Black Colleges of ACI
Three ACIN schools remain in operation today, St. Paul’s, St. Augustine’s, and Voorhees, as do Fort Valley State University and St. Philip’s Junior College in San Antonio, Texas. Although never an official ACIN school, St. Philip’s is currently the largest of the schools for which ACIN provided funds.
Other schools that were affiliated with ACIN but are no longer in existence are Calhoun School (Lowndes County, Alabama), Gailor Industrial School (Mason, Tennessee), Gaudet Normal and Industrial School (New Orleans, Louisiana), Okolona Industrial School (Okolona, Mississippi), St. Agnes Hospital and Nursing School (Raleigh, North Carolina), and St. Mark’s School (Birmingham, Alabama). [Sources]
Church Institute Singers from Voorhees School and Junior College at General Convention in Cincinnati, 1947.
Friendship Trees, c. 1950. Two trees were planted to symbolize the happy relationship between National Council and the school, Voorhees School & Junior College. One tree was named after the president of the school and the other after the Rev. Tollie Caution, representative of the Church.
Junior College graduation class at Voorhees School & Junior College, c. 1950.
A plumbing class at Voorhees College, 1958.
Table tennis at the Voorhees Student Center, c. 1958.
A cooking class at St. Philip’s School in San Antonio, Texas, 1927. Note what is written on the chalkboard: “Cease to be a Drudge. Learn to be an Artist.”
A student learning blacksmithing at Okolona College, 1924.
Okolona’s Debate Team.
The Okolona Homecoming Queen, c. 1955.
Another scene from an Okolona Homecoming, c. 1955.
Students at Okolona learning history, c. 1940. Note the subtitle of the map “European and World History.” It would be many years before African and African American history would be addressed in classrooms.
Students mingling outside the Patton Library at Okolona College, c. 1950s.
The Okolona College Choir, c. 1935.