New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-06-04
The Civil Rights Bill.
The Mixed school Question Letter from
Hon. Thomas w. Conway.

1ht NhSu 1SISntS DILL
The Mixed school Question Letter from
Hon. Thomas w. Conway.
| To the Editor Of the National Republican:
SIR: beg leave to express through the
columns of your journal, some views quite
different from those Of some of your contem-
poraries as think the adoption of the Civil
Rights Bill twill practically destroy the pub
lie school system in large portion of the
Union," and from the opinion of Rev. DR..
Jeter, of Virginia, who, in one of the Bap-
fist meetings recently held in this city, said,
"That if the mixed school provision of the
bill became law the educational interests
of the South would be totally ruined:' and
from the belief expressed by the Rev. DIR.
Sears, agent of the Peabody fund, at the
same meeting, to the effect ''That passage
| of the bill would destroy the free-schoOl sys-
tenn of the South" and, "That many of the
best workers in the cause of education in the
South would resign their positions in despair
of successful browning of their efforts, how
ever strenuous" DR.. Sears is said to have
arrived at his conclusions from conversations
with men of all parties in the South. And
Senator BrownlOw of Tennessee, is said to
have declared that if the civil-rights bill
passed with the mixed school feature left in,
''the whole fabric of free schools in his
State will fall to the ground, as it will deserve
to do" And then, we are told that the eX-
perlence Of teachers of judgment warrants
the opinion that the mixed schools feature of
of the bill will work disastrously. In Con-
gress several members have expressed the
same apprehensions ana opinions and there
can be no doubt of the existence of a very
strong belief in the minds of many intelli-
gent men, friends of education, that if the
mixed school feature is allowed to remain and
| become the law Of the land, it will do more
harm than good.
try to express, in as few words as posi-
| BILE, the view of this matter which is enter
tanned by those who are opposed to this iea-
ture of the bill.
| Recently this element has had most to say
on this question. / speak for mired schoois,
and | speak from an experience which, if pos
sessed by DR.. Jeter, or DR.. Sears, or Senator
Brownlow, might have prompted Il widely diff
| ferent view from that taken of the question
by either of them! If We find that already
in the largest city in the South, where the
opposition press had worked upon the public
mind to such degree that every possible
effort had been put forth to destroy the free
schools on account of the admission of
blacks into them; if there, and under these
circumstances, the free schools were not de-
| strOyed, then we have an argument weightier
| than the mere con lectures to which L have
alluded.
In New Orleans and the State of Louisi-
ana, there have been mixed schools for sew
cral years. During the time that l was
State superintendent of public education in
that State, namely, from June. 1868, till
little more than a year ago, the public schools
have been (and they are now conducted
under a provision of the State constitution
which attaches very heavy penalties to the
act of refusal Of colored child into any
public school.
Every possible effort was put forth to make
this provision Of the constitution so Odous
that no superintendent or teachers or school
! boards could make it operate. In New Or
leans, when | publicly proclaimed the free
schools open as well to the black as to the
white children, the pupils of the latter class
were advised to take their books and leave
the schools. In some instances the advice
was needed. | went one day to see the fruit
OF my work, and must confess that, for a
day or two, | was panied at the scene which
was being enacted before my eyes. There,
on the one hand, came the colored pupils to
enjoy their rights, and on the other the
white scholars, who had already been in their
seats, seeing the former approach and enter
the building seized their books and rushed
for the street, as much excited as if they were
flying from an approaching army And there
stood the teachers, as pale as ghosts, wonder
ing to themselves whether their school was
not ruined and. their vocation gone. And
the neghbors, black and white, stood half
bewildercd and half frightened. For the
moment one would suppose that the affair
would end in bloOdshed, but it did not And,
mind you, all the newspapers in the city, ex-
/ ccpt the Republican, advised the white peo-
| pie hOt to send their children TO the public
sonoOla, ..Al not that alone; they also ad-
vised them TO break down the system under
which they were conducted. This they ex-
pected could be done by a combined effort.
Nothing that could bring ruin to the school
system was left untried, and the scene which
| have just pictured of the blacks entering
and the whites leaving a school building was
one OF many similar results of the public
excitement created at the time by the news
papers conducted by the enemies of the school
| system.
| had fully concluded to put the system of
mixed schools to thorough, practical test,
and did. The white pupils all left, as said,
and the school-house was virtually in the
hands OF the colOred pupils. This was the
picture one day. What will you think when
| tell you that before reached my office that
day, the children of both races who, on the
school question, seemed like deadly enemies,
were, many of them, joined in circle, play
ing on the green, under the shade of the wide
spreading live-Oak In few DAYS | went
back to see how the school was progressing,
aud, to my surprise, found nearly all the
former pupils returned to their places and
that school, like all the schools in the city,
reported at the close OF the year larger
attendance than at any time since the close
OF the war. The children were simply kind
to each other in the schoOl-rooms as in the
streets and elsewhere A year ago visited
the same school and saw therein about as
many colored children as whites, with not a
single indication of any ill-teeing whatever.
All that is wanted in this matter of civil
rights is to let the foes Of the measure simply
understand that we mean it. Do this, and as
in the case of the enemies Of free schools in
Louisiana, they will be quiet. AS in the
case OF the abolition Of slavery, many who
promised all sorts of evil if the thing was
done, now acknowledge their error, SO in
this matter OF civil rights, many who now
express alarm at the prospect ahead, will
soon seek to be known as friends of the
measure.
We were told if we emancipated the slaves
they would turn about and either murder
their masters, or roam over the country as
vagabonds. Those who told us so were mis-.
taken. We were told that the sun and moon