Hmerican Missionary association.
FISK UNIVERSITY.
J. G. Merrill, D.D., Dean.
CONGREGATIONAL ROOMS,
Fourth Avenue and Twenty-Second Street,
NEW YORK.
FISK UNIVERSITY.
J. G. MERRILL, D.D., DEAN.
There was romance in its birth. Regimental bands headed the pro¬
cession ; army officers, men of renown, North and South, gathered in
the hospital barracks; thousands of ex-slaves, were there. One passion
animated this dusky throng. To learn to read was the ambition of
the bright colored boy, of his sedate but none the less eager sire, and of
the veteran grandparent with white hair and with eyes that must
learn the alphabet by the aid of spectacles.
It was a moment of inspiration. The man to appreciate the hour
and give utterance to its meaning, was there. He had hardly sur¬
rendered his commission as chaplain in the army, He had fought to
win the freedom of a race. To make that race true free men was a
task much more vast than to emancipate them. The parting of the
ways had come. An illiterate people must be taught. No longer
should it be a crime to instruct them. The rather was he the criminal
who should deny them an education It was an hour for the voice of
a prophet. With the ken of a seer, Chaplain Cravath, represent¬
ing the American Missionary Association, Jan. 9th, 1S66, made the
JUBILEE HALL.
Builded with money earned by the original Jubilee Singers,
has the hard work, the distasteful drudgery, the, at the time, appar¬
ently fruitless toil been undertaken on the basis of cold calculating
judgment; from its birth to the present hour, ideals that to most
men would have seemed dreams and wild fancies, have animated the
leaders of this enterprise—such ideals as have underlain the world's
greatest achievements and have given heart to the world's victors.
Wisdom and Painstaking attention to the material interests of
the University, that have challenged the admiration of those who have
FISK MEMORIAL CHAPEL.
Erected with the bequest of Gen. Fisk. Seats 1,000.
watched its growth, have been coupled with all this romance. The
ideal has been made actual. This has not been due to one man, nor
one sex, nor one race. For a quarter of a century and more, have
men and women, white and black, worked with an unanimity rarely
equaled, with patience and self-sacrifice. As the outcome there is
Fisk of to-day.
The building of Jubilee Hall set the pace for the progress of the
institution. Thorough workmanship, good taste and belief in a large
future, have prevented the erection of buildings which could be used
only a short time and must be replaced by structures adapted to the
work. Eight substantial buildings afford the facilities now needed
and are so grouped that in the near future the Central and Music
Halls can be erected, to complete the general plan. Already the large
enrolment of pupils, coming, as they do, from more than a score of
the states of our Union, is making the proposed buildings a necessity
and affording other givers the opportunity to bless humanity that has
been so handsomely met by those large-minded donors who have built
the structures already erected.
THEOLOGICAL HALL.
Builded mainly by the A. M. A., a band of Jubilee Singers assisting.
The every-day life of the University is first of all religious.
With no cant, with the avoidance of undue emotion, with a constant
appeal to Christian manhood and womanhood, men and women loyal to
Jesus, seeking less their rights than to faithfully perform their duties,
are being reared. For nine months in a year the faculty of Fisk, like
those who in large cities man college settlements, day and night seek
in every way and by all means to arouse and perpetuate the highest
Christian ideals. Added to these are intellectual training, musical
culture and a spirit of true gentility. The student body honors
scholarship, awakens ambitions, cultivates good manners, frowns
upon untidynessof
appearance, while
by firmly sustained
legislation the fac¬
ulty forbids any
display of extrava¬
gance in attire.
Patches and darns
are expected; soil¬
ed or neglected gar¬
ments the school
will not permit. In
a word, what one
would expect to
find in a Caucasian THE 1899 football team.
institution, composed of pupils of moderate means, with high ideals
and gentle manners, are found at Fisk. The choicest of the re¬
cently emancipated race are here seeking a training. As always
INDUSTRIAL BUILDING AND GYMNASIUM,
Erected through a legacy by Mr. Howard, of Nashville, and gift of Dr. A. J. Burrell,
of Oberlin, O.
and everywhere,
none reach the
highest ideal.
Some are found
who fail to aspire
to it; a few are
intractable, but to
one who recalls
the life of the race
and the treatment
it has received be¬
fore and since it
was freed, life at
Fisk is a constant
miracle.
The Fisk Idea
is an expression
often on the lips of
its alumni. It may
be summed up in
this : The rudi¬
ments of learning
for all, manual
training for those
that are adapted to it and will use it in their after life, the best of
culture for those who are capable of receiving and employing it. In
a word, capacity not color, Christianity not caste, is to decide the
question as to the kind of education a youth is to receive, whether he
dwell in the North or South, whether he be an Ethiopian or an Anglo-
Saxon. Exceeding few in comparison with the vast multitude of
their race will be those who receive their diploma at Fisk; but they
are to be the leaders of a people sorely needing leadership. And
Fisk's determination to rear such leaders is an abiding protest against
the spirit which denies to any human being a chance, and a declara¬
tion that the Church, like its divine Master, is to minister especially
to those who most need help.
Fisk Products are the test of its work. Each year it publishes to
the world its list of graduates, and over against each name what he is
doing for the world. It does not hesitate to compare this list with a
like catalogue of any institution with equipment equal to its own. It
has faith to believe that the demon of prejudice will not always hold
its flaming sword to bar true manhood deserving success at the
threshold of life. It would do its part to overcome this demon by
"as good as new."
producing self-respecting manhood, which in the eyes of all true men
commands respect.
Fisk's Needs are great. It needs such an endowment as shall
enable it to decline help from that truest foster mother—the A. M. A.
Its chairs professorial and for instructors should be placed upon
a permanent footing. In no other way can its fine plant be utilized.
If Northern institutions of learning must rely upon endowments to
pay from two-thirds to three-quarters of the cost of educating their
students, certainly an institution educating the youth of a race
scarcely forty years out of the house of bondage, and hence poor be¬
yond all expression, needs vastly more the income of an endowment
to supplement the meagre tuitions which its pupils pay. Here is an
opportunity for the man of large means to bestow a princely gift,
while the man of slender means none the less can invest in the same
undertaking.
The man or men who shall thus endow Fisk, will have ever the favor
of Him who has declared Himself the friend of the poor and needy.
Fisk's greatest need is an answer to the prayer of God's people
for that constant indwelling of the divine Spirit which shall keep in
stout heart those who, with personal self-sacrifice, are doing its work.
DANIEL HAND MODEL SCHOOL.
Erected by the A. M. A. with money from the income of the Daniel Hand bequest.