The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-05-31
rH1 scHooL FUND.
Tne Courts Have Decided Against
 Division on Color Line.

|
 An Advertiser representative last
 night asked Governor Jones, il
 ne was sure that the proposition un
 oeriying his resolution regarding the
 unconstitutionalfty of dividing the
 school fund among the races, in pro-
 portion to the taxes paid by each race
 mad been positively decided by tho
 courts. He said there was abundant
 authority on the question, both from
 the Supreme Court of the United States
 and the State courts. He was asked
 10 be kind enough to give a list of 1 these authorities and said 'if you will | wait l will dictate what have to say on the subject"
 earliest decisions on the subject, was l made by the Supreme Court of Cali tornia, in the case of Ward V. Flood,
 4S California, 55-where a negro com
 plained of being refused admission to
 the white schools. The court held that ne mad no such right, if the Sta.e main-
 tanned separate schools of equal cf- nciency; but that anw discrimination in the schools afforded the races. would be a denial of the equal protection of the law. under the Fourteenth Amend ment Chief Justice Shaw of Massa- chusetts, long before the war between the States. decided, that in Massa- ehusettss the school authorities had the right to maintain separate schools, but conceded in the fullest manner that the colored persons of that State had equal rights to the benefits of public school. In the case of The State, ex.
 Tel. Garner v. McCann, 21 Ohio State
 Reports, 19s, and Corey V. Carter, 48 Indiana, 174, negroes applied by man. damus to be admitted to the white schools. The courts, in both instances, denied the right. because equal facili- ties had been afforded by the estab- lishrient of schools for the blacks; and in both cases 1t was conceded the right of citizen of the United States to be admitted to the public schools on equal tern1e with others, when the State maintained such schools was right protected under the constitution of the United States. In Pruitt V. Con- missions, 94 N. C., 709, the Supreme Court of that State, decided that law which devoted the polls and the taxes on property of persons owned by one color. exclusively to the education of children of that color," was unconsti- tutional. because it violated the clause of the Constitution of the State, That there shall be no discrimination in favor of, or to the prejudice of, either race, which the court said was the substance of the recent amendments to the Constitution of the United States. The Supreme Court of the United States. has frequently passed upon the principle involved; nowhere. more em- phatically than in Strauder V. West Virginia, 100 U. s. Report, BOT, in dis cussing a statute which denied to colored citizens the right to serve on itrri lad hat a denial of the equal protection of the law The court said. that the Four teenth Amendment ordains that no State shall make or enforce any laws which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the citizens of the United States (evidently, referring to the newly made citizens, who being citi- zens of the United States, are declared to be also citizens of the State in which they reside.) It ordains that no State shall deprive any person of life. liberty or property without due pro- cess of law. or deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal pro- tection of the laws. What is this but declaring the law in the States shall be the same for black as for the white; tha tall persons whether colored or white shall stand equal before the laws of the State, and in regard to the colored race, for whose protection the amendment was primarily designed; that no discrimination shall be made against them by the law because of their color? The words of the amend- ment, 1t is true, are prohibitory; but they contain the necessary implication of a positive immunity or right, most valuable to the colored race, the right to exemption from unfriendly legisla- tion against them distinctively as eeiered-exenption from legal discrim- ination implying inferiority in civil society: Iessening the security of their enjoyment of the rights which others enjoy, and discriminations which are steps towards reducing them to the condition of a subject race" It is said in another place in the opinion, quoting the Slaughter House Cases, It was designed to assure to the colored race the enjoyment of all the civil rights trnt un fer the law are enjoyed by white persons, and give that race the pt..eL...A oI lhe general government, " henever it should be denied by the Stat tes.'
 The only case I can find, where the question mas come dlrectly beTore the | Supreme Court of the United States is that of Cumming vs. the Richmond |
  52S. That involved a complaint against the School Board for using the public | funds in it's hands to assist in main taining a high school for white chill dren. without providing the same school for the colored children. Ihe Board. as the Supreme Court said, had before it the question whether 1t should maintain under its control a high school for about sixty colored children. or, withhold the benefit of education in the primary schools from three hundred children of she same race. It was impossible, the Board believed to give educational facilities to three hundred colored children who were unprovided for, if it maintained 8 separate school for the sixty children who wished to have the high school education. It's decision was in the in- terest of the greater number of colored children. leaving the smaller number to obtain a nigh school education in existing private institutions at an eX- pense not beyond that incurred III the nigh school discontinued by the Board" The Court put its decision denying the injunction to prevent the aid to the white high school on the ground: We are not permitted by the evidence in the record to regard the decision as having been made With my desire or hope on the part of the Board to discriminate against any Of he colored children of the county on account of race. and, it therefore. de- lied an injunction to compel he Board 70 withhold all assistance from the nigh school maintained for the whites. It added. significantly, 'If. in some