THE NEGROES  OF XENIA,  OHIO.                       1043

force University.  It is named for William Wilberforce, the English
antislavery agitator.  The school is the oldest Negro college in America.
It was founded in 1856 and is run entirely by Negroes, being under
the supervision of tilhe A. M. E. Church. It is 3 miles from Xenia,
and has an enrollment of about 400 students, who come from all parts
of the United States and front albroad.  In the year 1901-2 there were
10 students from  South Africa, 5 from West Africa, 1 from South
America, and 3 from the West Indies.  Its teachers are Negroes,
and among them are graduates from Oberlin College, Brown Univer-
sity, Cornell University, and the University of Chicago.   The Wilber-
force community, which consists of 161 persons (permanent residents),
according to the last census, is said to be one of the most beautiful
communities of Negroes  in the country.   Among  the residents of
Wilberforce have been four bishops of the A. M. E. Church, two of
whom still reside there.  The family of the only Negro West Point
graduate now in the Regular Army is also in Wilberforce, and also
the family of a chaplain in the United States Army.
  Wilberforce deserves mention because of its influence upon Xenia.
For many years its teachers and students have lectured and preached
in Xenia.  The Methodist Church has as pastor a former graduate of
Wilberforce.    The principal of the high  school and many  of the
teachers are graduates or formner students of this school.    In the
early days Wilberforce was the cause of bringing many people to
Xenia; and to-day Wilberforce for one day unites all the towns in the
county-indeed in several counties-on the occasion of its annual com-
mencement, when nearly every Negro in Greene County is present.
  Nearly all the families ill Wilberforce are property holders. The
following list, taken from the auditor's books, gives the assessed value
of this property:
ASSESSED VALUATION OF PROPERTY OWNED BY NEGROES OF WILBERFORCE, OHIO, 1902.

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       14453--No.48--03---5




			

OHS Archives/Library Pamphlet Collection

"The Negroes of Xenia, Ohio: A Social Study (1830-1900)." Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor

R.

Issue Number:  48