SEVENTIETH ANNIVERSARY NUMBER 1867'1868-1938
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Volume Xlilll
DECEMBER, 1937-JANUAllY, 1!)38
No. 3
ST. AUGUSTINE’S PROGRESS PRAISED ON
TOTH BIRTHDAY
New goals were set for St. Augustine’s College yes
terday as the educational institution for Negroes cele
brated the 70th anniversary of its opening session.
Concluding a full day’s program, Dr. E. George
Payne, assistant dean of the school of education in
NeAv York University, last night said Negro schools
“must continue to provide education for higher pro
fessions because, if the Negro is not equipped, he 11
never bo called upon to fill professional positions.^
The educational meeting in Taylor Hall last
presided over hy President Edgar H. Goold, concluded
a program which commenced yesterday morning with
an address by Bishop Edwin A. Penick, president of
the college board of trustees.
Speaking of the “Church College in American His
tory,” and relating his talk especially to Negro educa
tion, Dr. Payne said the purposes of education and re
ligion are related—“both are to develop a personality
into an integrated individual.”
“There is no necessary confusion between religion
and education and religion and science,” he said. it is
only when science, or knowledge, or wealth and the
like run counter to higher religious purposes and indi-
'’iduals in groups seek to integrate their personalities
in terms of material ends, that both education and
religion lose their vitality and usefulness so tar as
human welfare is concerned.”
Pointing out that there has been a decline in recent
years in the percentage of students in church colleges,
l^r. Payne commended the Negro church co eges
which “carry out a highly religious purpose, a zeal to
nndo the disadvantages involved in 250 years ot
slavery.
“St. Augustine’s was one of the first_ and most out
standing of these institutions,” he continued. it be
gan at the very beginning of Negro education andJias
beld during al'l this period the highest ideals of both
I'eligion and education.” „ i „ii
Coiitiiiuii)g to empliasize tlie need for full
rounded education for Negroes in order that the race
iTiay overcome its social disadvantages, Dr. Jrayne e
^‘lared that difference in educability ol a class
Or race is found in its background of culture or in le
Opportunity for education. There is no no icea e
'liffercnce in the native intelligence of the races.
“We must continue to be optimistic of era ica ing
ii‘jnstices practiced against the Negro race and be
rpady to meet these situations,” he said. ^ na ion
cannot exist with any minority group that does not
have every opportunity that any other group las.
. “The future of the Church College will depend upon
ability to emphasize the whole experience o
and inspire students in the attainment of the higher
spiritual values of life,” he concluded, as he praised
efforts of the St. Augustine faculty in attempting
^0 achieve the ideals of the Church S^ool.
Dr. Payne, who was introduced by President Goold,
Was preceded on last night’s program by Dr. JN. U
^ewbold, director of the division of Negro Education,
(Continued on Page Two)
BISHOP PENICK ADDRESSES THANKS
GIVING SERVICE
(From the Baltimore Afro-American, Jan. 22)
A hope that the small college of today will continue
to exist and grow because it can resist the secularizing
influences of modern educational trends, was expressed
by the lit. Rev. Edwin A. Penick, Bishop of North
Carolina and president of the board of trustees, as St.
Augustine’s College opened its seventieth anniversary
observance here on Thursday morning.
Speaking before faculty, students, and alumni of
this oldest Protestant Episcopal institution in the
South, and the oldest school of the denomination with
full college rating, at the thanksgiving in the college
chapel, Bishop Penick sounded the keynote of rejoicing
which marked the one-day program.
“We are here to rejoice,” the prelate declared, “for
three principal reasons: first, for St. Augustine’s rich
tradition; second, for its rigid discipline, and third,
for its Christian spirit.
“It is in the small college like St. Augustine’s that
we can have the full impact of teacher upon student.
Smaller classes make it possible for the student to get
not only the accumulated knowledge handed down to
him through a long line of scholars, but they make it
possible for the student to get the undiflused character
of the professor.
“The influence of the Christian spirit of St. Augus
tine’s brings to mind George Washington’s farewell
address in which he said: ‘Eeligioii without knowledge
is weak and knowledge without religion is dangerous.’ ”
Bishop Penick, successor to the late Bishop Joseph
B. Cheshire, commended the College for its academic
discipline-—for its steadfast refusal to make things
easy for its students. We progress as we suflfer, he
pointed out, adding that, paradoxical as it may seem,
freedom comes only to those who live within the law.
“When will we learn,” he queried, “that our priva
tions are our benedictions?”
Lauds Bishop Delany
Tribute was paid by Bishop Penick to the late
Bishop H. B. Delany who labored so zealously in St.
Augustine’s behalf. He expressed gratitude for such
a disciple_ and pointed out that the true successor of
any man is one who appreciates and interprets him.
Such has been the case, he said, with the five presi
dents which have served the institution since its found
ing and with those who have labored with them.
Having related the story of the lighthouse keeper’s
widow who dedicated her life to the task of keeping the
lights trimmed and burning, the speaker challenged
his listeners not to forget their Christian heritage and
to “mind the light” of education as did the widow.
“Send Out Thy Light” was then sung by the vested
College choir, conducted by Prof. Kussell F. Houston.
The Eev. John Heritage, former president of the
St. Augustine’s College Alumni Association and rector
of St. Michael’s P.E. Church, Charlotte, made brief
remarks in which he related how numerous graduates
of the college, in widely separated sections of the
country, are dedicating their lives to their alma mater’s
tradition of community service.—By Afro-American
Staff Correspondent.