The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-10-27
WILMINGTON. N. t..
FHaDAY, OCT. 81, 1899.
THE ED CATIoN1oF THE NEGRO.

relative 20 the efforts in the south TO
educate the negro children. These er-
rors are to be found ramifying the
Northern uaople, east and west. They
think. first. mat the north has done a
vast deal more for the education or the
negroes than the south has done In that
vvav. hey think that the southern
whites never really designed to educate
i'm the primaries the negro chlioren'
thai it was a pretence or makeshlft.
Another error still has prevailed and In
both sections. as to the sum %appropria-
ted BIZ the whites for negro education.
Let il be remembered that the great
WAS extremely disastrous to the
south. 1t left it stripped, desolated,
Door indeed. AS Ex-Governor MacCor-
k,e. of West Virginia, recently and I'M
pressively said in his able, impressive
address before the southern industrial
convention that met at Huntsville, Ala.
on the 18th inst, 'fthe war left the south
absolutely Frustrated, farms deVasta-
ted. houses destroyed, manufactures
levelled, state and personal credit en-
tirely gone through twelve years of ac-
tuaI battle and political debauchery.
The SCUM. rising from it's stricken con-
-dition, undertook honestly and faithful
Iy to educate her former slaves"
Let rs look into this briefly. AS early
as 1877, ne south expended $SOO,OOO in
the ~. of the ruin wrought by van
daIisnl. his was 1927 per head per
--LS41e IA 40 oantc for naph npprn SILL
dent. In 1873, it had risen to 1000, 900,
with Il 1~nts for each negro pupil. All
over ne south the best men of the
white RI. were ~disfranchised. A SOL
der could neither vote nor hold office as
Cover nc" MacCorkle says. BY 1878, the
per capitG for negroes had risen to $1.09.
In 1887, it was $1.86. In 1892, the school
fund vas 5 $500, 900, and $2.15 for negroes
ench. In 1898 it was $4,000, 900 or 1874
for each, negro pupil. Since the great
war so full of glory for the southern
soldiers, according to Governor Mac
Corkle, the absolute expenditure in all
these years, with the state rocking from
the throes of a revolution, such as the
world has never seen, the southern
zpeople of the United States expended
in moound numbers $1O3, OO0, 900 for their
former slaves Nothing in history
furnishes n parallel to that great self
sacriice-the v~anquished in the midst
of, poverty INC desolation rising up to
try to provide some educational advan-
tages for their liberated slaves taken
from them by the victorious enemy,
and that too when that bad man Lin
coin had deliberately essayed to set
them free in the midst of war, as he
declared that the negroes might rise in
insurrection and STAY all the old men,
women and children. The most forgiv-
ing, the most benevolent, the most SYM
pathetic people who ever lived on the
globe are the whites in the south who
gave that 500, 900, 900 and more to edu-
cate the children of these very negroes.
Look at the taxes of the two races if
you would learn who gave the money to
educate the negroes. Georgia in 1872,
owned by whites; the negroes had $15,-
0OO, O00. In 1891, North Carolina had
1884, 900, 900 of listed property for whites,
and $4,000 900 for blacks Virginia in
1891, received in taxes $9,0OO,O 900 from
whites; from negroes $163, 900. South
Carolina raises $1.81 from each tax
payer for each school child. Montana
pays So cents. In all southern states
the races share alike in the school fund.
There is no distinction save in sepa-
rate schools"
The published statistics of the United
States are strongly informing. The
school commissioner has made a full
statement. We quote and let all con-
slider what is said:
1.-The enrolment of the colored peo-
pie was a little more han 27 per cent
of the full enrollment. in the southern
states, and they received upward of 20
per cent of the money expended. As a
matter of fact, a comparatively small
amount of this was collected from the
taxation of colored citizens. The white
people of the south believed that the
state should place a common school ed
ucation within the reach of every child,
and they la done this much to give
every citizen, white and black. an even
start in life"
TO show how the negro race has pro-
crossed in education, the commission
er states:
I'm 1870, more than IS per cent of the
colored population of the south over ten
years of age could not read. In 1880
the illiterate had been reduced to rs
per cent, and in 1890 to so per cent of
the colored population. In many Of the
states of the south the percentage is
even below 80. In thirty years 40 per
cent of the illiteracy of the negro race
had entirely disappeared"
OF the negroes at school of school age
there was 61.95 per cent, and Of whites
67.5s per cent. There were 9O4,5 sos ne
groes at school, in 1897. In three states,
Louisiana, Mississippi and South a
DINA the negro school population is in
excess Of the whites. The negro atten-
Honno oxooodad that of tho mhitor In