The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1904-04-30
THE FRC-AMERICAN AND THE
PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

| To the Afro-American in the South:
The problem of providing proper
! school facilities for our children is of
| gravest Importance to us as race
The thinking people of New York and
! of Massachusetts feel that a ten
months school session is necessary to
| fit their children for life, and gener-
! GUS public school system answers this
demand. How much less can we af-
ford to give our children? The object
| of this appeal is to force from Afro
American fathers and mothers, from
| Afro-American men and women who
feel and think, a prompt and effective
! answer to this vital question. s..
The great majority of our people
must depend upon the public schools
| for all the education they will receive.
| Not more than one per cent of the
| Afro-American children of school age
| will enter a private or an endowed
school, and upon the public school
rests the burden of educating the re-
/ naming ninety-nine per cent, if indeed
| they receive any education. 1t is evil
dent that our progress in the indus
trial schools. as in morality and relig
work done in the public schools.
To fail here then, to neglect our
youth in the most formative period of
their lives, is to do them an IRENE
dial harm. To speak more definitely,
find that after careful investigation
the Afro-American children in the ex
slave states are in school on an aver
age of 1O7 days in the year, and that
only one-third of the children of school
age are in school; that in North Car
DINA, for example, the average school
term is only 68 days, and that only
22.5 per cent of the Afro-American
children attend school at all. Z find
that in thirteen of the former slave
states 80" per cent of the Afro-Amer-
lean children of school age did not
attend any school for as much as six
months during the year 1900, taking
that year as an example.
1t requires no argument, then, to
prove that if these conditions control,
we shall continue to be classed as an
ignorant, illiterAte people.
With these facts before u.s. the main
question, then, is, What shall be done?
The first answer is that we pay our
taxes, and thereby aid the state in
supporting the public schools. Be-
cause of their poverty, and perhaps,
in some cases, their Indifference, the
states are not supporting an effective
school system for our people, espe-
cially in the smaller towns and rural
districts The system is but little
better for white children outside of
the large cities. Mere fau1t-fnding
with public Officials will not educate
our children. In the present condition
of the public schools, I would urge
with all the earnestness I can summon
that our ministers, teachers, business
men, leaders, parents and newspapers
insist that our people shall
L. Go before the public school au-
thorities and ask for better school IA
cilities. -.
2. See that all taxes, especially the
poll taxes, which go directly in most
states into the school fund, are
promptly paid. 49,. ~ ~..s
+ g. Cooperate in every way possible
with the public school officials, and
raise money by private taxation, or
other methods, to supplement the pres
ent school funds until the school terms
are extended to at least eight months.
Unless the child is not kept in school
for at least seven or eight months in
the year. we cannot expect him to be
educated. A three months school
means practically no school,
A. In connection with the school
term of proper length, erect a good,
comfortable school house and properly
furnish it. Some of the schools to be
found in the rural districts are not fit
for any child to spend a day in. :
In conclusion would repeat that in
the present important period in our
growth as a people, immediate atten-
ton to the public schools is fundamen-
tai. If each community will do its full
duty, the whole race will he lifted and
strengthened, and a general quick ken
ing will be evident everywhere
Booker y. Washington.
So Tnskegee, Ala, April Is, 1904.