The bulletin of Atlanta University, 1903 no. 136

              NUMBER  136                                     ATLANTA, GEORGIA                                        APRIL, 1903 For statement of the work of Atlanta University see last page. RECONSTRUTION IN GEORGIA The New York Independent of March 19 has a most interesting article on Reconstruction in Georgia in 1865-70, by Hon. Rufus B. Bullock, Georgia's reconstruction and only Republican governor. Ex-Governor Bullock has been a trustee of this institution for many years and much interested in its work. He has never been, in any especial sense, a politician, having been called to the front in reconstruction days more by reason of the exigencies of the business situation than by any desire for political preferment. He had formerly been a slave holder, was in the confederate service during the war, surrendering as assistant quartermaster general with Lee at Appomattox, and was, when nominated for governor, the president of the first new railroad constructed in Georgia after the war, and a director in the first national bank established in his home city, Augusta. The Atlanta Constitution, the influence of which as an able and widely-read Democratic paper is well known, speaks with marked approval of this article. Its editorial concludes: '-At this time of revamping the old race issue as a theme of national discussion, such papers as that of ex-Governor Bullock in The Independent are both timely and instructive." We quote a few statements from the Constitution's editorial: Ex-Governor Bullock interlards his able paper with few partisan arguments, endeavoring to confine his resume to statements of fact as he observed and understood the momentous events in which he so prominently figured. After a lapse of more than a quarter of a century, with so many revolutionary changes intervening, it is natural that the present should be rusty on the concrete history of the reconstruction era, and Georgians of today will find much in Mr. Bullock's article worthy of preservation in their scrapbooks.    .    .    . Mr. Bullock pays a high tribute to Governor Joseph E. Brown and contends that his course as leader of the "congress'' party has been logically vindicated by events. Of Alexander H. Stephens he says: The election in Georgia of Mr. Alexander H. Stephens, late vice-president of the Confederate  States, to the  United States senate startled the North, and yet he was the fittest and safest man for the position at that time. . . . No man then living, after the war, could have counseled so wisely and safely to harmonious conclusions between the late contending sections, who misunderstood each other, as Mr. Stephens. In view of Mr. Bullock's prominence in the past political affairs of Georgia and his standing in the republican party, anything he may have to say touching the status of the southern Negro today is especially interesting. Says Georgia's former governor: The large amount of property returned by the Negroes in Georgia on which they pay taxes is the highest evidence that their environment is not unfriendly. No harm has come to Georgia because of the Negro's emancipation or his enfranchisement, except that of our own making. Legislative efforts for his disfranchisement have received only scant support, and the controlling sentiment is opposed to his expatriation or emigration. He is welcome to his home here with us. One sentence in ex-Governor Bullock's article, not quoted by the Constitution, make appreciative reference to our work. He says: "The great need of higher or university education to prepare competent colored leaders for the race is not so well understood by our people now as it will be later; but the unfailing liberality during more than thirty years of the charitable North in supporting the Atlanta University for this purpose has in great measure supplied the deficiency." A TALLADEGA STUDENT AT YALE We congratulate Talladega College and Mr. Pickens on the success of the latter at Yale University. Mr. Pickens is a member of the regular Junior College class, and is, we are reliably informed, doing excellent work in his regular studies, as well as making a brilliant record as an orator. We quote the comment of the New York Independent. The William Pickens who has just won the $100 first prize for oratory in the Junior Class at Yale is a dark Negro from Little Rock, Ark., who graduated at Talladega College, in Alabama, one of the best institutions for colored people in the South, and then entered the Junior Class at Yale. He will be remembered by those who attended the meeting of the American Missionary Association at Springfield, Mass., two years ago, for his brilliant address there, which gave promise of future distinction. He supports himself by any work he can get. Thus Yale, as well as Harvard, gives its testimony to the intellectual ability of the black race when pitted in friendly rivalry with Caucasians. News of Our Graduates '76—Pres. R. R. Wright of the Ga. State College delivered an address in Boston recently upon the Value of the A. M. A. Work in Southern Education. '76—Rev. Joseph E. Smith is again a member of the school board in the city of Chattanooga. This is not a new position to him, for he has previously served eleven consecutive years in that capacity, retiring of his own choice a few years ago. We are glad of the honor that has been conferred again upon him. '91—Silas X. Floyd has been unanimously elected principal of the First Ward Grammar School in Augusta, thus taking up the work of the late Henry L. Walker ('82). '94—Mrs. Ella L. (Miller) Colvin died of consumption at her home in St. Augustine, Fla., Mar. 26. Mr. Colvin had died only a few weeks previous. Miss Miller went to St. Augustine to teach soon after her graduation, and married Mr. Colvin in 1898. She had made her home in that city since her marriage. '97—R. W. Gadsden, who is now teaching in one of the public schools of Savannah, is President of the Young Men's Christian Association of that city. He is now engaged in raising money  for an  association  building. '99—The last number of the Gazette, a quarterly published by the Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute, has an article by W. A. Rogers, on The Object of Educational Sloyd. Mr. Rogers teaches mechanical drawing and sloyd in that institution. '01—Miss Mary F. Monroe teaches this year at Swayne Institute, Montgomery, Ala. '01—John W. Kinney has been the boys' industrial teacher at the Haines Institute in Augusta, since his graduation. We give elsewhere a brief sketch of the industrial work at that institution. '02—Miss Jessie V. McHenry has recently completed a term as teacher at Norcross, Ga., and Miss Julia E. White is teaching at Adasburg. Miss Emma C. Penney teaches at the Tuskegee Institute.