ege, which position he has filled with credit.

During the first eight years of his work at Kittrell, he
developed that work so rapidly that the trustees deemed it
wise to accept his recommendations and broaden the work so
as to cover a regular college course. Mr. Hawkins has always
been an ardent advocate of higher education for the Negro
and worked hard to fit himself for giving such advantages to
his students. For five years he spent his summers in the
North, where he could get the best school advantages and
keep himself in touch with best school methods.

Mr. Hawkins has been one of the most successful educators of
the South and has raised large sums of money by public
canvass among the philanthropists of the country. In his
native State, North Carolina, he is a recognized leader
among his people, and by his ability and standing has won
the confidence and respect of all classes. A ripe scholar, a
deep thinker, a ready writer and a polished orator, his
services are almost constantly in demand. Indeed, it has
been said of him that he is one of the finest public
speakers on the stage. He speaks with such power of
conviction as to touch the heart of his audiences and at
once lead them into the subject under consideration with
interest and profit.

In 1896 he was elected by the General Conference of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church as Commissioner of
Education and filled that office so acceptably that at the
end of his first term in 1900, he was re-elected by
acclamation. He is regarded as among the strongest laymen in
his church and one of the best financiers of the race.

One of the finest qualities of Mr. Hawkins is his devotion
to his family and his high ideals in home life.

In 1892 he married Miss Lillian M. Kennedy, of Sioux Falls,
South Dakota, whose companionship and devotion has been a
most important factor in contributing to her husband's
success. They are the happy parents of two children, a girl
and a boy, and are pleasantly located at Kittrell, N. C., in
a very beautiful home.

Every nation of recognized merit and ability, chronicled in the
world's history, is proud to revert to some special feature of its
life, and point with pride to some one thing that has given character
to its institutions and added to its nati