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Florence, Mobile, Montgomery, Selma, Demopolis, Gainesville, Wetumpka, Tuskegee, Talladega and Greenville. These places are the centres of influence in the State, and in them more than two thousand five hundred pupils are taught.
  But these statements fail to give a true exhibition of the progress made. Our cause is meeting with less opposition, prejudice is giving way, and colored schools are bringing to their aid the moral support of many right minded men in various parts of the State. At Gainesville, I found the Pastors of the Baptist and Presbyterian churches heavily in favor of educating the blacks. In Dr. Stillman's Church,(the Presbyterian,) I found a large Sabbath School, in which the colored children were taught to read from Webster's Spelling book, in connection with Bible lessons. At Demopolis, the citizens have contributed of their funds to aid in the erection of a School-house for the colored people. "The New Era", a newspaper recently started in that city, takes the stand that freedmen must be taught to read. At Tuskegee, the Mayor of the city, aided by his fellow-citizens, had charge of a large Sabbath School, and is in earnest in teaching colored children to read. Our teacher at Talladega, Mrs. E. W. Hopson, writes, "the morning the troops left, I went to see Capt. Taylor, to know what I had better do; he advised me to leave immediately, as there would be no protection for me. As soon as the citizens heard of this, two among the most prominent came to see me, and assure me that I would be protected; they approved of my course and encouraged me to go on