Black and White - Land, Labor, and Politics in the South by Timothy Thomas Fortune
page 51 of 280 (18%)
page 51 of 280 (18%)
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chickens and the other of chicken-hawks. When lines are drawn, men
unconsciously, as it were, keep on their own side. So, in colored churches and schools the whites are at a discount because it is easier and more congenial to employ colored help. Colored people are like white people. When they see nothing but white ministers in the white churches they conclude that it is best to have nothing but colored ministers in their own pulpits, and they are perfectly consistent and logical in their conclusion; the rule which actuates mankind in such matters being, not the biblical one, which enjoins that we do unto others as we _would have them_ do unto us, but, rather, do unto others as _they do_ unto us; and this latter rule would seem to be better adapted for worldly success than the former, because it has more of the practical than the theoretical about it, and is more earthly than heavenly in its observance. The same is true of schools and school teachers. The colored people everywhere are constantly clamoring for colored teachers, since the rank injustice of _separate_ schools is forced upon them. I would interject just here a few words on the _separate-school system_. Aside from the manifest injustice of setting up two schoolhouses in the same ward or district--injustice to the children in the spirit, false from every standpoint, that one child is better than another--the _double expense_ of maintaining two schools is obvious, and is sufficiently absurd to repel the sympathy or practical philanthropy of any man, Christian or Infidel. Why should the people be called upon to support _two_ schools within speaking distance of each other to preserve an infamous distinction, a sneaking caste prejudice? Why! Because the people are wise in their own conceit--perfectly rational upon all other questions save the _color question_. The South is weighted down with debt, almost as poor as the |
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