CHAPTER 119.

OF PUBLIC EDUCATION

AN ACT to establish and maintain a College for the Education of Colored Students in Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met (two-thirds each branch concurring therein):

SECTION 1. The Governor of the State, on the first Tuesday in June, eighteen hundred and ninety-one (1891), and every four years thereafter, shall appoint and commission two respectable and well qualified persons from each county, who shall constitute the board of trustees for the Delaware College for Colored Students. The said trustees shall hold Term of their office for a period of four years or until their successors shall in like manner be appointed. In case of a vacancy by death, resignation or otherwise, the Governor shall appoint how for the unexpired term.

SECTION 2. The trustees named in this shall be and powers, etc. are hereby ordained and declared to be a body corporate by the name and style of "The Trustees of Delaware College for Colored Students," with all the powers and franchises incident to such an institution, including the capacity to take and hold real and personal estate by deed, devise, bequest, gift, grant, or otherwise, and the same to alien, sell, transfer and dispose of as occasion may require, and the proceeds thereof to reinvest in other property, funds or securities for the benefit of said college, and in accordance with the spirit and purpose of this act.

SECTION 3. The purpose and object of said college shall College, be to impart instruction in agriculture, the mechanic arts, the English language, the various branches of mathematical, physical, natural and economic science, with special reference to their application in the industries of life, and to the facilities for such instruction, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life, but other scientific and classical studies may be taught, and a normal school for the preparation of teachers may be connected with the college under such rules and regulations as the trustees may adopt.

SECTION 4. The said Board of Trustees shall have the superintendence of said college, with power to appoint and remove the faculty and other officers and agents of the college and of their body; to fill vacancies and to make bylaws as well for the government of the college as their own government; and to conduct all the concerns of the institution. Five members of the board shall constitute a quorum, and meetings of the board shall be held as the by-laws may prescribe; provided that said by-laws shall not conflict with the Constitution or Laws of the United States or of this State.

SECTION 5. The faculty of the college, composed of the teachers whom the trustees shall employ, one of whom shall be president of the college and ex officio a member of the board of trustees, shall have the care, government and instruction of the students, subject, however, to the by-laws. They shall have authority, with the approbation of the board of trustees to confer degrees and grant diplomas.

SECTION 6. Devises, bequests, grants and gifts to this corporation shall not be avoided by any misnomer, if the description can be understood with reasonable certainty.

SECTION 7. That the sum of eight thousand dollars hereby appropriated from the state treasury to the said "The Trustees of the State College for Colored Students" to be used primarily for the purchase of land and for the preservation, repair and equipment of any building or buildings which said trustees shall hereafter acquire for the purposes of said college, and if the whole of said sum should not be required for the purchase of land and for the erection, preservation, or repair of buildings, the remainder of said sum shall be used for the maintenance and support of said institution. Said sum shall be paid by the State Treasurer to the treasurer of said trustees, upon his giving his bond and security as hereinafter provided after notice received under the hand of the president and secretary of the said trustees that said body is fully organized and prepared to carry out the purposes of this act

SECTION 8. That the State Treasurer is hereby directed and required to pay annually to the treasurer of the said "Trustees of the State College for Colored Students, "twenty per centum or one-fifth part of the sum of money which be, the said State Treasurer, has already received and hereafter shall receive annually by virtue of an act of Congress, approved August 30, 1890, entitled "An act to apply a portion of the proceeds of the public lands to the more complete endowment and support of the colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts, established under the provisions of an act of Congress, approved July 2, 1862."

SECTION 9. That the moneys received by said trustees as provided in the foregoing section shall be used by said trustees for the support and maintenance of said college, and the treasurer of said trustees, before receiving any money from said State Treasurer, shall give bond with good and sufficient security to the State of Delaware in the sum of ten thousand dollars, conditioned for time faithful application of all the moneys received. Said bond shall be approved by said trustees .and shall be deposited in the office of the Secretary of State.

Passed at Dover, May 15, 1891.