In extenuation of the Boston system, it is sometimes said that the
separation of white and black children was originally made at the
request of colored parents. This is substantially true. It appears
from the interesting letter of Dr. Belknap, in reply to Judge Tucker's
queries respecting Slavery in Massachusetts, at the close of the last
century, that no discrimination on account of color existed then in
the Common Schools of Boston. "The same provision," he says, "is made
by the public for the education of the children of the blacks as for
those of the whites. In this town the Committee who superintend the
free schools have given in charge to the schoolmasters to receive
and instruct black children as well as white." Dr. Belknap had "not
heard of more than three or four who had taken advantage of this
privilege, though the number of blacks in Boston probably exceeded one
thousand."[46] Much I fear that the inhuman bigotry of Caste--sad relic
of the servitude from which they had just escaped--was at this time too
strong to allow colored children kindly welcome in the free schools,
and that, from timidity and ignorance, they hesitated to take a place
on the same benches with the white children. Perhaps the prejudice was
so inveterate that they could not venture to assert their rights. In
1800 a petition from sixty-six colored persons was presented to the
School Committee, requesting the establishment of a school for their
benefit. Some time later, private munificence came to the aid of this
work, and the present system of separate schools was brought into being.
[46] Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., Vol. IV. pp. 206, 207.
These are interesting incidents belonging to the history of the Boston
schools, but they cannot in any way affect the rights of colored
people or the powers of the School Committee. These rights and these
powers stand on the Constitution and Laws. Without adopting the
suggestion of Jefferson, that one generation cannot by legislation
bind its successors, all must agree that the assent of a few to an
unconstitutional and illegal course nearly half a century ago, when
their rights were imperfectly understood, cannot alter the Constitution
and the Laws so as to bind their descendants forever in the thrall of
Caste. Nor can the Committee derive from this assent, or from any
lapse of time, powers in derogation of the Constitution and the Rights
of Man.
It is clear that the sentiments of the colored people have now changed.
The present case, and the deep interest which they manifest in it,
thronging the Court to watch this discussion, attest the change. With
increasing knowledge they have learned to know their rights, and feel
the degradation to which they are doomed. In them revives the spirit of
Paul, even as when he demanded, "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man
that is a Roman, and uncondemned?" Their present effort is the token of
a manly character, which this Court will respect and cherish.
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