^uguStinE’sf Eccorii
Volume XLV MAY-JUNE, 1940
Number 4
REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT—MAY 29, 1940
To the Trustees of St. Augustine’s College.
Gextlejien :
During the past year 313 students have been enrolled
in the Institution. Of this number 244 have been
taking the regular college course, an increase of about
eight per cent over the college enrollment of the previ
ous year. The students came from 24 states and from
foreign countries. About fifty per cent come from
jN'orth Carolina. About twenty-five per cent from other
states of the South, and the remainder from other parts
of the United States and from foreign countries. The
largest representation in the State of orth Carolina
is naturally from lialeigh. Winston-Salem, Edenton
and Wilmington have large delegations. About fifty
per cent of the students are Communicants of our
Church. Many of them are children of our Clergy.
Active Church work is carried on both on the campus
and in the community. The Woman’s Auxiliary, both
Senior and Junior branches, the Brotherhood of St.
Andrew, the Laymen’s League and Altar Guild w'e
among the Church organizations that are functioning
effectively. Each year the Bishop confirms a class of
from ten to twenty members. Groups of students are
helpful in holding services at St. Agnes Hospital, in
the neighborhood and in the County Home and Prison
Camps, llepresentatives have attended meetings in
Greensboro and Chapel Hill as well as interracial gath
erings of young peojjle in lialeigh. The College Chapel
Lenten Offering was about $350.
A number of important conferences have been held
on the campus during the past year. These included
the well attended district meeting of the Laymen s
League, the State Public Welfare Institute foi- ^egro
Workers, the annual meeting of the Crown and Sceptre
Honorary Scholarship Society which has its headquar
ters at St. Augustine’s, and a conference called in the
interest of promoting the training of workers in mental
hygiene. There will also be the usual St. Augustine s
Conference for I^'egro Clergy and Church Workers
which includes a well conducted conference for young
peoj)le.
Our academic work has been strengthened through
an arrangement for interchange of students in ceitain
courses with Shaw University and also by le ® ‘
lishment through the aid of the Geneia _
Board of a joint professorship at the two ins i ii
Througli the efforts of Bev. Ur. Patton o tie^ men
can Church Institute for jS^egroes, Eiiglish prizes ag
gregating $100 in value are being offered t iis yeii .
Comi)etitioii for tliese prizes lias greatly stimu a^
■'vork of the English Def>artnient and it is lope
the offer will be continued. In the neai u ^
expected that two prize scholarships i ,
for tuition will be established in memory o
Bishop Henry B. Delany by members of his family.
This will be a welcome form of aid as the college re^
ceives numerous appeals for aid in behalf of promising
and needy students. The Alumni Association, under
the leadership of Dr. Edson Blackman of Charlotte,
continues its efforts to enlist the support of graduates
and former students in a prop-am for aiding the work
of the college. It is interesting to note that since the
founding of St. Augustine’s about sixty of its former
students have been ordained to the ministry of our
Church while five are at present preparing to enter it.
The Joint Commission on Negro Work, authorized
by General Convention held one of its meetings on our
campus on January 10th. Bishop Deinby, a member of
the Commission, remained after the meeting to bo
honor guest at the Anniversary Exercises of the College
and to preach in the College Chapel. In a letter sub
sequently written to the President he said: “I do not
regret remaining over to be the guest speaker—the
pleasure was all mine. I am all the better for remain
ing , the stay was most profitable to me in a number of
ways. I enjoyed every number of the program of the
72nd anniversary of the institution, the basketball
games, and was delighted with the tangible evidences
of the industrial and economic. advancement of the
colored people of Raleigh; but above all with the char
acter of the work that is being done not only in the
College, but in the Bishop Tuttle Training School, the
^urse Training School and the hospital, as well as on
the farm; all under your general supervision. You
have done and are doing a most outstanding piece of
educational work.”
I would call attention in this report to a valuable
pami^hlet recently published by one of our graduates.
Archdeacon Bravid Harris of Southern Virginia en
titled “A Study of Our Work.” The lectures ’that
appear in it were originally prepared for delivery at
the St. Augustine’s Conference held last June. They
constitute a most important addition to the material
that has been issued with reference to the Church’s
work among the N'egro people in this country.
I would also note that announcement has been made
of the retirement of Dr. Kobert W. Patton, director
of the American Church Institute for JSTegroes, to take
effect at the end of the current year, and of the election
of his associate, the Eev. Cyril-E. Bentley, to succeed
him at that time. For more than a generation Dr. Pat
ton has labored with incessant zeal for the Mission
Work of the Church, and in particular for her educa
tional work among the l^egro people which he has
stimulated in so many ways. A recent address of his
before the Iv^ational Council, which has just been
printed with the title “An Inspiring liecord in JS^egro
Education” should be read by all who desire informa
tion about what has been accomplished. We shall miss
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