The Policies and Rationale Underlying the Support of Negro Colleges and Schools Maintained by the Presbyterian Church in the United States

Abstract

Stillman College, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, is the one institution for Negro youth maintained by the Presbyterian Church in the United States. The aim of this chapter is to deal briefly with three questions. First, what purpose prompted the establishment of Stillman? Second, is the Church's reason for supporting this college different from that which prompts the maintenance of her white colleges? And finally, what hopes and plans are entertained for the future of Stillman College? Stillman College, originally called Tuscaloosa Institute, was established in 1876, eleven years after the close of the War between the States. Just at the close of the period known as Reconstruction, it was clear that Negroes would not continue indefinitely to worship in the balconies of white Presbyterian churches. They would form their own churches and would need their own ministers. To meet this obvious need for training Negro ministers the General Assembly took action in 1875, which resulted in the establishment of Tuscaloosa Institute. In 1893 the name of the school was changed to Stillman Institute to commemorate the services of the founder, Dr. Charles A. Stillman. The primary purpose of this school was to train ministers for the Negro Presbyterian churches. This action of the 1875 General Assembly came as the result of overtures from many Presbyterian churches in widely separated areas of the country. Already, in 1865, the Assembly had approved the licensing of Negroes who possessed suitable qualifications to preach among colored congregations, but now the time had come when these men needed to be trained and the 'action of the 1875 General Assembly pointed up this fact. While the original purpose for founding the school was to train ministers, it soon became clear that success in the study of theology was directly related to the level of academic training the ministerial student possessed. After trying to cope with the frustrations which both the professors and pupils had experienced because the student possessed very little, if any, formal education, the Church approved an academic program which was preparatory to theological study. Realizing that not only must the mind in the pulpit be trained but also the mind in the pew, the Assembly in 1899 approved a plan to admit young men to study who were not interested in the gospel ministry, and also girls over fourteen years of age, who commuted daily. This program was expanded later when a dormitory for