FOLLOWING BIOGRAPHY ON BACK OF PLATE:

Prof. S. G. Atkins, President and Founder of The Slater Industrial and State Normal School, Winston-Salem, N. C., was born of a humble yet high, because of Christian, parentage, in Chatham County, North Carolina June 11, 1863. Through this humble slave, yet Christian, parentage, there came to this youth principles of industry, morality and Christianity which formed the broad, deep, and solid foundation on which has rested his eventful and useful life. In early life he learned that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." In the days of youth he remembered his Creator. Like many of the world's noblest and best characters. Prof. 'Atkins started life's journey at the plow handles; clearing the ground of roots and stumps, splitting rails, opening the furrow, planting and harvesting the crops, constituted the duty and pleasures of his early life. Early evincing an insatiable thirst for knowledge, all the advantages of the village school were given him. His progress here was phenomenal. His eagerness to know truth; his power of mind to perceive, comprehend and analyze; his retentive Memory, soon gave him first place among his fellows in the school in the village. A few years passed; he in the meantime having prepared himself, the master-mantle of the village school falls upon him. His work here caused a widening of his intellectual horizon. In the year 1880, therefore, he entered the Academic Department of St. Augustine Normal and Collegiate Institute, Raleigh, N. O., and graduated with distinction in 1884. Immediately after leaving college, President J. C. Price. the famous colored orator,' invited him to join the faculty at Livingstone College, Salisbury, N. C. At this post he proved himself one of the most useful men in the faculty. At tiines he filled various positions in the college. The Grammar School Department, under his manageinent, was a model department, and was the pride of the college. He taught here. Serving well and at a great sacrifice, six years. Prof. Atkins retired from the Livingstone College to enter the public school work in which he had long taken a deep Interest. This interest had been manifested, chiefly in connection with his devotion to the work of building up the North Carolina Teachers' Association, which body he helped to organize and of which he was President for three successive years. His first extended work in this field was as Principal of the Colored Graded School, of Winston, N. C. This position of responsibility he held, with increasing success, for five years, when he gave it up against the protest of the Board of School Commissioners of Winston to become President of The Slater Industrial and State Normal School. This Institution had already been projected by him to meet a want among the colored people in the community which he soon saw that the public school could not meet, viz.: a deeper ethical culture and the training of the youth of the community, not only in books, but also in some useful handicraft which would the sooner furnish the basis for strong personal character and sound home-life. His first step in this direction had been the founding of the settlement known as "Columbian Heights," to serve as a background for the Institution, which would do this. The settlement was founded In 1891. and the Institution projected in 1892. Prof. Atkins, as the first settler on Columbian Heights, and as the organizer and both Secretary and agent of the Board of Trustees, pushed the work of The Slater Industrial School, encouraged and supported by the industrious efforts of the members of the Board, until in 1895 he was called to the Presidency of the Institution. From that date to the present his labors have been an inseparable part of the history of the school. Hon. C. H. Mebane, Superintendent of Public Instruction for North Carolina, says of him: "If i had fifty such men as Prof. Atkins in North Carolina, I could make a complete revolution in educational work in a short while, a complete revolution as to moral uplift and general good of the negro race." In addition to his work as an educator, Prof. Atkins has taken much interest In the work of the American Academy of Social and Political Science, of which he is a member, el et He is also a member of the American Statistical Association, and has been twice elected Secretary of Education of the A. M. E. Zion Church. The esteem In which he is held by leading men of the nation wherever he is known is fairly Indicated in the following statement of Hon. J. L. M. Curry, LL. D., ex-minister to Spain and agent of the great Peabody and Slater Trusts for educational purposes. Mr. Curry says: "I regard President Atkins of The Slater Industrial and State Normal School at Winston, N. C., as one of the most worthy and capable men connected with the education of the Negroes in the South. His intelligence, courtesy, good deportment high character and efficiency as the head of a school have won the confidence and good' will of the people among whom he lives, and of all who beet know his work and worth."