But it is said that these separate schools are for the benefit of
both colors, and of the Public Schools. In similar spirit Slavery
is sometimes said to be for the benefit of master and slave, and
of the country where it exists. There is a mistake in the one case
as great as in the other. This is clear. Nothing unjust, nothing
ungenerous, can be for the benefit of any person or any thing. From
some seeming selfish superiority, or from the gratified vanity of
class, short-sighted mortals may hope to draw permanent good; but
even-handed justice rebukes these efforts and redresses the wrong. The
whites themselves are injured by the separation. Who can doubt this?
With the Law as their monitor, they are taught to regard a portion of
the human family, children of God, created in his image, coequals in
his love, as a separate and degraded class; they are taught practically
to deny that grand revelation of Christianity, the Brotherhood of
Man. Hearts, while yet tender with childhood, are hardened, and ever
afterward testify to this legalized uncharitableness. Nursed in the
sentiments of Caste, receiving it with the earliest food of knowledge,
they are unable to eradicate it from their natures, and then weakly and
impiously charge upon our Heavenly Father the prejudice derived from an
unchristian school. Their characters are debased, and they become less
fit for the duties of citizenship.
The Helots of Sparta were obliged to intoxicate themselves, that
by example they might teach the deformity of intemperance. Thus
sacrificing one class to the other, both were injured,--the imperious
Spartan and the abased Helot. The School Committee of Boston act with
similar double-edged injustice in sacrificing the colored children to
the prejudice or fancied advantage of the white.
A child should be taught to shun wickedness, and, as he is yet plastic
under impressions, to shun wicked men. Horace was right, when, speaking
of a person morally wrong, false, and unjust, he calls him black, and
warns against him:--
"Hic niger est: hunc tu, Romane, caveto."[47]
The Boston Committee adopt the warning, but apply it not to the
black in heart, but the black in skin. They forget the admonition
addressed to the prophet: "The Lord said unto Samuel, _Look not on his
countenance_: ... for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh
on the outward appearance, _but the Lord looketh on the heart_."[48]
The Committee look on the outward appearance, without looking on the
heart, and thus fancy that they are doing right!
[47] Satiræ, Lib. I. iv. 85.
[48] 1 Samuel, xvi. 7.
Who can say that this does not injure the blacks? Theirs, in its best
estate, is an unhappy lot. A despised class, blasted by prejudice
and shut out from various opportunities, they feel this proscription
from the Common Schools as a peculiar brand. Beyond this, it deprives
them of those healthful, animating influences which would come from
participation in the studies of their white brethren. It adds to their
discouragements. It widens their separation from the community, and
postpones that great day of reconciliation which is yet to come.
The whole system of Common Schools suffers also. It is a narrow
perception of their high aim which teaches that they are merely to
furnish an equal amount of knowledge to all, and therefore, provided
all be taught, it is of little consequence where and in what company.
The law contemplates not only that all shall be taught, but that
_all_ shall be taught _together_. They are not only to receive equal
quantities of knowledge, but all are to receive it in the same way.
All are to approach the same common fountain together; nor can there
be any exclusive source for individual or class. The school is the
little world where the child is trained for the larger world of life.
It is the microcosm preparatory to the macrocosm, and therefore it
must cherish and develop the virtues and the sympathies needed in the
larger world. And since, according to our institutions, all classes,
without distinction of color, meet in the performance of civil duties,
so should they all, without distinction of color, meet in the school,
beginning there those relations of Equality which the Constitution and
Laws promise to all.
As the State derives strength from the unity and solidarity of its
citizens without distinction of class, so the school derives strength
from the unity and solidarity of all classes beneath its roof. In
this way the poor, the humble, and the neglected not only share the
companionship of the more favored, but enjoy also the protection
of their presence, which draws toward the school a more watchful
superintendence. A degraded or neglected class, if left to themselves,
will become more degraded or neglected. "If any man have ears to hear,
let him hear.... For he that hath, to him shall be given; and he that
hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath."[49] The
world, perverting the true sense of these words, takes from the outcast
that which God gave him capacity to enjoy. Happily, our educational
system, by the blending of all classes, draws upon the whole school
that attention which is too generally accorded only to the favored
few, and thus secures to the poor their portion of the fruitful
sunshine. But the colored children, placed apart in separate schools,
are deprived of this peculiar advantage. Nothing is more clear than
that the welfare of classes, as well as of individuals, is promoted by
mutual acquaintance. Prejudice is the child of ignorance. It is sure to
prevail, where people do not know each other. Society and intercourse
are means established by Providence for human improvement. They remove
antipathies, promote mutual adaptation and conciliation, and establish
relations of reciprocal regard. Whoso sets up barriers to these thwarts
the ways of Providence, crosses the tendencies of human nature, and
directly interferes with the laws of God.
[49] Mark, iv. 23, 25.
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