REV. A. L. GAINES.

Rev. A. L. Gaines, D. D., pastor Waters A. M. E. Church; secretary
of the Trustee Board of the Baltimore A. M. E. Conference, and
business manager of the Baltimore Commonwealth.

Dr. Gaines was born in Georgia, received his grammar school train-
ing at Knox Institute, Athens, Ga.; his collegiate education at Atlanta
(Ga.) University, and his theological training at Gammon School of
Theology. He took post-graduate studies at Syracuse (N. Y.)
University. He was ordained deacon in 1888 and elder in 1890. He
has pastored churches in Atlanta, Ga.; Norfolk and Portsmouth, Va.
He served as presiding elder in the Virginia Conference and before
his assignment to his present charge pastored Bethel and Trinity,
Baltimore. He was a member of the General Conferences of 1896-
1900-1904-1908, and was elected to lead the Baltimore delegation at
the Centennial Genera] Conference, which convened in Philadelphia
last May. He is at present a member of the General Board of Educa-
iton of the A. M. E. Church.

Mr. H. M. Burkett, whose advertisement appears on page 20, is
Baltimore's pioneer Real Estate Man of color. He is a Marylander by
birth, a product of the Public Schools of Baltimore City, a graduate
of Lincoln University, Pa., and of Howard University Law School,
Washington, D. C. At the early age of 24, Mr. Burkett had finished
both his college and law courses, and was a member of the Bar of the
State of Indiana, where he practised for a year. About seventeen
years ago he returned to Baltimore, where he saw the need of a col-
ored man devoting his energies to real estate or the task of providing
better homes for colored people. Up to this time the work of housing
colored people had been largely in the hands of white brokers.

This new field of endeavor has been attended with much success,
so much so, that it inspired a number of other colored men to enter
this same field until now 25 or 30 colored men are engaged in the
work. Mr. Burkett's chief endeavor has not only been to provide bet-
ter housing conditions for colored people, but also to provide employ-
ment for some of the young men and women of the city, whose op-
portunities in the commercial world are limited. He is a Presbyterian
in religion, an Independent in politics, a Mason by fraternity; untir-
ing in effort, a financier by experience, fearless in speech, and honest
by nature. He has organized two building and loan associations, and
in March, 1916, headed a campaign for Provident Hospital which
netted this institution nearly Five Thousand Dollars, of which institu-
tion he is now Treasurer.