Nowhere in the South is the negro so totally a nonentity in politics as in Mississippi, and yet nowhere in the South is there a colored institution so heartily commended as is Tougaloo University by the white Mississippians. This seems odd, hardly credible. Tougaloo is not a State institution. Mississippi has a system of instruction including a normal school and other departments for colored youth. And yet every Legislature makes an appropriation for Tougaloo. The institution's management reports the use made of the money, and the Governor appoints a Board of Visitors. This is the extent of State supervision, and still Mississippi continues to make biennially an appropriation for the university. The last Legislature cut down the amount somewhat, but it cut some of the white institutions worse than it did Tougaloo. Perhaps a stronger evidence of the esteem in which this university is held by white Mississippi is the social consideration bestowed upon those connected with the institution. The prejudice which ostracises "a nigger teacher" and which is so pronounced in most communities where there is a colored institution, is rarely observable here. On the Board of Visitors are men of the highest standing, like Col. J.L. Power, for almost a lifetime the head of the _Clarion_; Oliver Clifton, the Clerk of the Supreme Court, and F.A. Wolfe, the former Superintendent of Education. Mr. W.S. Lemly, one of the leading business men of Jackson, is a member of the Board of Trustees. To visit Tougaloo is not to lose caste in Jackson society, but is altogether a proper thing to do. Of course there is an explanation for this. White Mississippians are much like white Georgians or white Carolinians in their views on the race problem and on negro education. Tougaloo's peculiar relation to the white people must be accounted for by the features in which it differs from other colored institutions maintained by Northern societies. THE SECRET OF IT. The Rev. Frank G. Woodworth, President of the university, was asked how he accounted for the exceptional esteem in which Tougaloo is held. His reply was: "I think the attention which we give to industrial education has a great deal to do with it. That, and the preparation of teachers, {pg 208} are two things which we make most prominent in our work. The white people can see the good effects of the training we give so plainly that they feel the work we are doing is good."