The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1904-06-29
HAD EXAMINATION PAPERS
NEGRO TEACHERS THOUGHT THEY
WERE WORKING A SMOOTH GAME.
Commissioner wilkinson Unearths the
Plot and Creates CONSERVATION
Among the Dasky Pedagogues.

|
County School Commissioner Fl. a.
| Wilkinson has unearthed plot of en-
terprising colored citizens of Dawson
and Terrell county to either secure
the state examination papers prior to
date of the examination or to work a
bunco game on ambitious negroes who
would be enrolled upon the pay roll of
Terrell county as teachers IN the pub
lie schools.
For several years it has been re-
ported to the county school commission
err that certain colored teachers in the
county procured the examination
questions prior TO the date of the
regular examination. Upon receiving
such 1ep rt last week Commissioner
Wilkinson undertook to investigate
the matter and developed facts which
showed that within the week prior to
the examination cOlored ciJizen of
Dawson visited Atlanta and upon his
return reported that the examination
questions were to be had for con-
sheraton. Thereupon about fifteen
negro teachers met at the home OF O..
G. Hill, the colored doctor, and under
the supervision Of Leroy Jones, one
of Terrell's foremost col0red teachers,
held solemn conclave over the supposed
examination questions for two days
and nights prior to the date of the
regular examination. It is said that
the entrance fee was $1,000 per head,
for which sum the purchasers not only
received the questions but were
instructed how to answer them prop
erly. The commissioner learning OF
the convention took steps to procure
copy of the questions, and in order to
insure the downfall of all the colored
applicants who had used these ques-
tions, required them to make affidavit,
before the beginning of the examina-
tion, that they had not seen the
questions prior to to the examination,
nor had they received any information
as to the same. Upon opening the
questions on the day of examination
Commissioner Wilkinson discovered
that the colored teachers did not have
the questions, or any of tn EN-, but had
either been duped by those who had
sold them or that the cOnspiratOrs
themselves had been misled into
believing that they had been furnished
with the correct papers.
During the progress of the examin.
alton the colOred teachers were told
that it would be useles for any of those
who had been engaged in the purchase
and fraudulent sale of the examination
questions to conclude the examination,
or to apply for work in this county in
the schools, which created conster-
nation in their ranks, and they left the
court house with saGdened hearts If
not wounded cOnsciences.
1t appears that there is an organized
conspiracy among some of the colored
teachers of the state to secure the ex-
animation papers every year prior to
the examination, and from reports from
several places it seems that they have
been successful.
The News has been informed from
reliable sources that copies of the
question sold in Dawson were carried
by hand to Americas where they were
delivered to a former colored teacher
of this city for distri button.
The questions sold not being the
correct examination papers those who
engineered their sale are not guilty OF
any crime unless their victims see fit
to prosecute them for cheating and
swindling, but Com Missioner Wilkin-
son deserves commentator for the
energy he exercised in exposing the
effort and putting applicants for teach
ers' license on notice that fraud in the
examinations will not be tolerated.