es and normal work, in which Avery has
been from the first conspicuous and eminently successful. Its
graduates now number nearly four hundred and are found in almost
every department of human activity. Some are distinguished in
professional life, others in trade, or in business. Among them are
doctors, skilled and eminent in their chosen fields of labor,
clergymen of acknowledged ability, and teachers of long and
successful experience. About two-thirds of all its graduates choose
teaching as their special vocation; and nearly all prove their skill
and ability in the schoolroom, and have reflected great credit on
their alma mater and have been a blessing to their race. There has
been for the last ten years a steady and growing demand for colored
teachers of ability and with special training for their work; and
there is not a county in the state to which our graduates do not go
as teachers, and in the lower counties and along this malarial coast
nearly all the schools for colored children are taught by Avery
graduates. In many places conditions are such that no one can
undertake this work without jeopardizing health or risking life
itself. But there are not wanting those whom zeal and devotion lead
into these dangerous fields. Names might be given of those who have
even given up life itself at work in these malarial districts,
proving their zeal and the missionary spirit which actuated them.

Avery has cost large sums of money; to maintain such an institution
by charity through a third of a century is no small undertaking,
requiring faith and consecration. But it has repaid more than a
hundred-fold all that has ever been expended. Here in this historic
city, surrounded by lowlands of rice and cotton, the negro was found
in overwhelming numbers, and after emancipation, in utter ignorance
of book lore or a pure gospel. To this people the American
Missionary Association, through the Avery Institute and its
consecrated workers, has brought the light of knowledge and a pure
gospel, and awakened aspiration and hope of a better life. The
beneficial effects of this work upon such a people, and indirectly
upon the city and state, are incalculable. Intelligent Christianity
and Christian education has ever been the motto of Avery, and
faithfully has it been realized in the lives of its graduates, and
exemplified by them in all the relations that affect good
citizenship and true manhood. Race conflicts in this city have been
unknow