrial training. The great- est value of Hampton Institute, in addition to the steady constructive work among two races, is in its benefit to America as a com- mon platform where the white man and black man, the Southerner and Northerner, meet each year for social service, with tol- erance and constructive spirit.

In writing of the Hampton Institute and the work of Dr. Frissell, Dean James E. Russell of Teachers' College, New York, said:

I regard Hampton Institute as a great educational e.xperiment station. Its problem is the mental, moral and civic training of the millions of Negroes in this country. The task is the most difficult one that can be put up to any institute because the solu- tion is hampered by race prejudice, scarcity of funds and lack of popular interest. The consequences are of vital importance, not only to those immediately concerned, but to our entire population, whites as well as blacks. Northerners as well as Southern- ers. Any advance however small is a contribution to our national well-being and an asset to our national life. No other school is in a position to render as great service, simply because no other institution commands the united strength of the ablest leaders of both races.

The work that needs doing is a task fit for giants and Hampton has been blessed with leaders of gigantic strength. The pace set originally by General .-Armstrong has been followed by his suc- cessors and associates. Dr. Frissell is, in my opin- ion, one of the greatest educators of this genera- tion. He has a personality that begets confidence, a vision that sees great ideals and a devotion that brings results. He should be free to give his time and strength to the work which so much needs his personal guidance — a work which no other liv- ing man can do so well. In the nature of things the period of his active service must come to an end in a few years. It is, therefore, the more important that these years, the fruition of many years of preparation, should be made most effective. An investment in Hampton Institute now means more than it can ever mean again because the man, the work, and the opportunity are in conjunction.

The possibilities of ten years' unhampered work in Hampton Institute are beyond my powers of imagination. The institution has never had a fair chance, and yet with inadequate support it has efTected a revolution in the training of the black race and has profoundly changed our ideals of the training of the white race as well. Given a fair chance, I confidently predict that in ten years Hampton Institute will not stand second to any other educational institution, of any grade what- ever, either in its power for civic righteousness or in its all pervading influence upon American educa- tion.

During the twenty-two years that Dr. Frissell has had charge of this institution it has grown not only in the number of its students, but in the character of its work. In 1878 seventeen Indians were admitted to the institution, their expenses being met by private individuals. The experiment was watched with skeptical eyes, but its success was so pronounced that congress appro- priated funds to start a similar work at Car- lisle, Pennsylvania. There are now more than one thousand Indian graduates and ex- students scattered from Nova Scotia to the Pacific and from Manitoba to Texas who are doing much to advance their people in the arts of civilization. Many are following the professions, and eighty-seven per cent, have shown satisfactory results. Among the trus- tees of this institution are included many of the most prominent citizens of the United States, headed by ex-President William Ploward Taft, of New Haven, with whom are associated : Francis G. Peabody, vice- president, Cambridge, Massachusetts ; Clar- ence H. Kelsey, vice-president, New York City ; George Foster Peabody, New York City; Charles E. Bigelow, New York City; Arthur Curtiss James, New York City; William Jay Schieiifelin, New York City; Lunsford L. Lewis, Richmond, Virginia;