New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-06-21
White Schools and Black
What Various Sections of the South
Pay for Instruction

To the Editor of The Tribune
Sir: Since the publication June l6 Of ne
letter in which II. l.. Jacobs, Of Suffolk, Va,
outlined his thoughts on the negro migrat''
the United States Bureau Of Education has
issued the first exhaustive report ever mace
on public and private school facilities for The
S.50O.O0O colored people of the South. TIE
work is that of DR.. Thomas Jesse Jones, who
has spent the last three years in making his
study under the cooperation Of COMMITS
sioucr p. p. Claxton and the Pheps-Stosss
Fund. of New York. The figures cited By Dt
Jones are either based upon first hand invest
cation or are compiled from the Fedral cen
sus and state reports.
Mr.. Jacobs, speaking of the South as
whole, says: The colored schools as rlls
are as good as the white schools
Suffolk, Va, is in Nansemond County ID
the extreme southern part of the state. In'
graphic map for Virginia in DR.. Joness re-
port shows that the county spends IN teseh'
ers' salaries $l4.49 for each white child o.
school age and Sl.61 for each color"
child. The respective per capita H'
penditures in Isle of Wight County, dIreeY
to the north, are Sill and So cents :"
Southampton County, on the west, the hga''
are Sl235 and S1.38; to the east, Nori0'
County is somewhat better, with sl7.O3 foi"
white per capita and 1915 for the colored'
Il is TO be presumed that Mr. JACOBS
best acquainted with the conditions IN ~
immediate vicinity, but it is just as wen
point out that the averages for Virgins
a whole are 1884 for the whites ana ~
for the negroes, and that the averages ",
the South are Sl032 for the whites sna
$3.50 for the colored. These figures q"
better than those for Mr.. Jacobs's neign00r
hood, but his home conditions are oy
means the worst in the South. In one g'osp
of Black Belt counties the white per eapi'
is s22.22 and the colored Sl.7s. The syerss.
school term in the South is less tnsh =.
months, and OF the 10000 teachers ior Wv
100000 colored children Of school ass
more than half have had as preparsu'n ~
teaching an education equivalent 10 'ns -
six elementary grades or less IneN
many other illuminating facts IN Dr. '0a.
report, which comes at time when m's
ton and the food shortage make ths
tons interest in the negro problem NV
than an academic one. 80.
In addition to championlng the status s
in the South, Nr. Jacobs opens de'U'...
offensive against conditions among hee'v
in the North. The movement Of some III,
or three hundred thousand eolored 49,
into Northern industrial centres m 'ns 80.
year naturally has produced ne"
serious problems in the adjustment o. -,
ployment and housing and in otner :,
conditions This was brought out e'es' .,
the Negro Migration Conference hela NJ ~.
last January under the auspices Of 'ne
tional League on Urban Conditions 80
Negroes. and the testimony then ohereo
repeated and developed at the recent -.
ties Conference in Pittsburg. Throusn -
hliatcd leagues in more than seVr
cities North and South. the Natlonal %.
League is doing the utmost that
sources permit to deal with the proyNs
and the accomplishments Of the 80,
branch in particular show what cry III
do if il goes at the job with an in,e'. an
programme. W. II. BALI ~ c.,I.
Secretary National League on UroSn '0"
tons Among Negroes.
New York June 10. 1917.