The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1916, Page 35

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

35

the Negroes than among the whites. So, also, in
Mississippi, where the school facilities are better
than in Louisiana and Alabama, the percentage of
Colored children attending school is much higher
than in the two last-named States. For the same
reason we find that in the towns and cities of the
South, where the opportunities for attending school
are better than in the country, a larger proportion
of Colored children is attending school.

But the fact must not be lost sight of that eighty
per cent. of the Negro children of the vast “Black
Belt” live in the country, where not half of them
can attend school because of the lack of a sufficient
number of schools, and where those that can and
do attend find the schools open during only three
or four months in the year. Out of hundred chil-
dren of the ages of six to fourteen forty-nine attend
school in Alabama, fifty-eight in Arkansas, filty-
seven in Florida, fifty-five in Georgia, fifty-six in
South Carolina, fifty-eight in Virginia, and sixty-
four in Mississippi, North Carolina, and Texas,
while in Louisiana only thirty-seven out of every
hundred go to school. In Limestone County, Ala.,
only one Colored child, six to fourteen years of age,
out of every five goes to school. Of the hundred
and twenty-nine Colored children of school age in
Cameron Parish, La., only two attend school, and
of the 1,242 Colored children in St. Helena Parish,
La., only one hundred and thirty-seven are in school !

For us Lutherans, with our parochial schools,
the door of opportunity is, therefore, open in prac-
tically every State and county of the great “Black
Belt.” ‘The possibilities which the conditions of
this vast region hold out to us should appeal to us
with great foree. Of course, the real character and
true magnitude of the great work we could do in
the rural portions of the South can be fully appre-
ciated only by him who comes into actual touch

with it; but all of us that have enjoyed the blessed —

advantages of a Christian school and know from
personal experience the great influence it exerted
upon us through its religious instruction and Chris-
tian discipline cannot but see of what great value
such schools would be, and the wonderful good they
could do, in the “Black Belt.” While imparting the
necessaries of secular knowledge to as large a por-
tion as possible of the thousands of neglected Colored
children, we in our mission schools would also teach
them the one thing needful. We could here counter-
act the pernicious influence of evil companionship
and undesirable home surroundings by instructing
them in righteousness, and strengthening them in

virtue. Verily, an unequaled opportunity to shape
the lives of hundreds and thousands of Colored chil-
dren at the very beginning ! —

The religious need among the Colored people
of the “Black Belt” is also very great. The census
for 1910 reports about two and one-half million
communicant church-members among the seven mil-
lion Colored population. This probably leaves an
equal number of Colored people of over fourteen
years of age that are not connected with any church,
except, perhaps, in a very loose way. Among those
who are members of some church are found many
who show a marked tendency to separate religion
{rom morals, and make religion a mere matter of
emotion. ‘There is also a great dearth of educated,
consecrated ministers. Among the twenty thousand
preachers of the “Black Belt” there are probably
thousands that must be classed as illiterate;~ half
of them, or even more, have not enjoyed the benefits
of a common school education; and only a very
small proportion has had theological training. What
is even worse, many have a very low conception of
their calling, and only too often they are preachers
because it gives them influence and money. —

There are, we know, many Colored parents in
the “Black Belt” who seek earnestly to do their
duty to their children. But there are also thousands
of fathers and mothers without any idea of their
sacred duties toward their offspring. The children
are left to grow up like wild weeds. Thousands of
children grow up to manhood and womanhood with-
out learning the fear of God. Pure and wholesome
instruction and training is lacking in a vast mul-
titude of homes. Fathers do not realize their re-
sponsibility for the purity of the home. Mothers
have no conception of order and cleanliness. Chil-
dren grow up ignorant of their relation to God and
to their fellow-men.

The mass of Colored people of the “Black Belt”
need to be taught the knowledge of God and their
Savior, to-love good and hate evil, to restrain evil
passions, and to give pure love an open way for
growth. Their consciences must be awakened to
the demands of righteousness, and be taught to con-
demn all unholiness. They must learn that true
Christianity is not a mere matter of passing emotion,
but a radical change of the heart, which reveals
itself in the subjection of the will to an enlightened
Christian conscience and in holiness of life. The
indwelling of the Spirit must manifest itself by
fruits of the Spirit.

We, now, fully believe that our Lutheran Church