It is easy to see that the exclusion of colored children from the
Public Schools is a constant inconvenience to them and their parents,
which white children and white parents are not obliged to bear. Here
the facts are plain and unanswerable, showing a palpable violation of
Equality. _The black and white are not equal before the law._ I am at a
loss to understand how anybody can assert that they are.
Among the regulations of the Primary School Committee is one to this
effect. "Scholars to go to the school nearest their residences.
Applicants for admission to our schools (with the exception and
provision referred to in the preceding rule) are especially entitled to
enter the schools nearest to their places of residence." The exception
here is "of those for whom special provision has been made" in separate
schools,--that is, colored children.
In this rule--without the unfortunate exception--is part of the beauty
so conspicuous in our Common Schools. It is the boast of England, that,
through the multitude of courts, justice is brought to every man's
door. It may also be the boast of our Common Schools, that, through the
multitude of schools, education in Boston is brought to every _white_
man's door. But it is not brought to every _black_ man's door. He is
obliged to go for it, to travel for it, to walk for it,--often a great
distance. The facts in the present case are not so strong as those of
other cases within my knowledge. But here the little child, only five
years old, is compelled, if attending the nearest African School, to go
a distance of two thousand one hundred feet from her home, while the
nearest Primary School is only nine hundred feet, and, in doing this,
she passes by no less than five different Primary Schools, forming part
of our Common Schools, and open to white children, all of which are
closed to her. Surely this is not _Equality before the Law_.
Such a fact is sufficient to determine this case. If it be met by the
suggestion, that the inconvenience is trivial, and such as the law
will not notice, I reply, that it is precisely such as to reveal an
existing inequality, and therefore the law cannot fail to notice it.
There is a maxim of the illustrious civilian, Dumoulin, a great jurist
of France, which teaches that even a trivial fact may give occasion to
an important application of the law: "_Modica enim circumstantia facti
inducit magnam juris diversitatem._" Also from the best examples of
our history we learn that the insignificance of a fact cannot obscure
the grandeur of the principle at stake. It was a paltry tax on tea,
laid by a Parliament where they were not represented, that aroused
our fathers to the struggles of the Revolution. They did not feel the
inconvenience of the tax, but they felt its oppression. They went to
war for a principle. Let it not be said, then, that in the present case
the inconvenience is too slight to justify the appeal I make in behalf
of colored children for _Equality before the Law_.
Looking beyond the facts of this case, it is apparent that the
inconvenience from the exclusion of colored children is such as to
affect seriously the comfort and condition of the African race in
Boston. The two Primary Schools open to them are in Belknap Street and
Sun Court. I need not add that the whole city is dotted with schools
open to white children. Colored parents, anxious for the education
of their children, are compelled to live in the neighborhood of the
schools, to gather about them,--as in Eastern countries people gather
near a fountain or a well. The liberty which belongs to the white man,
of choosing his home, is not theirs. Inclination or business or economy
may call them to another part of the city; but they are restrained for
their children's sake. There is no such restraint upon the white man;
for he knows, that, wherever in the city inclination or business or
economy may call him, there will be a school open to his children near
his door. Surely this is not _Equality before the Law_.
If a colored person, yielding to the necessities of position, removes
to a distant part of the city, his children may be compelled daily,
at an inconvenience which will not be called trivial, to walk a long
distance for the advantages of the school. In our severe winters this
cannot be disregarded, in the case of children so tender in years as
those of the Primary Schools. There is a peculiar instance of hardship
which has come to my knowledge. A respectable colored parent became
some time since a resident of East Boston, separated from the mainland
by water. Of course there are Common Schools at East Boston, but none
open to colored children. This parent was obliged to send his children,
three in number, daily across the ferry to the distant African School.
The tolls amounted to a sum which formed a severe tax upon a poor man,
while the long way to travel was a daily tax upon the time and strength
of his children. Every toll paid by this parent, as every step taken by
the children, testifies to that inequality which I now arraign.
This is the conduct of a colored parent. He is well deserving of honor
for his generous efforts to secure the education of his children. As
they grow in knowledge they will rise and call him blessed; but at the
same time they will brand as accursed that arbitrary discrimination of
color in the Common Schools of Boston which rendered it necessary for
their father, out of small means, to make such sacrifices for their
education.
Here is a grievance which, independent of any stigma from color, calls
for redress. It is an inequality which the Constitution and the Laws of
Massachusetts repudiate. But it is not on the ground of inconvenience
only that it is odious. And this brings me to the next head.
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