New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-02-05
Equal Rights Question.


ton and its passage, as presented from the
Judiciary Committee, aud as there are vet
many directors, some Of whom differ mainly
4 on the school clause, Others OH the Jury
clause, and others still are in opposition tC
the entire bill, l ask brief space in your val
liable columns to lay before the public villa!
may be read to advantage by those who
have not set their faces against Just arcu.
ment, reason, truth and justice.
l regard the school clause in the civil
rights bill now pending before Congress O!
invaluable importance, for the following
! reasons:
l. Because as citizens we are entitled to
all the privileges and immunilics guaranteed
us by the Constitution, our great charter OF
rights, and cannot justly be lcgislated into
the separate exercise and enjoyment of these
rights upon Il plea based upon no stronger
reason than prejudice and for the further
reason that such objections, if at all tcnab!c,
ought to divide our schools into German.
Irish, French, American and African, differ
ing rs these all do in race, color aud previous
condition of scrVtude.
2SBccausc legislation, to he just, cannot
be exclusive. discriminating or partial.
3. Because the school-houSe is the great
educator Of unity and good feeling so ssscn-
tial to the peace and prosperity Of every
well-regulated government.
+. Because all legislation during the past
ten years has been directed by the National
Government towards breaking down prcju.
dice and cast distinction when obstructnc
the enjoyment Of the freedom of the cnram-
chised race in the exercise Of their rights
and privileges as citizens without distinction.
and the civil rights bill is the cap-stonc of
the superstructure which has been in The
course OF erection for the past ten years
5. because the system of common schools
in places Of no less standing among nations
than the United States, with interests rs
great as the United States to conserve and
preserve, who have all the just pride and
ambition OF nation, has seen and is to-day
a success, and is such that the entranchis ed
slave OF America may enter the schools of
such people without question as to race or
color This shows that the pride of the OBJ
iectors of the school clause is false. ignorant
and uniounGcd in all its phases, unless we
are prepared 10 declare ourselves the cream
among nations in justice ana equality.
q. That no just government upon the face
Of the civilized globe. which once recognized
the equality Of its citizens before the law,
has ut the same time recognized unjust dis
ordinations in thc enjoyment of the rights
and privileges, based upon no other plea than
prejudice against color, race or previous con-
diton of scrytudc.
1t has been urged that the colored race is
so degraded in condition as to be tcictcrious
in its ASSOCIATION with the white race. This
is not true. since both classes in the South
are, by the degrading influences Of slavery.
in large numbers ignorant, vicious and de-
graded.
That the negro is intellectually inferior TO
the white man is all baldertlash What ne
gro has ever talked more nonsense in an in
teiligent body than the Robnscs, Vances,
| Bccks and Iianiscs-whitc men-duiuc the
present month? And what white man has
eyer uttered greater truths, with greater clo-
quence and ability, than the negro Robert
V. Elliott, now in Congress assembled?
What Democrat or Liberal or weak-knced
Republican, who is opposed to mixed schools
because of the negro's mental iulcrloritv, re-
members that in 1868 two native-born Afi-
cans graduated in the University of Paris
with high honors, and received the congratl.-
! latlons OF the then Emperor and Empress,
| with tokens of their esteem in several fine
gold gilt-edged volumes and all this in the
face of the fact that they were brought direct
from the stage Of barbarism in their native
| land.
How the negro will get along in this
country in mixed or common schools has
been shown by the manner in which they
get along in common schools in many of the
Eastern and Western States. But no. saws
the chronic objector, these places have not
been accustomed to their degrading condition
SO long and so late as the South. But there
is an indisputablc fact that in the State Of
Kentucky, Madison county, where the bitter
| est feeling against the negro has prevailed,
| the College of Bcrca contains nearly an
equal number of colorcd and white students,
living together in love and peace, vieing with
each other in the pursuit Of study, none hurt
by association.
This is n great reflection on lie true in
| formation OF Congressman Beck of his State,
or otherwise shows that hate and prejudice
are reckless OF truth. This development of
facts explains a malice unworthy of Il human
being and the total untness of the preyari-
Gator as legislator. 1t is said that colorcd
men of this District and elsewhere oppose
common schools. This is reasonable, since
all men love power in high places and are
tenacious i'll delivering themselves from great
trusts i'll proportion to their knowledge OF
public good. The ignorant love power to
cover ignorance, and this is true of white and
black people. There are some others (col-
ored) who by their silence admit of the in
ference that they are satisfied. These are
money dcmagOgses who would sacrifice theil
country for their scll-good. The object OF
the common-schoOl system is to prepare the
minds of our children to dwell together in
the bonds Of peace and amity in their adult
age otherwise than by legislation. In short
by education. Aside from legal rights the
negro is entitled TO this privilege. The Chi
nese, japanese and wild Indian are brough!
from their land f;lll-fcdged barbarians, know
ing no true God, but worshiping wood ant
stone; uncleanly in many of their habits
What more dangerous associates? Yet these
are permitted to enter the best schools O
our land in the midst Of the white race, with
out fear Of any deletcrious effects, while ma
tive negroes, whose God is the white man ::
God, whose religion is the same, whose fami
ly ties are OF no distant stock, whose habits
by association are the white mans, whose
language is his, are denied the privilege of {
cOmmOn-schoOl education without distnc
ton.
The very argument which alleges that tn
colOred and white schools are equal in all re
spects, if true, refutes itself and DESTROYS il
purpose, since there can be no intelligen
choice or preference between equals, yet W
know that the white man chooses, nav, dc
. mands that his child shall attend whit
school and not colored one. Why Il whit
one, though mile off, instead of a coloret
, school just by? Can, therefore, just Con
grcss recognise such Il prejudice among tn
people, and give listening ear to sue
shame in enacting its laws?
!, AS to social equality, no ono ever enter
upon the consideration Of the fears of thos
| on this subject without encountcring TIL
same side-splitting laughter which Athlete
him in reading Don QuiXote's fruitful mag
nation and ludcrous adventures, The ODn(