sissippi is the social consideration bestowed upon
those connected with the institution. The prejudice which ostracises
"a nigger teacher" and which is so pronounced in most communities
where there is a colored institution, is rarely observable here. On
the Board of Visitors are men of the highest standing, like Col. J.L.
Power, for almost a lifetime the head of the _Clarion_; Oliver
Clifton, the Clerk of the Supreme Court, and F.A. Wolfe, the former
Superintendent of Education. Mr. W.S. Lemly, one of the leading
business men of Jackson, is a member of the Board of Trustees. To
visit Tougaloo is not to lose caste in Jackson society, but is
altogether a proper thing to do.

Of course there is an explanation for this. White Mississippians are
much like white Georgians or white Carolinians in their views on the
race problem and on negro education. Tougaloo's peculiar relation to
the white people must be accounted for by the features in which it
differs from other colored institutions maintained by Northern
societies.

THE SECRET OF IT.

The Rev. Frank G. Woodworth, President of the university, was asked
how he accounted for the exceptional esteem in which Tougaloo is held.
His reply was: "I think the attention which we give to industrial
education has a great deal to do with it. That, and the preparation of
teachers, {pg 208} are two things which we make most prominent in our
work. The white people can see the good effects of the training we
give so plainly that they feel the work we are doing is good."

This view of President Woodworth was abundantly confirmed by
subsequent inquiries among white Mississippians. It is the industrial
education the negroes are receiving there which so thoroughly commends
the university to the dominant race. The shops are considered fully
as important as the class rooms at Tougaloo. Carpentry, painting,
tinning, blacksmithing and wagon-making are taught, not only the
rudiments, but to the extent of turning out finished workmen. The
shops were built by the students and are admirably equipped with
tools. Wagons from the Tougaloo apprentices sell for $60 in Jackson,
and are preferred to the product of first-class wagon-makers.

The desk at which I sit, and which will compare with skilled work
anywhere, was made by one of our students. In the blacksmithing and
wagon-making they learn to take iron and wood in the rough and turn
out a good, substantial wagon. The value to the colored youth of