#7

During his first year, l889-l890, the Freedmen's Aid and South~ ern Education Society spent almost $675.00 on real estate at Bennett. The following year almost $l,500.00 was spent on the foundation of a

new building.12

In the Society report for that same year, l89l, an artist's sketch of the proposed building was shown, and the caption read, "foundation nearly completed.“13 The Society contributed over $2,000.00 the next year to the building account at Bennett,]4 but it is not known if any progress was made on the buildings.]5 Next to the need for a dormitory, Dr. Grandison said, was the

need for an industrial plant,16 that is, proper facilities for teaching such.trades as carpentry, brickmlaying, and printing. Grandison seems to have been the first administrative head of Bennett to stress the need of industrial training for the Negro race; his strong belief in it is shown in his own words:

With his own skilled hangs, guided by a richly furnished and

thoroughly disciplined brain, the black man of the South must

carve out his material fortune, and thus take his place along- side of the civilized peoples of earth, in industry, thrift,

12Ibid., TwentymThird Annual Report, 1890, p. l4; Twenty—Fifth _ Annual Report [so=called to correct a cumulative error begun years back], 1891, pp. 205, 253.

I31bid., TwentyaFifth Annual Report, 1891, p. 206.

lthid., “Board of Managers to the General Committee of the Freedmen's Aid and Southern Education Society,” p. 9, in Twenty=$ixth Annual Report, l892.

15The first mention of a completed building was made in 1897. TMe Are Helping Ourselves,“ Southwestern Christian Advocate, January 2&

1897, p. 8.

16Freedmen's Aid and Southern Education Society, Twenty—Fifth Annual Report, l89l, p. 206.