Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1883-10-16
Negro School Trustees for White Schools

The Coalitionists, both through the press
and on the stump, defend and applaud the
action of Governor Cameron in having ap-
pointed two negroes trustees of schools in
Richmond, and their speakers say there
should be some negro school trustees in
every county in the State.
Now, why should there be negro school
trustees We would like to know. Is it
that the negroes have peculiar fitness for
that position in particular If that is so,
why should the Val1ey Virginian, one of
the leading Republican papers in the State,
say that if the Democratic idea was carried
out, and negro trustees appointed solely
for eolored schools, the effectiveness of these
schools would be destroyed, and their
death -knell virtually soundede Is it not
rather a pandering to the negro on the part
of these Coalitionists at the expense OF the
whites? For if negroes are not fit to be
trustees solely of the schools for their own
race, how can they be suitable persons to
be entrusted with the control and manage
ment of schools for both races?
And then, where is this thing to end? II
in Richmond, with its large white majority, 4
two negro trustees out of nine were ap-
pointed ia Obedience to the demands of the
negroes for recognition, how Is it to be in
believe in which the negroes have a ma
jority? Give negro an inch and he wants
yard; and if his demands for recognition
are recognized by these Coalition Republi-
cans in a city like Richmond, in which the
whites are largely in the majority, of course
these demands will have to be yielded to in
the counties and in the same proportion,
and in those counties in which the negroes
have the majority they will demand that
majority of the school trustees shall be ne
groes, and that demand will have to be ac-
ceded to by the Coalitionists, for what
plausible reason even can they give for not
granting it? for if negroes are fit to be
school trustees at all, they are equally fit
to constitute majority. And the action
of Governor Cameron in appointing negro
school trustees, and the endorsement Of
that action by his party, make the appoint
ment of negro school trustees now part
of the policy of the Coalition party, and
the party will have to adhere to it or lose
its control Of the negro, who is ever tena-
cious of erery privilege once granted Uhich
brings him, as he thinks, apon q level acith
the ac7aites.
And just think, white people of Virginia,
and particularly you who live in counties in
which the negroes have a majority, what a
condition the public schools would be in
with majority of the school trustees in
those counties negroes Think of the |
shame and humiliation of your wives, your
sisters, or your daughters having to apply |
to negroes for situations as teachers, and of
your children having to attend schools |
which are under the management of trus-
tees the majority of whom are negroes
1t will not do to say the negroes will not
-, -,
have majority, and therefore it cannot
and will not come to pass. 1t is what is to
be expected if the Coalition policy of ap-
pointing negroes as trustees for white
schools is carried out to it's legitimate con-
clusion. 1t is almost necessarily bound to
come to this.
And do we not believe it will end even
there. The moment the negroes see trus-
tees of their own color managing schools
for white children, and selecting and elect
ing the teachers for these schools, that in
slant they will say, Why is it, if negro
trustees can elect teachers for white schools,
and control the teachers of those schools
and employ such teachers as they see fit,
why is that colored children are not as fit
to go to those schools with white children
as colored trustees are to manage them ?
And if there are to be mixed school trus-
tees, why should there not likewise be
mixed schools? For what is the difference
between mixed school trustees for the
schools and mixed scholars in the schools,
except in the first instance the negro is
placed over white people, and in the second
he is placed on an equality with them, and
so it will go until there is no saying where
the end will be.
Now, there is but one way to prevent
this thing, and that is: if the negroes think
they are fit and suitable persons to be
school trustees and to manage school af-
fairs, why, let them have the c1clusive
management and control of the schools for
their oaon race, both as trustees and teach
ers, and this Democrats are willing for them
to do, and it is all they are willing for them
to do, and it is all the negroes have right
to ask or expect; and it is certainly all they
will ever get from us, for the Democrats
are unalterably opposed to and will fight to
the death any proposition which will permit
the negro to have anything to do with the
schools for white children, either as trustee,
teacher, or scholar. Journal