June 28, 1844
Here is an article about the “proceedings of our coloured fellow-citizens, in regard to their constitutional rights, and to the Smith School and its teacher, Mr. Abner Forbes”.
It expresses “surprise and regret at the recent acquittal by the School Committee of Abner Forbes, Principal of the Smith School, and of our deep concern that he is totally unworthy of his present responsible station, and the coloured parents of this city are recommended to withdraw their children from the exclusive school established in contravention of that equality of privileges which is the vital principle of the school system of Massachusetts.”
Here are resolutions petitioning the School Committee to abolish separate schools for colored children, and asking for the right of colored citizens to send their children to the schools in their district.
Signed by John T. Hilton, President, Henry W. Thacker and Jonas W. Clark, Vice Presidents, Wm. C. Nell, Robert Morris, Secretaries
July 12, 1844
From the Nantucket Telegraph
Here an article asserts an opinion against the right of the state to have separate schools for colored children, expressed in resolutions by the School Committee of Salem, followed by a long opinion to the same effect, signed by Richard Fletcher
July 19, 1844
An item from the Christian Watchman expresses hope that there will not be any considerable number of colored citizens who will seek the abolition of schools established expressly for them. It further urges support for Abner Forbes against whom there have not been any substantial charges that can withhold scrutiny.
August 2, 1844
A committee of parents offer a report in which they express a sense that “the relation of Mr. Forbes towards the Smith School should cease….” Signed by Hilton, Thacker, Clark, Nell, Morris
February 14, 1845
Here is notice from Nantucket, of a meeting in the Town Hall to promote “abolition of caste in our public schools” It was resolved, “That the colored children of this town have an equal right to all the schools, in common with all other children.”
March 7, 1845
A notice that the State Senate has passed “the law asked by the friends of the colored people, in relation to public schools.”
June 27, 1845
Here is a report of a special meeting of the Primary School Committee, to consider “the petition of a number of colored citizens, praying that ’separate schools for colored children be abolished — and that said children be permitted to attend the schools in their several districts.’” …. The Chairman, Mr. Ingraham, reports that the majority of the committee believes the request was a right of the petitioners…. “But, as the Grammar School Committee had not acted on the subject, therefore, ‘Resolved That in accordance with the foregoing report, it is inexpedient to grant the prayer of the petitioners.,’”……Some of the discussion immediately centers on the claim by some that separate schools contribute to the “degradation” of the black man below the white. Rev. W.W. Patton says: “It is morally wrong to maintain this condition, if it degrades the colored child. The white child looks upon and despises the colored child as of an inferior order of beings, as long as these things continue; this we all know, this we have all experienced.” …….Dr. Charles Phelps argues for the petitioners, pointing out the success of other towns, Salem, New Bedford, which have previously abandoned separate schools. “By making a discrimination among the children of our citizens, we aim a blow at one of the fundamental principles of our whole system of Public Schools.” Phelps: “It is unlawful for us to exclude these children from the public schools, nothing can make it expedient for us to continue in wrongdoing …. We might add another step, and yield to prejudice the power to separate the children of the poor and the rich, or the children of the mechanic or the professional man.”
There follows discussion about whether or not there is prejudice in the community. There is an example given of churches which do not welcome colored people in their pews ….There is reference to a picture of the Battle of Bunker Hill, and there was no objection to a colored man being in that picture; there is reference to the fact that colored and white fought side-by-side in the armies of the revolution. There is discussion of whether or not colored citizens are satisfied with arrangements for separate schools, to which one response says: “No respectable colored person feels them to be other than a grevious wrong and insult.” There is an assertion that many colored parents are keeping their children from attending the separate schools “because they would not be degraded”. Some say that it is a policy “of the majority to quietly hush up this question”….
Finally a vote is taken , and by 55 to 12 the resolution passes.
There follows a letter to Garrison, from H. I. Bowditch, with his personal account of the meeting.
July 17, 1846
From the Worcester Co. Gazette comes an admonition of recent action by the Primary School Committee of Boston by which it has found that the continuance of separate schools for colored children “is not only legal and just, but is best adapted to promote the education of that class of our population”. The article, in criticism, maintains that it is not legal to make distinctions on account of color. “The tint of skin was given them by the hand of the Almighty; and although he clothed them with a sable hue, yet he also gave them the same intellect -the same powers of perception and retention.” The article pokes criticism at Boston, saying it might expect such action in Worcester, but not in Boston, “where the spirit of ‘76 was first kindled”.
August 21, 1846
The majority and minority reports of the Primary School Committee are included here. One comment is on the argument that, because the colored community asked for the separate schools, the schools should continue to be separate…… “It seems that the separate schools were originally established by the request of the colored men. And this fact is considered by the Committee as a conclusive argument why no change should be made in the present system. Because the men of the last generation asked, whether wisely or unwisely , for what seemed to them best in the then condition of the times and of public sentiment, are their children to be\foreclosed from asking for something else which the altered state of public feelings and of the times demands?
If it were competent for the colored men of the beginning of the nineteenth century to ask for separate schools for their children, is it not competent for those of the middle of the century to ask for their abolition? The argument seems to us just as broad as it is long. We do not think that our colored friends need be in the least apprehensive of disturbing the shades of ‘Primus Hall, of Cyrus Vassall and of Prince Saunders’, by making the demand they do – a demand, which we believe those worthy men would cordially concur in, were they among us in the flesh, at the present time.”
December 24, 1847
An article critical of Mann, who, it claims, has not given aid to the campaign for equal school rights for colored children. He has not helped either in Nantucket or in Boston, to change practices which keep colored children from going to school with white children. “All this exits in Boston. … Against it Horace Mann has yet to utter his first word.”
