Arkansas State press., 1948-05-28
"Our Children Are Cheated"

Why don't you pick IN someone your sze2
The ugly giant Discrimination, reaches out even to our schools to
guarantee that our children get a unequal start in life.
Separate But Equal.
This is the myth behind segregated schools Our courts tell us
that Negroes. Indians. Mexicans-any racial minority may be herded
into separate schools If they get n education equal to that of white
children
Recently a little dent has been made in this separate be equal"
doctrine. The Supreme Court ruled that Oklahoma must provide a
law course for a Negro girl barred from the STATE University Au-
thorities offered her Jim Grow Glasses in the State Capitol With
great courage she is taking her fight back to the Supreme Court.
Perhaps her case will crack the vicious equal but separate lie. At
least this is the hope of racial and religious minorties as well as of
labor groups, whose hope of securing truly democratic rights depends
upon real equality for their children.
But do minority groups really get equality of education after they
are separated?
MOI is the emphatic ANSWER of the Presidents Committee o cwl
Rights.
Let's look at the situation:
The South has a hard time maintaining its choos. Mississippi. for
example, car afford to spend only $500 a yea per classroom unit com-
pared to $4,000 in New York. Add to that the burden of separate but
equal schools in the South, and you get the load that breaks educa-
TONS back! The South gets not only hopelessIy bad schools for Me-
groes, but entirely inadequate schools for whites!
In Mississippi, Johnny Whites teacher in 1914 averaged a salary
of sllo7; Bobby Blacks teacher earned only $s42 that year, The Ne
gro child got fewer days in school, attended much more crowded and
in the South, but for other racial minorides elsewhere-for example,
Indians in some Western states-Mexicans in Texas.
Here again u Nations capital follows the trend of the South.
In Washington Negro schools are crowded-whiie there are vacant
seats in the schools for white children. Part time classes, poorer
school supplies, inadequate recreational faeilties-these arr the lot of
Negro children in the shadow of the Capitol
What of the North. where school segregation is non-existent-at
least IN THEORY Evene there, the Presidents Committee finds mi
norhy groups are virtually segregated in schools because they have
cen iorcea mo segregated heiBhpofhooos. n OF some notSo-
strange reason it is these groups whose schools arc usually most
dlapidaed. most crowded. most poorly equipped.
Private colleges get public financial support-often federal or state
money or at least tax exemption. Hence they should be open to all.
Most such colleges, il. they do not exclude Negroes or Jews, admit
them o a limited quota basis Others limit Irish Catholics. Indians,
Orientals, or other minonths Despite denals of such quota systems.
THE PRESIDENTS COMMITTEE HAS FOUND GOOD EVIDENCE
OF THE FACTS.
Many colleges has broken with the shameful tradition. A shining
example in Experimentation Washington, c. is Catholic University.
There u Committee tells III Negroes have ben admitted and there
is n color distinction in classes. Last year a Negro was elected a
class officer"
To secure educational rights, the Committee urges the establish
ment of Fair Education Practice laws 1t suggests the withdrawal of
federal grants from schools and colleges which have discriminatory
admission policies.
Such is the program that minority groups and labor groups must
actively support. If IL very Nations capital a push a child into
a crowded school, keep him off decenly equipped Fairgrounds, even
bar him from the Golden Gloves boxing tournament-then the rights
Of all children in American are insecure.