Evening star., 1944-04-20
Letters to The Star
Segregation Discussed in Relation
to Ideals of Democracy
To the Editor of The Star:

To the Editor of The Star:
The Star is to be commended for
giving space to discussion of race rela-
tions here at the National Capital Of
democracy haltingly attaining its ideals.
1t is interesting to me to note re-
vival of the question of separate schools
for white children and colored children.
That issue bitterly was debated when
the civil rights bill was being con-
sidered. Julius Caesar Burrows, young
Congressman from Michigan and later
a Senator, made what is the best
analysis of the delayed unity of our
national hopes and ideals. Senator
Charles Sumner aggressively supported
the paragraph for unified education as
conducive to the logical consequences
of freedom and liberty, but his illness
when the bill came to passage resulted
in its elimination.
In recent months a representative of
a local civic organization appearing
before the Commissioners forcefully
objected to the erection of school for
colored children in his community
Being a product of both kinds of
schools, with critical educational ac-
tivity in those for colored children,
youth and college grades, over long
period, speak as one having authority.
Throughout history we find Jew and
gentle, Greek and barbarian, Roman
and Colonial, royalty and commoner,
Catholic and Protestant, master and
servant, conqueror and conquered or
similar distinctions applied to people
by those in power. And despite the
ideals Of the Declaration of Independ-
ence and the resultant war, the gentle
men" objected to "backwoodsman''
Patrick Henry as captain of militia No
man in public life was catalogued so
low socially as Abraham Lincoln.
There is a psychology of peoples, a
condition of mind by reason of long
residence in a definite geographical
setting, language or communication,
fixed ideas perpetuated from generation
to generation, an attitude in spite Of the
anthropologists' inability to find dis
tinct racial differences.
The mind is definitely social product
But the very process of education has
emphasized differences, even when Of
fering ideas of tolerance and of our
common human dignity. History is re-
plete with individuals attempting to
break through the local to reach the
general human ideal, but society is too
strong. Even the oracles were politically
minded, and the court jester rather than
the philosopher got the kings ear:
while the failure of the prophets among
the Hebrews accounts for their loss of
dominion.
The United States Office of Education
has published studies of the background
of Negro education, college and second
ary, as well as critical and statistical ex-
aminations of the lower schools main
tanned by the States where the Negro
group is most numerous. These reveal
how great must be the dependence OF
this people upon natural endowment,
the segregated grouping and their lin
tied institutional life.
Neither wishful- thinking, plaintive
walls, nor angry hostility will alter such
social phenomena of any people living
in the midst of a shift from rabid in.
dividualism to socialized living. No man
entirely lets go of his past Therefore
the group-living of people of color, with
few but strong distinctions among indi-
viduals, forces some of them to resent
segregation and its basic discrimina-
tions, while it remains unfelt by the
masses.
But 1t Is the purpose and business of
education to so train humans that they
make life while making living. And
it Is here that men and women leaders
of initiative attain the ends desired.
Prior to emancipation there were 50o,-
600 people OF color freed by their daring,
by aid Of sympathizers, by earnings from
skills or by the favor and good will of
masters. In the past 80 years, 49,
000,000 have attained freedom enjoyed
in varying degrees in different sec
tions and according to their capacities
to assume the obligations of liberty, from
self-respect to wider and more varied
employment and service than ever be-
fore in system of free labor compete
ton. Barring the accident OF birth
among the privileged classes now fast
disappearing under the spread of COM
munication and transportation, with the
example of a higher standard of living
possible under democratic institutions.
tolerance increases c. M. T.
Miracle Film Again
To the Editor of The Star:
Please watch your step, dear Star, or