Light in the Dark Belt

A few years ago, our family switched from using the Our Daily Bread devotion guide to the Lutheran Portals of Prayer devotion guide for our evening family devotions. Long-time readers may remember at least one post where I expressed disappointment with ODB; that was surely not the only time. We have generally found PoP to be more scripture-focused, with fewer tortured metaphors.

So it was with some initial consternation that I discovered that PoP seemed to go all-in on black history month last February. Haven't we been celebrating blackness non-stop for the last nine months!?! The devotions drew substantial inspiration from from the life of Rosa J. Young, a teacher and school-founder from the "Black Belt" of Alabama who, on the advice of Booker T. Washington, sought Lutheran assistance for her school when the boll weevil devastated Southern sharecropping in the 1910s. She eventually became an evangelist for the Lutheran mission work in Alabama. The devotion guide got around to mentioning that she had written an autobiography, Light in the Dark Belt, originally published in 1930 and revised in 1950. I obtained the 1950 edition.

I was pleasantly surprised. Rosa Young's writing opens a window to an entirely different era of race relations. In an era when all manner of black social dysfunction is blamed on the phantom of "white supremacy", it is gratifying to hear a black person, writing when white supremacy was actually A Thing, not waste a moment blaming it for the misfortuntes of her people, but rather recognizing that the responsibility for their lives lay principally with themselves. When Rosa began her school, she humbly sought the assistance of the southern white people of her community, and found almost all of them eager to support her.

You can read the introductory chapters to her book here; however, I have reproduced a later chapter to give you a sense of Young's understanding of the problems that beset Southern blacks of that time.

Chapter 7

Why I Wanted to Build a School

“For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people..” -- Is 60:2

It was not the thought of money that convinced me that I ought to start a school. From the time I received my diploma and went forth from the university into the battle of life, it had ever been my desire to serve. I was ready to serve under any and all conditions. My highest ambition is still to serve, to be a faithful servant of God and my people. I would rather serve than be served. I have never desired a high position. I would rather do the humble work among the despised and outcast. As I saw the great need of my people, my desire to do something for their education grew. And so I might state my reasons for wanting to start a school as follows:

1. I saw the grievous condition of my race, of my brothers and sisters. It was a pathetic sight. The ignorance and superstition in all matters were amazing. I hope that my school would help to overcome some of this ignorance and superstition.

2. Morals and manners were at a low ebb. It was a rare thing to see a man who did not have two or more wives or to see a woman who had only one husband. It was a common thing to see a young girl approaching the age of 20, who was a mother and drifting about with no husband. Both young and old had lost all regard for the holy estate of matrimony. There were hundreds of people who had been married, but were separated. It was a common thing to see girls or women living by themselves in little huts doted over the plantations. Young girls would often bundle their clothes, move out from their father’s home, away from the care and protection of a loving mother, and start keeping house by themselves. The reputation of some of these people was shameful. Their manners in all places, at home, in church, on the roadsides, in public places, such as stores and railroad stations, were rough, uncouth, boisterous. Even their word of honor was of no account. I hope that my school would help to improve morals and manners.

3. The homes in which these poor people lived were horrible. In every community there were two classes of people, the Big Dogs and the Little Dogs. Of course, in the homes of the so-called Big Dogs conditions were a little more decent. In the homes of the so-called Little Dogs, conditions, up on the whole, were indecent. There were no arrangements made for bathing or ventilation in the houses. In most of them there was too much ventilation. While sitting in the house behind closed doors, one could look up and see this sky, the moon, and the stars through the holes in the roof; one could look down and through the holes in the floor see the ground -- chickens, hogs, little pigs, and dogs. One could seldom find a decent pair of steps at a door. The chimneys, made of sticks daubed with red mud reached only halfway up the houses. On a cold day it might happen that the wind would blow down the chimney and that the smoke would prevent the family from having a fire.

In many cases the whole family, half-grown young men and women, smaller children, and father and mother, had to sleep and cook in the same room. The bed clothes were filthy; most of the members of the family would sleep in the clothes they had worn during the day. Dishes and cooking utensils remained unwashed from meal to meal, day after day. The bed clothes, dishes, and cooking utensils were covered with swarms of flies. Scarcely any lamps could be found in the homes, and in most cases where there were lamps they had no chimneys.

There were no dinner tables on which to serve when the dinner was prepared. The mother gave each member of the family his or her dinner on a plate, or in a pan, bucket, or skillet. Some would sit in the doorway, some on the steps, others put out in the yard, and the little children on the floor. All ate with their hands and fingers.

Lunch at school.

They used gourds for dippers, broom sage and pine tops for brooms. A few chairs, boxes, blocks or wagon-body seats on the floor were used for seats. The floors were seldom, if ever, scrubbed and not often swept. About the yard lay all kinds of filthy rags, inviting disease. Through my school I hoped to improve these conditions by inspiring children and young people to improve also their material surroundings.

4. The children, the dear little children of the rural districts whom I love so well and in whom I am so interested, where in a sad condition. Some of them had to come to school partly dressed in adults’ clothing. In the dead of winter some of them would have to come to my school with only one or two pieces of clothing on as a protection against the stings and howls of the winter winds, half-hungry, half-naked, barefooted, toes and heels cracked open from the rain, ice, and frost. The little girls' hair was combed only once in a while. It was knotty, kinky, dirty, matted and full of cockleburs. The boys, poor things, their hair was never combed. Once in a while some member of the family would take a pair of scissors and cut the boys' hair, which was so gummy and matted that it would come off in a caplike form. In many cases there were hog lice in the little boys' hair. On their hands, wrists, forearms, in the back of their necks, on their kneecaps, on the front part of their legs, on their ankles, heels, feet, and toes grew banks of dirt until it formed a scaly crust, so thick that you could take a pin and stick deep or scrape hard, and they would not feel it. The finger and toe nails were long and dirty. Their teeth were yellow with stain. The best they knew to do was to steal, lie, curse, swear, and fight like cats and dogs. My heart went out to these children, and I desired to do for them whatever lay in my power to do.

5. The educational advantages offered these children by the State were entirely inadequate. The school terms lasted only three or four months a year. Before the children could get a good start in school, the term would be over. During the long vacation of eight or nine months the children would forget most, if not all, of what they had learned during the previous term. I planned a school that would provide an adequate school term.

6. Among these poor children there were some bright boys and girls, filled with high ambitions, with the marks of leadership on their dusky brows, which shone like diamonds in a coal bed in the bright sun. Their poor parents were unable to send them to school. They had nothing with which to pay their board; they were just barely existing themselves.

However, most of the children were dull and backward. There were large boys and girls said to be in the fifth, sixth, and seventh grades who could not read through a paragraph correctly. If they were asked to spell a simple word, for instance, the word "smooth," they might begin to spell it with a P or a Q. There were large children who could not write the letters of the alphabet or do primary work in arithmetic. They would not have the slightest idea of how to solve the simplest problem. Some ten- and fifteen-year-old boys and girls could not read the first lesson on the chart or in the primer.

I wanted to help all children, but especially to give the brighter and more ambitious ones a better chance in life.

7. As a general thing, there were no schoolhouses; for the most part the public schools were taught in the churches. Most of the churches were dilapidated and so exposed to the elements that one might as well teach outdoors under an oak tree. There were big holes in the roofs and in the floors. Many a time during a heavy shower of rain the large children would have to hold an umbrella over me while I heard a class recite.

In some of those churches there were small heaters, but no flues; so we had to take out a window pane and run the stovepipe out through the side of the wall. When the wind was high on a cold day, the smoke would turn us all away from the fire. In churches where there were no heaters we were obliged to build big fires outdoors. Then I would have to watch the little fellows to prevent their clothes from catching fire.

I hoped to provide a good school in a decent building.

8. The poor people were lacking in leadership. It is one of the great needs of the colored race even to this day to have sufficient and efficient leaders. The number of able, prepared leaders is so small that real work is difficult.

The public school teachers were inefficient. Not more than one third of them could pass a third-grade state examination fairly well. Some of them did not have the least idea of how to grade a school. They would permit children to enter the sixth and seventh grades that should have been in the third. Discipline in the school was unknown. Before one reached the school building or church where the school was being held, one could hear the children giggling, murmuring, and shuffling their feet. There was a continual commotion during the school hours. The teachers would ask the children questions about their lessons and have to look in the book to see if the child answered correctly.

These teachers would permit the children to sing all kinds of songs and give some of the most ridiculous recitations. The public school teachers would sometimes have Christmas trees and present Christmas programs for the benefit of the community. The following are some of the recitations the children would recite. A little ashy-faced country lad comes forward, so happy he has a chance to speak that his face is wreathed in smiles. He recites as follows:

Black gum bits and bullet rains,
White oak saddle and hickory horse,
Um gwine to ride all up and down the line.

At this all the people would whoop, shout, and laugh. Then another child would come forward and give his Christmas selection:

Milk in the picture and butter in the bowl;
I cannot get a sweetheart to save my soul.

Then another would step forward and recite:

With a jug of molasses and a pan of biscuits in my hand,
I'll sop my way to the Promised Land.

Now, such recitations were given on the solemn occasion of the commemoration of the birth of Jesus, the Savior of the world. "Gross darkness covered the people.”

The so-called preachers often were worse than those to whom they preached. Some were both ignorant and immoral. The better class of laymen would not trust them in their homes during their absence. These so-called preachers where the downfall of many poor, ignorant, young girls. They destroyed the peace and harmony many humble country home.

It was a common thing to see a preacher at one of those annual meetings just out of the pulpit staggering down some dark alley, drunk with wine, beer, "shinny," or whisky, heaving like a dog, while the other preachers looked upon it as a joke. Besides this, many preachers were greedy for money. They would rove the rural districts, holding out false inducements to the poor, ignorant people, enticing them to join all kinds of fraternal societies. They would offer the people sick, accident, and death benefits, and every other kind of benefit, just to get their money. Most people could not resist the temptation. Those who had credit would go to their landlords and borrow the money to join. Others would sell their corn, eggs, pigs, chickens, the very food out of the mounts of their little children, to obtain money with which to join these societies. After they had stripped the people of all the money they could get, these scoundrels would escape and no more would be heard from them, while the people were left in need as before.

They would impose heavy taxation, or assessment, upon the church people; and if those who were thus taxed failed to pay, they were excommunicated, or their names were put on the dead list. A person whose name was on the dead list was not permitted to partake of the Lord's Supper. If he became sick, no pastor visited him; and if he died, no pastor would bury him or preach the funeral sermon. Some of these preachers would hire out to the people to preach so many sermons a year or month for so much money. Visiting the sick and burying the dead was not included. A Baptism was performed for twenty-five cents and up per head. When a member died, the funeral was used as an occasion to draw a large crowd in order to get a lot of money.

These preachers would not humble themselves, or feel enough interest in the people, to live in the parsonages the people had provided for them. The homes these poor people had strained themselves to build for them they allowed to ruin. The preachers went to the cities, hanging around the streets in the towns during the week. On Saturdays they would go out to their country churches, do their kind of preaching, get all the money, chickens, and eggs they could get from the people and on Monday mornings board the train for the city with these gifts, joking about the people, calling them "n______"* and saying: "I told them n______ so and so." Instead of trying to enlighten the people, they were calling them fools.

My school was intended to contribute its part in developing intelligent and unselfish leaders for my people.

9. I always believed in the education of the heart; for a bright head with a wicked heart stands for naught. It only tends to breed trouble. I knew something was wrong with the kind of religion my people had, but I did not know what was wrong about it. I desired a better Christian training for myself and my people, but I did not know where to find it. The religion of my people was a mere pretense, a kind of manufactured religion. Those who belonged to church were no better than those who did not. In most of the homes the so-called Christian families as well as the unbelievers lived in envy, strife, malice, prejudice, bitter hatred, yea, hellish riot; in covetousness; in adultery and fornication; in theft and lying.

In hundreds of homes the Bible was never read, a prayer was never spoken, and a Christian hymn was never sung. The whole family lay down at night and rose the next morning, and each went out to do his work without saying a word of thanks to God. Sin was looked upon by most people as a small thing. They held divine services in their churches twelve times a year, on the average once a month. No one took the time to teach them Christian hymns; they sang old plantation songs during their services.

Both men and women would get down on their knees and pray just as loud as they could hollo, often using all kinds of profane language and blasphemy. They would call on God as if He were asleep or dead. The preachers would read a text and then branch off and preach all kinds of man-made doctrines, telling the people that these things are in the Bible. Many a time the name of Jesus was not mentioned during a whole sermon. The preachers would whoop, hollo, pat, and stamp, snort, and blow until the people were in an uproar, shouting and hollowing, too. Then the preachers would just say anything. I once heard a preacher laughing and telling how he curses when he gets "n______" to shouting and holloing.

The people were obliged to carry on most of the church work without the preachers; they just came and preached. The people would have Sunday school about three months out of the year, beginning a few Sundays before Easter each year and continuing until July or August. They had the wrong conception of Christmas and other Christian festivals. I hoped to be of some help in improving the sad religious conditions, though I did not know just how that might be accomplished.

10. Though the teaching of the Bible and of the Six Chief Parts of the Christian religion was neglected, I cannot say that this was one of my reasons for wanting to build a school for my race, for in this respect I was in the dark myself. Sad! Sad! We were all blind and leaders of the blind. We did not know the Bible, neither did the preachers know it. We did not know what we must do to be saved, neither did the preachers. They were preaching false doctrine, and we did not know it. We did not know that Jesus has done all that is necessary for our salvation, and the preachers did not know it. We did not know what Jesus, the Savior, meant to us. We did not know that we were sinners. We wanted to go to heaven; but we did not know the way, and the preachers did not know it. We were trying to work our way to heaven, and the preachers were doing the same. We were not following our Bibles, neither were the preachers.

Now, what was to be done? Our white people had given us our schools and churches. We sent calls and had our leaders; and I presume the white people thought we were getting along fine.

The Lord, our Savior, who loved us saw all this and had compassion on us. He saw that the sad plight of our immortal souls was far worse than our physical condition. The Lord looked down from heaven upon us. He saw darkness had covered our land. Our eyes were blind to the knowledge contained in His blessed Gospel. The Lord saw that we were all on the wrong road, regardless of how well we meant, and could never reach heaven that way.

God saw that I was concerned, that I was worried, about many things pertaining to the temporal welfare of my people. God saw my eager desires and longings to do something for Him and my race. I did not have the least idea of what was to be done. I could not preach, for women are not allowed to preach. But the Lord instilled in me the thought of building a school, gave me strength to begin this work, and sustained me.

At that time I knew nothing about the Lutheran Church and its pure Gospel preaching; but God knew all about it and was pleased with it. God was going to use my school as an instrument to put the true Church in this dark land. The Lord did send us the light through the Lutheran Church, of which you will read later.

* Rosa Young spells out the word, although I do not.