Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1907-04-11

I
the amusement of the walters and the
guests who had noticed the incident.
Shortly after that teacher in Howard
university, one Of the best schools for
colored youth in the country was SINH
larly insulted in the restaurant of the
same store.
In one Of the Washington theaters
from which colored people are exclGd
ed altogether, members Of the race
have been viciously assaulted several
times, for the proprietor well knows
that cOlOred people have no redress
for such determinations against them
III the District courts. Not long ago
colored clerk in one Of the depart
ments who looks more like his pater-
nal ancestors who fought for the lost
cause than his grandmothers who
| were victims Of the peculiar institll-
ton, bought a ticket for the parquet
of this theater in which colored people
are nowhere welcome, for himself and
mother, whose complexion is a bit
swaTthy. The usher refused to allow
the young man to take the seats for
which his tickets called and tried to
snatch from him the coupons. A
scuffle ensued and both mother AID
son were elected by force. A suit was
brought against the proprietor and the
damages awarded the injured man
and his mother amounted to the nu-
nifcent sum of one cent. One of the
! teachers in the colored high school re-
ceived similar treatment in the same
theater.
Not long ago one of my little laugh
ter's bosom friends figured in one Of
the most pathetic instances of which
have ever heard. A gentleman who
is very fond of children promised to
take six little girls in his neighhor
hood to matinee. It happened that
he himself and five Of his little friends
were so fair that they easily passed
muster, as they stood in judgment be-
fore the ticket-seller and the ticket
taker. Three of the little girls were
sisters, two of whom were very fair
and the other a bit brown. Just as
this little girl, who happened to be
last in the procession, went by the
J ticket-talIer, that argus-eyed sOphlsti
Gated gentleman detected something
which caused a deep, dark frOwn to
mantle his brow and he did not allow
her to pass. q guess you have made
mistake" he called to the host of
this theater party. Chose little
gills," pointing to the fair ones, "nlAy
be admitted, but this one" deslgrat-
ing the brown one, cant" But the
colored man was quite equal to the
| emergency. Fairly frothing at the
mouth with anger he asked the ticket
talter what he meant what he was
trying to insinuate about that particu-
lar little girl. DO you mean to tell
me- he shouted in rage, that l must
go clear to the Philippine islands to
| bring this child to the United States
and then I can't take her to the thea
ter in the national capital?" The little
i ruse succeeded brilliantly as, he knew
it would. Beg your pardon" said
the ticket-taker, Il don't know what
was thinking about. Of course she
can go in"
| What was the matter with me this
| afternoon mother? asked the little
brown girl innocently, when she men
! toned the affair at home why did
| the man at the theater let my two sis
ters and the other girls in and try to
| keep me out?" In relating this iI.ci-
| dent the childS mother told me her
! little girls question, which showed
such blissful ignorance of the depress-
| ing, cruel conditions which confronted
her, completely unnerved her for a
| time.
Although white and coIOred teachers
! are under the same board Of education
and the system for the children of
! both races is said to be uniform
! prejudice against the colored teachers
| in the public schools is manifested in
! a variety Of ways From 1870 to 1900
/ there was a cOlOred superintendent at
| the head of the colored schools. Dur
! ing all that time the directors of the
| cooking, sewing, physical culture, man
ual training, music and art depart
ments were colored people. Six
years ago a change was inaugurated.
| The colored superintendent was legs
| lated out of Office and the director
ships, without a single exception, We're
| taken from colOred teachers and given
| to the whites. There was no com
plant about the work done by the
colored directors no more than is
heard about every officer in every
school. The directors of the art and
physical culture departments were
particularly fine. Now, no matter how
competent or superior the cOiOred
teachers in our public schools may be,
they know that they can never rise to
the height of a dictatorship, can never
! hope to be more than assistant and re-
ceive the meager salary therefor, I'M
less the present regime is radically
changed.
Strenuous efforts are being made to
run Jim Grow street cars in the nation
al capital Resolved, that a Jim
! Grow law should be adopted and en-
forced in the District of Columbia, -
was the subject of a discussion en-
gagged in last January by the Column
| bian debating society of the George
/ W3shiDo -tO11 university in DIR national