 Rosa Jinsey Young (educator, schools founder ) The daughter of a Methodist circuit
rider, Rosa Young was responsible for the beginning of Lutheran work among African
Americans in Alabama. Educated at Payne University, in 1912 she opened a private school
with seven students in a Methodist Church in Rosebud. It grew to 215 pupils in three
terms, then ran into financial straits. At the suggestion of Booker T. Washington, Young
turned for help to the Synodical Conference (Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod). Interested
in the school and outreach possibilities, the Synodical Conference sent Pastor Nils J.
Bakke to meet with the school board, which in turn offered the school to the Lutherans.
Bakke returned to Rosebud to begin mission work and Young became a member of his
congregation. One of her pupils noted, "Miss Young was married to the education of
her people and to the Lutheran Church. She was a superb communicator, an excellent teacher
and she spoke two languages, English and Christianity. She went the fifth and sixth mile
for the church, mortgaging everything she had, including property, to carry on the
work." Young went on to start schools for the church throughout rural Alabama,
including a high school and a junior college, the Alabama Lutheran Academy, in Selma whose
faculty she joined. Her autobiography, Light in the Dark Belt, tells of her life and work.
She died in 1971 at that age of 81.
< Back To The Timeline |
|