New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-06-25
WASHINGTON, D. c., Juue Is, 1874.

often and so ably discussed in your journal,
that it would seem as though the subject
were wellnigh exhausted. But as l have
been an advocate of mixed schools in Texas
ever since prior to the reconstruction of that
State, may be pardoned for expressing my
opinions concerning them in view Of the ma
lignant and senseless opposition to the pend
ing civil rights bill mainly because of the
school clause therein.
There are both public and private schools
throughout most of the country. The former
are established by law and supported by gen.
eral taxation, so that all classes have the
same right to attend them. The latter are
established and supported by the few who,
therefore, are alone entitled to enjoy their
benefits. These propositions are self.evident,
and yet the dominant Caucasian" not con-
tent with excluding the negro from private
institutions of learning, insists on excluding
him from public ones also.
This opposition to equal rights originates
in caste, the legitimate child of slavery.
Reconstruction also was at fault for not
strangling the child with its mother. Tenn
porizing with slavery encouraged the rebel
lion; temporizing with caste will just as
certainly jeopardize the nations safety and
honor.
The pending bill proposes to nip caste in
the bud by Withdrawing from it all public
countenance and support. Young minds,
naturally void of color prejudice, are no Ion
ger to learn it in educational institutions
endowed by the National and State Govern
ments.
This controversy has been of longer dura-
ton than is generally realized, although it
has been considered of national importance
only during the five years that Summers
civil rights measure has been pending.
In lS49, in the case Of Sarah c. Roberts
vs.. The City of Boston, argued by Charles
Sumner for the plaintiff, the Supreme Court
of Massachusetts sustained separate schools,
but in 1855 the Legislature established the
present mixed school system. More recently,
the Legislatures of Connecticut, Louisiana,
and few other States, have taken the same
action. In Michigan the Supreme Court de.
cided in favor of mixed schools some four
have the option of mixing or separating the
schools. But in many States separate schools
Tor none) are still obligatory, although gov
errors and educational conventions have
sometimes called attention to the inadequacy
of the system.
1t is obvious that mixed schools must be
established before caste school systems take
permanent shape, or much trouble and strife
will result. The golden moment to have
passed the civil rights bill was years ago
when Sumner first introduced it. Such &C
ton then would have saved the South espe-
cially from the inadequate and extravagant
separate school systems, which have either
broken down utterly or resulted in bank
ruptcy and dissatisfaction. And in another
point of view our national safety calls for
early action in behalf of civil rights. Other
race problems may soon require solution.
The status of the Indians and the Chinese
must soon be determined. Will it be safe to
annex the mixed populations of the West
Indies and Mexico without first Americana
ing and assimilating the colored races of our
own country? We must solve one race problem
at time. Let us first settle the negro ques-
ton at once and forever.
One of the most conclusive objections to
separate schools is that they are partial and
inadequate, as we'll as invidious. There are
IS, OOO, 900 whites to 1000, 900 blacks in the
United States, so that were the whole coun-
try districted with reference to race, the COL
ored school districts would be on an average
about seven times as large as the white ones,
and, consequently, the average distance to
school from each colored pupil would be
far greater than that from each white one.
The result would be, as we now find it
throughout the greater portion Of the coun-
try. As a rule, without mixed schools, col
orcd children cannot be educated at all in
the Northern States, nor in West Virginia,
East Tennessee, Western Texas, and the
mountainous portions Of Maryland, Virginia,
North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and
Arkansas, because in those regions the me-
groes are not numerous enough to have
schools of their own outside of few of the
large towns. And if the races were every
where equal in number to each other sepa-
rate schools would still be impracticable.
The sexes, for instances, are everywhere
equal, and yet it would be considered absurd
to attempt their separation except in few
schools located in cities. The policy of sep
arate schools for the races outside Of cities is
thus seen to be still more ridiculous and flimsy
than that of separating the sexes, and may
be pronounced idiotic. And the separate
school system can never be an impartial one
dny,rRre. The school-house accommoda-
tons for colcred pupils will almost always
be inferior. In the country they will have
few miserable log school-houses about forty
miles apart, and in town they Will encounter
nearly the same disparity of advantages as
between them and the whites.
have said enough already to suggest the
economical aspect Of the question. Separate
public school systems are grossly extrava-
CANT. In very many neighborhoods separate
schools involve two school-houses and two
teachers where one house and one teacher
would suffice. The mixed school system
would be attended by an enormous reduction
of taxation for school purposes everywhere,
and especially in the impoverished South.
The Stiffness of the threats to break up the
schools when the civil rights bill passes is
apparent, when it is considered that the sep