As the Weakley era gained a firm footing, more industries and trades were added to the school’s curriculum. Weakley explained the rationale for this expansion in one of his annual reports to the board. “Practically all our boys will have to make a living with their hands,” Weakley told the board. “If they are taught to do this, we must provide for them a more varied and extensive program. They need, in addition to their regular school work, superior, intensive training in creative handicrafts, suitable to their abilities.”1
With this idea in mind, Weakley and his staff developed an application and assessment process for their industrial program. Each boy was given a choice of a trade, but his decision was supplemented by a tryout period and, as they became available, aptitude tests. Once this evaluation was completed, the staff would move a boy to another trade if they determined it was more suitable to the boy’s talents. Upon completion of a specific vocational class, the student was presented a framed “certificate of apprenticeship,” and exceptional graduates were also given a “certificate of appreciation.” Certain meritorious learners received a small salary as a reward for their outstanding work.2
Tailoring and Sewing
A sewing shop was added to the list of industries sometime within the first five years of the school. According to one of the early reports to the board, many of the smaller boys were placed in this shop and received four and a half hours of instruction each day. In the early years, the shop produced shirts, pants, sheets, pillow cases, and napkins.3 By 1915, the apparel had grown to include overalls, military uniforms, underwear, nightgowns, belts, caps, and a mysterious item that Weakley called “easy-walkers,” probably an early version of the bedroom slipper or house shoe. In addition to the making of new garments, the shop also stayed busy with mending and patching. In 1915, the boys mended or applied patches to 13,600 items. Ten years later, that number had grown to 27,449 items.4
The sewing and tailoring operation would never have reached such heights without the help—once again—of a loyal friend. Just a few months after Weakley purchased some machinery for the shoe shop with an advance from the local grocer, the prudent superintendent found himself at another auction putting in a bid of $300 on eight Singer sewing machines. Just as before, Weakley’s bid was the winner, and he was forced to rush down to the market a second time for a loan. One could imagine that this grocer might cringe each time he saw Weakley running toward his business, except for the fact that the headmaster was always faithful to settle his debts.
Like those in the other trades, many of the graduates in sewing and tailoring went on to have careers in the business. Even if they moved into other occupations along the way, the acquired skills still paid off. According to Weakley, one alumnus of the class paid his way through college by doing mending, altering, and ironing for his friends.5
Painting
The paint shop began in a lean-to constructed by the boys and their instructors and grew to be one of the school’s most beneficial trades for the students and the campus.
Many of today’s experts in correctional treatment speak of the value that color can have on a youngster’s mood and temperament. In his uncanny way, Weakley may have realized this years before it became accepted practice.
“This work appealed to the boys,” Weakley said in his papers, “and soon the whole place took on a bright and cheery appearance. We found most of the boys in the school were partial to brilliant colors and would ask that their dormitories be painted in some outlandish colors, but we tried to grant their request if feasible.”6
The boys’ talents and labors were quite useful to the school as well. In the 1931 report, the shop instructor indicated that the boys had painted the hospital, the steps and reception room of Johnston Hall, the classrooms in the Alabama Building, the officers’ mess hall, and the second floor of Kilby Hall.7
The boys took their talents all over the state upon release, and often added a previously hidden flair. Weakley told of a visit to Dothan in which he ran into one of the school’s former students. The young man simply had to show his father-figure some of his handiwork and escorted Weakley down the street to a Greek restaurant that he had decorated and painted.8
Bakery
Boys have just got to eat, and those working in the bakery helped with that enormous task in the face of daunting obstacles.
In 1931, the instructor was proud of the accomplishments of the boys, but obviously dispirited over the conditions in which they toiled. “At the end of another year we are still in an old place, but it is in a little better condition now than it was a year ago, yet it is far from being an ideal place for a bakery. We have had a hard year’s work with more boys to feed and all the old boys gone home or transferred to other places and having to use new boys. They have all done fine and take great interest in their work. We are still hoping for a new bakery.”
A listing of the items prepared that year provides some indication of the appetite of that many boys—and to the size of their collective sweet tooth. The boys prepared more than 600,000 buns, but they also turned out 7,550 pies, 2,362 dozen cupcakes, 324 layer cakes, 260 pound cakes, 175 fruit cakes, and 1,245 dozen cinnamon rolls!9
It is no wonder that the school also had a thriving dental office.
Barbering
An old ditty from the early 1900s popularized the refrain “Shave and a haircut—two bits.” At that rate, it is not difficult to see the value of the barbering class at a boys’ school.
“We really have no suitable room for a barber shop,” lamented the instructor in 1925. “The uninitiated would not know the value of a shop in a school like ours and just how necessary it is. I hope before the end of the present year to find some place for the shop and equip it in a sanitary and up-to-date manner, so the boys will really have a chance to learn the trade in a satisfactory way.”10
Apparently, the desired upgrade was completed in 1931. “The barber shop has changed its location since our last annual report . . . We are proud of our new shop. We are not asking for very much equipment this time, but we really do need three pair of barber shears, three razors and an electric clipper.
“An average of eight boys worked in this shop daily. They have been taught a great deal about barber work, but we could not recommend them for a public shop as they have had experience only with work on men and boys.”
As for the savings to the taxpayers of Alabama? At two bits—or 25 cents—a head? “We feel this department has accomplished quite a bit of work, as the monthly reports show there were 8,095 hair cuts and 2,795 shaves during the year.”11
Sheet Metal
The sheet metal shop was taught by longtime band director Eugene Jordan and was also filled with a number of band members. Part of this connection may have stemmed from the fact that occasional repairs may have been required on some of the band’s instruments, and it simply grew from there.
As the boys’ skills increased, the articles made and repaired certainly extended beyond clarinets and trumpets. According to various reports submitted by Weakley and Jordan, the list included washboards, stove pipes, milk buckets for the dairy, pans for the kitchen, dippers for the water buckets, toilets, and sinks.
Some of the metal used in their projects came from the local junkyard, and according to Weakley, the sheriff often brought the shop the copper he recovered from the moonshine stills he destroyed.12
Machine Shop
According to Weakley, the machine shop may have been the most popular trade on campus, and the reasons behind it are no different than might be cited today.
“Most boys like to see wheels moving and they are fascinated by seeing sparks flying from the grinding machines and red hot shavings from the lathes,” Weakley explained. “We have always had more applicants for the machinist trade than any other.”13
In his 1931 report, instructor H. C. Wood detailed the nature of the work and the required curriculum. “They are first tried in the tool room for a few months and are advanced according to their ability. A series of jobs is given to the new boy, such as chipping and filing, before he is placed on a machine. He is then placed on the shaper for a series of jobs, then to the drill press, then to the lathe or milling machine, depending a great deal on his ability.” Wood also described the importance of mathematics, mechanical drawing, and safety in the instruction.14
As the modern innovations of the twentieth century began to modernize the life of the average American, the types of trades offered by the Alabama Boys’ Industrial School also changed. Automobile mechanics, electrical training, plumbing, and radio repair were added to the curriculum to replace those whose usefulness had passed.
With all of these changes, one staple would remain in all of the classes, however, and that was the school’s emphasis on self-reliance. “Like most schools and people, we were always impoverished for lack of funds, but poverty of material things is not too bad if one does not develop a poverty of the spirit,” Weakley stated. “With this in mind, we tried to teach our boys to take the things they have and make the best of it . . . We almost lived in the junk yards for there we found at a price we could pay many things the boys could repair and we needed. This experience was good for them and provided an avenue of training and valuable lessons of economy.”
Colonel Weakley then broadened his thoughts on reclamation to include the more significant issue of discarded lives. “Junk yards are somewhat like people,” he concluded. “There are many on humanity’s junk heap who can be reclaimed to a life of usefulness if they can only receive a helping hand.”15