88 trained leaders within their black communities. As citizens they were able to carry out their political rights effectively and to influence others. The peaceful protest of the Bennett students on their way back from High Point is a good illustration of their political maturity. Many Bennett graduates became teachers. They had great influence over

their students and a high respect in the community. The Negro presim

dents of Bennett did commendable jobs of teaching and operating the in»

stitution, thus almost certainly inspiring other members of their race to believe that they too were capable of undertaking great responsibiu lities. 'Many Bennett College alumni also became ministers, thereby offering an educated leadership for the religious development of their church members. The leadership role of the Negro minister in the black community is one of the most significant factors in the black history of this country. .Two Bennett graduates, Robert E. Jones, class of l895, and Matthew w. Clair, class of I896, became bishops in the Methodist Episc0pal Church. The Negro members of the Methodist EpisCoPal Church in North Carolina showed initiative by consistently donating money for the support of the college. Giving as an example the story of the local church which contributed one hundred five dollars to Bennett Seminary, a modern church historian has said that in respect to the Freedmen's Aid Society schools, “the Negroes . . . gave all out of pro- portion to their ability to keep the schools solvent."1 The influences 1Walker w. Benjamin, ”The Methodist Episcopal Church in the

Post-War Era,“sections l—3, The History 2: American Methodism, edited by Emory Stevens Bucke (New York: Abingdon Press, l96fi), II, 376.