Colored Students At The University

COLORED STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY

ALL BUT ONE ARE WORKING THEIR WAY THROUGH. Making a Plucky Fight For An Education -- One Student Must Drop Out to Support Mother.

There are only 28 colored students in the University, four of whom are girls. With the exception of Ab Howell, the football player, every one, including the girls, is working his way through school. Almost without exception, too, these plucky colored boys came to the University penniless, sometimes without sufficient clothing, looking for a chance to work.

One of the colored boys came to the University a year ago from Alabama, with $75 in his pockets. He rode on a freight train, on the bumpers, between cars, and in empty cars, from Alabama to Toledo. From Toledo to Ann Arbor he had to pay his fare, so as to arrive at college in good style. A small grip, which contained a few summer weight underclothes, was his entire baggage. In his outfit there was a sweater, his only warm garment. He had heard that every college student needs a sweater. By the time he had paid his entrance fees and bought his textbooks he was absolutely penniless. He found work and has supported himself since.

Another young man, a medical student from Alabama, is on the point of abandoning his education, for he cannot afford to pay his fees and tray his necessary books, which are very expensive. He had saved a little money in addition to going to the University, but during the past summer his aged mother took sick, and before the reopening of college the student's little savings account was all gone and some doctor's debts incurred. To clean up these accounts is impossible while working his way through Michigan, so the young man is about to drop his ambition to become a doctor for the betterment of his race, and will, instead, return to Alabama to take up the life of a Iaborer for his old mother's sake- and to pay the doctor's bills.

In Sidney, Illinois, there is today a colored bay named John Foulks. He is working on a farm. Last fall he tried for the third time to enter the Michigan law department, and failed because he could not get employment after his arrival in Ann Arbor.

George Green, of Detroit, entered this fall as a freshman in the literary department. All summer he worked in an Ann Arbor fraternity house. This work gave him money enough to pay his fees.

The day's work begins at 5 o'clock in the morning for these colored boys. With the exception of Ab Howell, they all work, and usually live in fraternity houses. The girls, who are employed in the sorority houses, work as hard as the boys.

These Michigan colored boys and girls think that their sacrifices are worth while. Emily Frazer, a Detroit girl, who graduated from the University six years ago, is now making $100 a month in Washington. She teaches Greek, Latin and French.

Alabama, Kansas, Utah, South Carolina, Georgia, New York, Ohio and Indiana are some of the states from which Michigan's 28 colored students have come.