Page 6
THE FEDERATION JOURNAL
April, 1955
SUPERINTENDENT LEONARD
Continued from Page 4
as much of juvenile delinquency as they
are able to.
With the steady increase of delinquency
in the United States, the question con
stantly arises in discussion groups as to
the permanent corrective value of our
present approach to the problem of juve
nile delinquency. In our coming Conven
tion 'we shall be considering how we as
club women may work toward reducing
the number of delinquents. Statistics
alarm us; newspaper accounts make us
wonder whether we are sparing the puni
tive rod and sp>oiling the wayward child.
As splendid as are the accommodations
at the Morrison Training School at Hoff
man, as spacious and attractive as the
dormitories are at the Girls’ Training
School at Kinston, additional dormitories
are needed at both places to take care of
children who are on the waiting list be
cause there is no room available.
Teachers in our public schools suffer
daily because of the menace of the many
incorrigible boys and girls who should
be placed in these correctional institu
tions; some of them on the very threshold
of a court sentence, not indicted because
of merciful who hope almost against hope
that tenderness, love, persuasion, and
wholesome schoolroom activities will effect
a cure. These children persist in their mis
demeanors; they throw rocks at school
windows; deface school property in gen
eral; they resort to the use of knives in
school fights; disobey bus drivers, endan
gering the lives of other children; they
steal; they shamelessly use vulgar and
profane language; they are guilty of tru
ancy, of general disobedience to school
authorities and to their parents who in
most of the cases are themselves unable
to offer any help in the solution of the
problem. Not all the heathen people live
in Africa. We used to sing “Pity them, pity
them, Christians at home!” The song
might well be changed and there is much
pity that they might offer us; for
“Here in this happy land, we
have the light;
Shining from God’s own Word,
free, pure, and bright.
The task of the Christian minister, no
less than that of a tnily dedicated teacher
is one that calls for seven days’ work
every week; and demands the coopera
tion of club women, church women,
soi'orities, and lovers of human progress
in every community in North Carolina.
There is no time for idleness, nor self-
centered living. The North Carolina Fed
eration issues another call! Link up with
some organization that works for spread
ing joy, shedding light, sharing burdens,
lifting human beings. In this service,
whatever your own problem may be in
your home or with your work outside of
the home, you will find such a joy and
Dedication and Naming of
New Buildings at Morrison
Training School
At two o’clock Sunday afternoon, April
24, 1955, in the auditorium of the Mor
rison Training School, Hoffman, N. C.,
exercises were conducted in connection
with the naming of several new buildings
recently constructed on the school
grounds. These exercises, directed by the
Advisory Board of the N. C. Board of
Correction and Training, grew out of a
request made by the Executive Board of
the N. C. Federation of Negro Women’s
Clubs to the State Board of Correction
and Training asking that at the dedication
of the new buildings at Morrison and
Dobbs Farm consideration be given to dis
tinguished Negroes by naming buildings
in their honor. Perhaps the most signi
ficant achievement in this direction was in
the naming of the new, attractive and well
appointed Administration Building which
was named in honor of the very pro
gressive Superintendent Paul R. Brown
and his most capable wife Josephine Stev
ens Brown.
The late Mr. Thad Tate, prominent citi
zen of Charlotte, who might well be con
sidered the founder of the Morrison Train
ing School, was honored in the naming of
one of the buildings.
Others similarly honored were two
other persons of color, names and notes
concerning whose achievements will be
given in our next issue, as the facts have
not been accurately ascertained in time
for this issue.
Commissioner Samuel E. Leonard who
for all the years of his splendid adminis
tration has shown such remarkable inter
est in the two institutions for training
such a consciousness of helping someone
else that your own load becomes lighter.
Read Psalm 34; 5 in this translation,
changing from the declarative to the im
perative: “O look unto Me, and ye shall
beam with joy.”
Turn From Self
This is the highest teaching.
The hardest and the best—
From self to Keep still turning.
And honor all the rest.
If one should break the letter.
Yea, spirit of command.
Think not that thou art better;
Thou may’st not always stand!
We all are weak—but weaker
Hold no one than thou art;
Then, as thou growest meeker.
Higher will go thy heart.
—George MacDonald.
In "Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul."
Negro girls and boys richly deserved the
perpetuation of his memorable contribu
tion to the development of these institu
tions in being honored by the “Leonard
Building.”
Mrs. Annie K. Bost, widely known
throughout North Carolina as Mrs. W. T.
Bost, Commissioner of Public Welfare, has
the distinction of having her notable serv
ices to these institutions and to public
welfare recognized in the Annie K. Bost
Building.
Mr. D. S. Coltrane, distinguished North
Carolina legislator, chairman of the
Budget Commission and long-time friend
of the cause represented in the develop
ment of these institutions, no less than
the whole cause of education in the state,
was honored by the Board in the naming
of the Coltrane Building.
Appearing on the program were the
Hon. C. A. Dillon, Chairman of the N. C.
Board of Correction and Training; Mr.
E. L. Hauser, Superintendent of Public
Welfare, Cumberland County; Professor
James T. Taylor of N. C. College at Dur
ham; Dr. S. E. Duncan, State Supervisor
of High Schools; Mr. John R. Larkins.
Consultant of N. C. State Department of
Public Welfare, who gave important facts
concerning the honorees and the official
naming of buildings; Dr. William J. Trent.
Jr., of the United Negro College Fund of
New York who presented the portrait of
his grandfather, the late Mr. Thad Tate,
to Commissioner S. E. Leonard to be
placed in the Tate Building; and the dis
tinguished guest speaker, Mr. W. J. Ken
nedy, Jr., President of the N. C. Mutual
Life Insurance Company of Durham.
Presentations were made by Miss Mae D.
Holmes, Superintendent of the Girls’
Training School at Kinston, and the beau
tiful closing prayer by Dr. Charlotte
Hawkins Brown, President Emerita of
Palmer Memorial Institute, Sedalia, and
founder of the N. C. Federation. Mrs.
Rose D. Aggrey, President of the Federa
tion, presided.
Following this program there was a
testimonial dinner in the new Dining Hall
with numerous beautiful tributes, presen
tations, fine music and a most delicious
dinner with one hundred fifty or more
guests. These exercises were presided over
by Dr. S. E. Duncan of the Advisory
Board.
HOW MUCH OUGHT I TO GIVE
Give as you would if an angel
Awaited your gift at the door;
Give as you would if tomorrow
Found you where giving was o’er;
Give as you woidd to the Master
If you met His loving look;
Give as you would of your substance.
If His hand your offering took.
—Author Unknown