The guardian. [volume] (Boston, Mass.) 1901-1960, 1954-01-16

candle than to curse the dark
ness"
Chinese PrOverb.
THE UNITED COLLEGE Fund
representatives deserve and
will receive a fitting welcome
during their Jan. Is to Jan. 10
meeting in Boston. They re-
present the old Chinese pro-
verb. They "lit one candle"
rather than stand idle and curse
the darkness of college color
bars. And to-day they face a
more enlightened world. The
"Colored College" is to become
a racially mixed institution. So
must all others. This is the
road to democracy.
EDUCATION indignation con-
Germs Colored People who have
been forced to attend special
race" public schools and COL
legeS more than any other mi
nority group in this country.
Prior to 1920, colored colleges
were training three fourthS of
all colored high school students
in America. But the burden of
finance, facilities and racial
discriminatory factors has made
the task of 100 colored colleges
difficult, to say the least,
y
THE SOUTH accepted the
pattern of special race" or Jim
crow schools for colored, fol-
lowing the post Civil War good
intentions of prominent eduea-
tors and the federal protective
"Freedman's Bureau, establish
ed in 1865. Booker T. Washington
thought it a good idea. Many
wealthy Yankees contributed
to the cause. 1t was then deemed
an emergency measure for an
oppressed people. People who
had no place else to go.
STATE AND FEDERAL sub
sidy to colored schools, there
for, did not come about because
we wanted it by choice. Colored
Americans would have preferred
to attend "non-raciaI" public
schools and colleges, and to-
day progress is being made to
that end. Great disunity would
strike America if all the Irish,
Italian, English, Catholics, Pro-
testants and Jews were to break
up and attend their own schools
exclusively. That's for sure.
THE MISTAKE in the adop-
ton of a special" school cate
CORY for the native Indians was
quickly apparent. 1t came some
what later for Colored. Racial
restriction was the common de-
nominator. Advancement was
stifed. In 1910 there was only
one colored doctor to every
1851 Tan YankS. There was only
one colored dentist to every
$500 and only one colored law
yer to every 1920 sepia citi-
zens. Jim crow was riding high.
jim CROW is bad for all
groups, religious as well as ra-
cial. 1t puts people in a narrow
circle of misunderstanding and
often intolerance. 1t actually
binders learning and often in
learcites persecution. I dare say,
Jim crow segregation has hurt
Colored, Catholic, and Jew
more, over the past centuries,
than any other factor. Certainly
it has retarded democracy.
THE LIGHT which is the IL
Eliminating candle of colored
colleges, need not "go out" with
integration. The chances are
the majority of students will at
tend the same schools. The
difference will be mixed classes
and faculty on both sides. There
will be no southern white" or
"colored" colleges in the future.
They will be American colleges,
open to all.
THE DARKNESS, which Is the
forced racial segregation OF
colored Americans, has been
truly lit as a candle by our
hard working colored schools.
They have achieved so much
with so little. And, due to the
stubborn. and perhaps, hnal
lin crow battle In the south,
The United College group needs
and deserves the funds to carry
on the education of students
who otherwise have no place
to 90 until the Supreme Court
makes its decision.