The Washington bee., 1902-08-30
POOR AND REPULSIVE.
This is What Miss Harper Says of
the COIOred People of THIS City.

From Detroit Paper.
Miss Emily A. Harper, a clever COL
cred girl wing al 733 81. Antoine street,
who Is ass slant principal of the Arm
strong manual training high school III
Washington, d. g., is home Cn leave
Of absence.
Mss Harper was graduated from the
University OF Michigan III 1895 and
later received her degree as Pm. b.
She has spent FIVE years III Washing
ton teaching IN the separate coIoTed
schools.
You see here no such ColOred peO-
pie as We have there, " she said. They
are so poor and repulslye. hey are
never ImpOilIe, a SOutneTneT never Is
that, bu they are dirty and they don't
know how 10 dress. Tne manual train
ing work did wonders tor the girls last
year, though. ltwas the first year for
the work and when they had learned to
sew a little We III listed that they must
dress ueaily when they came 10 school.
Il meet with a great deal of jealousy
| from the other teachers, sighed Miss
Harper Il am a nOIheTner and they
| don't like that. They say they have
plenty Of teachers South. They do
have, too. and think that it would be
| a good thing for the colored girls OF
! Detroit TO 90 South. Here there is
very little incentive for them TO finish
/ the high school. There is nothing open
for them when they do. In Washing
| ton alone, however, there are 400 col
oTed girls eaching. When the young
people see how others of their race are
/ tL4rrraalsn,~ a
something themselves.
Miss Harper has just returned from
summer institute at the Hampton
normal aud agricultural institute,
where she had charge of the course in
English. This is the schoolfrOm which
| Booker I. Washington was graduated.
Equally interesting is the work which
Miss HarpeT's sister, Miss Gertrude
Harper, is doing. Miss Gertrude has
charge Of the government hospital at
| the Indian reservation at Fort Hall,
BlaCkfOOt, Idaho. The young Miss
| Harper was graduated from the De-
| trOit high school the same year in
which her sister finished at the Uni
veTsity Of Michigan. From teaching,
which she did net like, she turned to
nursing, and after graduating from
the trading school of Provldent hospi-
| tai. Chicago, she WAS connected with
the memorial hospital at Philadelphia.
| She received her government appoint
ment year and halt ago"
It's surprising to the THE BEE TO
know that the colored children in th4
Armstrong Training School OF which
Dr.. Bruce Evans is principal. and the
people OF Washington, states Miss
Haper, who is a teacher in the Arm
strong School, are poor repulsive. Is
| this not a grave reflection upon the
Armstrong School and the people of
this city? Where can you find better
| class Of school children than those
in the Armstrong Manual Training
School? Miss Harper who has been
tinged with a little northern dnplici-
", returned to her home and If reports
are true, grossly ISLANDERS the people Of
this city and the pupils in the Arm
strong Training School. THE BEE sug-
gests that Miss Harper send in her res
lgnation as a teacher in the Colored
Manual Training School. The mo nent
a northern negro lands in this city the
first thing be does, is either to attempt
to set up a separate society or criticise
our school system. Ii is so strange
that our Board of Education insists
on bringing into our schools people
who, think they are, above US. We
have SO many graduates from our
own schools and citizens of the Wash
ington who are fully competent and
willing TO teach in our schools If they
are given an opportunity.