Prof. Gregory W. Hayes was born of slave parents in Amelia county, Va., September 8, 1862. He graduated from Oberlin, one of the first institutions of learning in the State of Ohio, in the class of '88 and was elected to the chair of pure mathematics in the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, which position he held for three years. He was the first president of the National Baptist Educational Convention for the United States and was commissioner-in-chief from Virginia for the Southern Inter-State Exposition. He was elected president of Virginia Seminary in 1891.

PROF. GREGORY W. HAYES, A. M.

In young men like Prof. Hayes rests the future of the race. He is an able orator, and whenever he[Pg 50] speaks to a body of people he enlightens them. The future before him is bright. Modest, unassuming, brilliant, he stands tip-toe upon the threshold of success and justice bids him enter.

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ARKADELPHIA ACADEMY.

The Arkadelphia Academy was organized Aug. 15, 1890, as Arkadelphia Industrial College. In 1892 the name was changed to the Arkadelphia[Pg 51] Academy, and it was made tributary to the Arkansas Baptist College at Little Rock, Ark. The school had few friends and no money when started; but in 1896 the property was valued at $12,000.

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F. L. Jones, A. M., is the principal. The object of the school is to train workers for the Sabbath school and other departments of church and Christian work; to this end every person in the school is required to study the Bible, as the Bible is the foundation of all instruction given, and with it go all the cognate studies. The institution is located at Arkadelphia, Arkansas.

THE FLORIDA INSTITUTE.

The history of "The Florida Institute," at Live Oak, Fla., is interwoven with every effort of the colored Baptists of the State. As early as 1868, when the colored Baptist churches in Florida were very few, the fathers of the church in that section took the initiatory steps toward the establishment of this institution.

After much deliberation Live Oak was chosen as the place of location. About three and a half acres of land, with an incomplete building, originally intended for a court house, were purchased at a cost of $2,000. This money was raised by the colored Baptists of Florida. The final payment was made in 1876. The school was 

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