Jackson advocate. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1939-current, 1950-01-14
The 1850 Legislature And Negro
Education In Mississippi

Estate of the state Negro Citizens of Mississippi NAV
justly applaud Governor Wright the progress made in
his thinking regarding teachers salaries and Negro edu-
cation in Mississippi
While bill after bill on the subject is being thrown
into the legislative hopper there appears the need anent
the Governors speech and for the benefit of the legis
ators to throw light the subject of Negro edu
cation in Mississippi from the point of view of the
Negro citizen Of the state.
In the outset it ought to be stated that for the
moment at least the Negro citizen of the state par
ticulary the primary, secondary, high school, and
college levels, accepts the principal of separate but
eou9P schools for Negroes set forth in the Const-
tuition Of the State of Mississippi and upheld by the
Supreme Court of the United States
The Negro citizen of the state at the same time
have right expect and is justified in his demand
that the separate but eouaP in the states education
plan be made real" which calls for much than
revealed IN figures recently published by the State
nerartment of Education which showed that while the
state spending eighteen and quarter million dol
lars for the instruction of White children during the
during the period it spent less than five mil
lion dollars for instruction of Negro children In other
words. with its population equally divided during the
neriad rs percent of the school fund was spent for
White children and only % percent for Negro children
The report published by the State Department of
Education showed further that the state hires 1856
White teachers and 6164 Negro teachers. The White
teachers received average annual salary of 81 05
the average annual salary of Negro teachers less
than half much, being $65949. Negro teachers with
teachers with Masters degrees; and Negro teachers
with Bachelors degrees $500 per year less than White
teachers in the class
On transportation Of students the report revealed
that less than 100000 spent the transportation
of Negro children about percent of the total spent the
remaining 93 nercent being spent for the transportation
of White children.
In asking that the separate but equal in the edu-
cation plan Of the state be made real the Negro citizen
of the state is calling for legislation which will prevent
appropriated for Negro schools from being spent
in the way the $3.500000 recently appropriated for
building and improving Negro schools was spent Out
of which it has been estimated that less than five per-
cent actually spent building and improving
Negro schools. In some areas not even one dime of
this money spent for the purpose for which it was
appropriated.
In his recently published piece, the distinguished
Senator from Mississippi, Honorable John c. Stennis
sought to show that great forward strides have been
made and being made in the improvement of Negro
education in Mississippi and the rest of the south. In
Kemper County, the home county of the distinguished
Senator including districts where the acreage of Negro
landowners is equal, if not more than that of White
landowners bond issues and evies for the Improvement
of schools have been passed during the past few
amounting to perhaps than million dollars, al
most of which has been spent for the Improvement
of the Negro schools of Kemper County AS bad they
in most instances elsewhere in the state the Negro
schools of Kemper County are looked upon by compe-
tent observers being the worst in the state This
practice has been going for years. in greater or
lesser degree all over the state.
In asking that the separate but equal in the edu-
cation plan OF the state be made real Negro citizens
are now calling upon the State legislature for the en-
actrnent Of laws to prevent and stop such practice.
Tn asking that the Separate but equal in the states
education plan be made rea the Negro citizen is not
onv asking for equal facilities and equal salaries for
Negro teachers but he is also asking for equal curric
ular choice and opportunities IN all areas OF educaon
for his children in order that they may play success
fully the role of goth century American Citizen any
where in the world
The Negro citizen Of Mississippi can be said to be
reluctanv enthusiastic the prospects Of four
wear state Medical school, With only fftvseven Negro
doctors In the state compared to 1894 White doctors
and with most Of the Negro doctors past the peak of
their usefulness because of but mainly because OF
over work. the need for Negro doctors is beng fe IN
every community in the state This tragic lack OF
Negro doctors is DUE not only to the lack of Medical
school being available to Negro Students but even more
than that to the lack of premedca curricular in the
Negro high schools and colleges of the state
Here again we to the piece of the distinguished
Senator from Mississippi in which he points up TO the
$4,000 yearly scholarship fund provided by the state