Page:From servitude to service; (IA fromservitudetos00ogde).pdf/217

The smoke of the titanic civil war had hardly lifted when Fisk University was born. It was cradled in the army barracks, abandoned by the Union Army; it was christened by the name of a gallant soldier who had in charge the disposal of the property of the United States at Nashville. Governor Brownlow and other politicians, John Ogden and other educators, a regimental band and a motley crowd of ten thousand Negroes of all ages and conditions surrounded President Cravath on the initial day. He was the field secretary of the American Missionary Association, an old anti-slavery society. By his side stood the representative of the Freedman's Aid Commission. Moved by the inspiration of the occasion, under the influence of a life-long interest in the colored race Chaplain Cravath then and there announced the foundation principles of what has come to be one of the largest and widest-known Negro colleges in the world. Believing in the brotherhood of man and the inherent capabilities of the Negro he made the proclamation that the founding of the Fisk