The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1907-10-30
The Lexington Dispatch.
Wednesday, October 80. 1907.

Wednesday, October 80. 1907.
The Importance Of Educating
Your Children.
At the present time there is much
ado about the negro, the PROCESS he
is making, both along educational and
industrial lines, and as to what will
be the outcome of it all. ..-a
The negro is here, not from his own
choice, but through the greed of the
white man for gain. He was not en-
couraged to come here by glowing
accounts of the bright prospects ahead
for him, as is the case with the great
influx of foreigners, but he was kid
mapped and brought here, and sold
into slavery and made to serve the
the white man like dumb brutes.
These facts are familiar to every in
telligent school boy. He was made
so serve his time as a slave, and since
his freedom he has served as the best
laborer of any country.
The negro has reached point in
the history of his race where he has
better his condition, and to this end
he is working. What he has accom-
plished and what he is accomplishing
is well known to all intelligent minds;
and what he will accomplish in the
future remains to be seen. One thing
is certain: Intelligence and enlight-
ment will tend to the bettering of any
race and the negro is fully awake to
this fact. He is pushing to the front,
and for his chances and the time he
has had in which to do it, he has done
as much for himself as any race has
ever done.
The negro never misses an oppor-
tunity to learn all he can himself and
to send his children to school. He
will live on half rations and make
almost any sacrifice when necessary
to do so, that his children may attend
school. In this he is wise, for it is
through the channels of education
that he must reach the goal of his am
bition.
We may talk about the progress of
the negro, how Independent he is
getting and how hard it is to control
him as laborer, but is it any wonder?
Shall we blame him, or does the
blame attach to us? If we sit down
and let the negro get ahead of US and
our children is not the fault ours? If
we neglect the education of our sons
and daughters, and the day comes
when we see the negro stand at the
ballot box and challenge the votes of
our sons, what shall we say? Whose
fault will it be? If we fail to provide
the necessary means and to send our
childrens to school, and the day comes
when the negro lawyer, the negro
doctor, the negro preacher and the
negro farmer stand up as the equal,
or, maybe the superior Of some of our
esons, what shall we say? Whose fault
will it be? II we sit idly by and do
nothing for our children it surely will
come to pass, and then whose fault
will it be, and how will we feel? Think
7 Of it.:
There is remedy for this, and only
one, and that is to keep ahead of the
negro. The-Way to keep ahead of
him is to have better schools and to
educate our children better than ke
educates his. knowledge is power,
and ignorance has always had to bow
before knowledge.
There are a few people in every
community who are able to educate
their children and do educate them,
but the masses in many of the rural
districts are growing up almost in
ignorance. This is due partly to poor
school facilities and partly through
q lack Of proper interest being taken
in schools by parents.
The free school funds are insufficient
to run the schools as they should be
run, and yet there are some parents
who say they run too long and even
others who are so blinded by the
curse of ignorance as to say we should
have no school at all. Oh, that some
thing could be brought to bear on
such parents that they might have
their eyes opened.
What we need is good home
school, where we can send our chill
dren and give them education suf-
fcient to fit them for life. Many
children whose parents are not able
to send them off to school could ac-
euire a splendid common and high
school education at home, if our
schools were only worked up to
little higher standard. Good home
schools are the very best schools and
I cannot see why any reasonable man
should not be willing to give them his
support. Building up a good school
means building up the community,
building up the country and keeping
ahead of the, negro. Better schools
mean more intelligence and more
wealth. One has but to look at those
little towns and villages where good
schools are to see what has been ac-
complished. would be ashamed to
put myself on record as being op-
posed to the establishment of good
school in my community and too
stingy to give something for it's sup
port. It certainly must be sinful to
be that close listed.
Some men who own property and
who have no children to educate op-
pose good home school because they
os,~l>4 l. L> l.