The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1931, Page 86

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86

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

loudly demand. If we had only a few large, well-
equipped schools, there would remain in the Black
Belt great numbers of children who would have to
go without all school advantages. The greatest pos-
sible number of children should have a school within
walking distance of their homes. What the need
demands is not a few life-saving stations, but
a@ great number of them.

There are still thousands upon thousands of
colored children of school age in our beautiful and
fair Southland who have no opportunity to go to
school. In Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and
North Carolina, to name only a few States, we
could open up hundreds of schools without reduc-
ing the enrolment of existing schools by one pupil.

even a few cents for tuition, and the pupils pay
for their schooling by bringing butter, eggs, milk,
and even salt as a donation. Just think for a mo-
ment, a poor Negro child brings an egg or two as
a slight compensation for the knowledge imparted
to it, often held so very lightly by our own children!
These gifts from the children are sold for the benefit
of the school to buy fuel and other necessary things.

In some mission-schools among the Negroes of
the South the teachers are giving their girl pupils
lessons in sewing, much to the gratification of
parents and children.

The expense incident to the support of a mis-
sion-school is comparatively small; a few hundred
dollars will take care of it for six to eight months,

Another Chapel-School in Alabama.

What a blessing such schools are for a com-
munity may be seen from a few testimonials.
A pastor writes from the colored field: “In the

' section of the State in which a mission-school has

been carried on for fourteen years there has not
been a single conviction of a Negro in the criminal
_ courts or one case of serious crime since the open-
ing of the school.” ‘This particular pastor adds:
“The removal of the school would be a death-blow
to the intellectual, spiritual, and moral growth of
the people of this locality.” He says that he could
have an enrolment of hundreds in his school if he
_ had the room. His final remark speaks volumes:
_ “ere there is no friction between the whites and
_ colored.” What a blessing it would bring if these
Ke saving influences could be multiplied a hundredfold !

_ We were told of a case where the children and
arents aré so poor that they are unable to pay

we understand. We know of no work done by us
in which a small expense of money can do so much
good as is done in rural schools of the kind spoken
of above. Here thousands of children are given all
the training they will ever be able to get. Only.
a very small per cent. of those attending ever go to
a higher school, while all the others go out into
life with what they get there. If there is truth in
the saying that the first ten years of a child’s life
are the most important and influential years, then
these mission-schools present a golden opportunity
to save thousands upon thousands of children for
Christ and His kingdom.

Really, these schools need no commendation, for
they commend themselves by the results they have
attained. We have over fifty of these church-schools
in our own Colored Missions, most of them in
Alabama, Louisiana, and North Carolina. It is