The Washington times., 1901-11-17
EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO
Advantages Offered by the District
Public Schools.
Four Hundred Teachers EMPLOYED
in Washington-Fiftee Thousand
PupiIs-Superintend f. Il. Cook
Reviews the Work Accomplished

. ] IlutI
from purely educational standpoint, in
which they do not aiffef from the white
schools, but particularly from the socio-
logical point of view. as showing the ca
pacity of the negro for the Anglo Saxon
I1deals and spirit. In no other part of this
country, and therefore in the world. are
there separate negro schools SO fully
equipped and SO ficlentIy managed in
every way as in Washington. The coun-
try districts of the South suffer under the
usual disadvantages of the rural school
even where an honest effort is made to
| make the most of them. The Southern
cities which maintain the dual system
have made heroic efforts In most cases
to carry on an educational system, but
the expense is so great that they have
staggered under the burdens and have
| failed to give to the colored schools a sur
| port equal to that given the schools for
white children. In Washington the de-
mands of the schools have been met no.
bly,, and both white and black have shared
| equitably in salaries, improvements. and
all the facilities for efficient instruction.
| About 400 colored teachers are employed
| in this city at a total salary of more than
| 5000, ,O00 and the children in attendance
number 1900. There are thirty-seven OF
thirty eight school buildings devoted to
/, their use, including the large High School
| OH NJ Street and the new Manual Train
! ing School on p Street. These buildings
| have cost more than q million dollars in
construction and equipment Only when
, we contrast the present educational sys-
TEN with that of the past can we fully
| appreciate the remarkable progress made.
George f. T. Cook, VINO was superintend-
| ent of colored schools for thirty-two
years, says:
Contrary to the prevalent opinion, the
| instruction of colored children in the cit
| les of Washington and Georgetown be-
| gan at least half century prior to the
rebellion. In iSe7 short time subse-
ouent to the building of the first two
| school houses for the public instruction
of white children. George Bell, Nicholas
Franklin, and Moses Liverpool. three un-
| lettered colored men, born and reared as
slaves and who had just emerged from
] slavery, erected the first school house for
| cclored children. 1t was located in the
| sol theastern part of Washington, near
| the site on which the Providence Hos
pilal now stands. In 1t they opened a
| school which fiourished for several years
under a Mr. Lowe a white teacher In
showed a white population of 41lS, while
free colored people numbered 49i persons
The first colored school in Georgetown
was opened about 1910 by Mrs Mary Bill
llngs, a well-educated English woman, in
a brick house on Dumbarton Street, be-
tween Congress and High Streets. These
early schools. which prepared for the
teachers position many of the colored
teachers that have almost wholly occu-
pied the field since 1920 were generally
taught by English teachers. a note
worthy exception, however. in the period
was Mrs. Anne NJ Hall, from Prince
George County. Md. the first colored
teacher in the District of Columbia She
started school in the immediate vicinity
of the cid Capitol. and taught there, and
in other localities Of the city with uni
form success about twenty-five years.
In 1915. under the auspices of an as
sociation of free colortd persons known
as the "Resolute Beneficial Society,"" the
Bell Schoolhouse, named for George Bell
which had been used several years as a
dwelling. was again taken for school pur-
poses. With FIR. Pierpont, of Massachu-
sets, a relative of the poet, as teacher. a
school, free to those not able to pay for
instruction, was organized in 1t. After
two OF three years of successful teach
ing he was succeeded by John Adams, the
first colored man who taught in the Dis
trict. The SmotheIs Schoolhouse was
built about 1S22 by Henry Smothers. a col
ored man, on II Street north, near Four
teenth Street west After being used al
most constantly for forty years by color
ed schools, it was destroyed by incen-
diaries in 1862
I'm 1881, about eight years subsequent
to the purchase of his freedom, John
F. Cook, Il nephew of George Bell, sue
ceeded to this school and continued it,
with one years exception, till his death
in 1855.
"On May 21, 1862, Congress passed an act
requiring that 10 per cent of t;xes collect
ed from persons OF color in Washington
and Georgetown should be set apart for
the purpose of initiating a system of
primary schools for tie education Of col
ored children residing in these cities. The
administration of the trust was given TO
the board of education of the public
schools. In July of the same year 1t was
/ transferred by Congress to special board
denOminated the board of trustees of
colored schools for Washington and
Georgetown" The inadequacy of the
provision given by the act did not permit
of single school under 1t
till 1861, which n teacher was employed
at salary OF 500 a year. By another
act of Congress in June. 1864, the school
fund was equitably divided, but it requir-
ed four or five years to yet uuv schools
under this act in operation, so that in the
year 1SG6-67 there were only five schools
and seven teachers with $50 pupils. From
ISG7-6s, the year in which the last act of
Ccngr,es becane f,,lIy OneIatiye. TO the
present the schools have grown rapidly,
with even larger equipment and fuller
efficiency"
During the thirty years since 1868, when
the colorod schools really began. most of
the present corps of teachers have been
prepared, and thousands have received
more or less educational equipment for
other pursuits Prof W. Scott Montgom-
cry, Assistant Superintendent. IN charge
of colorad schools, is graduate of Dart
mouth College, and has held n RESPONSE
bic connection with the schools almost
from their beginning. The supervisors,
principals, and class teachers make up a
class Of city officials whose conscientious
application 20 duty is observed in the re-
suits Most of them are not only striving
for educational results. but are missIonar-
les in the broad, civic spirit, and the com
munity cannot estimate how much II
owes them for keeping down the amount
of crime and raising the standard Of liv-
ing among the colored people.
The most Interesting feature Of the sys-
TEN is the Coiored High School which oc-
cupics commcdious building Of twenty
eight rooms on NJ Street, between First
and Second Streets northwest. 1t has
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