The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-16

dtk hIloW tHdl we Duilu up LMO distinct civilizations in one territory. call your attention to that proposi- tion. You cannot evade it. You are resolved upon it. That is the first proposition, that you are determined to build up two distinct civilizations in one territory. Now we have been aided in that effort by all of the people of the United States to this extent, the highest court of the land has held that We may maintain two distinct school systems. We are able in this way to divide the streams at the beginning, and if we will only act wisely, we may keep the currents apart, end 1t is with this view that I, and those who have jo!nad with me, have submitted to you this opositon. I know that gentle men on this floor will argue that it Is in Violation of the Constitution of the united States, but we respectfully beg to differ with them. In every effort that has been made along this line, an injustice has been sought to be done, an inequality has been sought to be practiced. The proposition which we submit to you gentlemen contains no injustice, but is based on justice. It contains no inequality, but proposes ab- solute equality, and I claim that the Puitt case and the Cummings case, and all the other cases that have been before the Supreme Courts of the States and of the United States, have been infected with both inequality and in- justice. We bring you a proposition which is free from objection. from every moral, ethical and social standpoint. Your attention will be called, gentle men of the Convention, to the Cum mings case in 175 U. s. Supreme Court Reports. page 25S. In that case the court went far towards establishing the very proposition which we seek to establish here. In that case an in Junction was sought to prevent the white trustees from appropriating the funds to a white high school when they made no such appropriation for col ored high school. They said:
 While all admit that the benefits and burdens of public taxation must be shared by citizens without discriinina- ton against any class on account of race, the education of the people main- tained by State taxation is a matter belonging to the respective States, and any interference on the part of Federal authorities with the management or such schools cannot be justified except in the case ofa clear and unmistakable disregard of the rights secured by the supreme law of the land.'
 They held then that an injunction WNlcn WOulu UlIy liHpdh IhC of the high school provided for white children, and compel the board to close it, would not result in any good to the
 colored children. They said if that were done the result would only be to take from the white children the edu- cational privileges enjoyed by them without giving the colored children ad- ditional opportunities of education fur nished in the high schools. That the colored school children of the county would not be advanced in the matter of education by a decree compelling the defendant board to cease giving support to a high school for white children, and the injunction was denied.
 Now, gentlemen, the majority with which We concurred have brought in here, and by your vote have adopted proposition which carries the advan- tages of free school education to all the children In this State. colored and white. to the children in remote country districts the same length of time that it carries it into populous cities. and large and more thickly settled rural districts. You have done nobly. lie colored race cannot say that you have discriminated against them. because you have been careful to preserve their rights. But it is sSproposed to 90 fuI- ther and authorize a voluntary contrI- button be made by the respective locali- ties to supplement this fund which has been created by the State. Now 1t has been held by the Supreme Court of the United States and by the courts of the States that separate schools for the races may be maintained, and in the State of Ohio a special law was enacted whereby colored school dis tricts could be organized independently of the lines which organized other school districts. and 1t is this proposi- tion which We bring before you.
 Section 31 of the General Statutes of Ohio provide:
 The Township Boards of Education in this State, in their respective town ship, and the several other Boards of Education and the Trustees, visitors and directors of schools. or other off, cers having authority in the premises, of each city ar incorporated village, shall be authorized and they are hereby required to establish, within their re- spective> jurisdictions, one or more sep arate schools for colored children, when the whole number. by enumeration, ex- ceeds twenty, and when such schools will afford them as far as practic lble, the advantages and privileges of a common school education;* Pro- vided that when the number of Colo-ed children residing in adjoining town ships or distdicts, whether in the same or In different counties, shall eX:ced twenty, the Boards of Education of said townships or districts so situated, many form joint district for the edu- cation of colored children"
 The law was held to be constitution- al upon the effort of a pupil who re- sided in that colored district to be a6- mitted into a white school which was in the same territory.
 The North Carolina case Is one upon which great stress will be laid, and trust, gentlemen, that you will notice the distinctions that are drawn here. In that case the court refused to in- quire into the consistency of their stat utes and Constitution with the Con- stitution of the United States. h their Constitution, it was provided that tax ation should be uniform, and that no law should be enacted which discrlmi- note either for or against either race. They hold in that case that jaw which authorizes the white people In ;I township to levy a tax upon thelr prcp- erty, and the colored people to evy tax upon their property in the same township, which you will observe, aen- tlemen of the Convention. was the same social unit, was in violation of their statute which requires the taxes to be uniform. We propose to put it into our Constitution that we have two social units occupying practically the same tarritOrv and wa DrOpOSp to delegate to