MEETING OF COLORED CITIZENS Agreeably to a call, a meeting was held on Monday evening, July 23rd, 1849, for the purpose of obtaining the opinions of the colored people relative to the ‘Continuance of the Smith School as a separate School for the instruction of Clored Youth’. A large number were present, and great interest was manifested. The meeting was organized in the choices of J.W. Butler for the President, George Washington, Vice President, and E.B. Lawton and Isaca H. Snowden as Secretaries. A committee of three was appointed to prepare business for the meeting — John T. Hilton, B. F. Roberts, and Lemuel Burr.
(The following resolutions are some of those passed at the meeting:
That as common school instruction is refused to all persons who differ in complexion from the whites, in the city of Boston, we regard the sufferance of such a distinction a disgrace to civilization.
That all ‘exclusive schools’ are injurious to the welfare of the community, and therefore should be discountenanced.
That the school known as the ‘Smith School’, located in Belknap street, in this city, being a caste, an exclusive school, we regard it as a Great Public Nuisance, which should be immediately annihilated. These resolutions were sent with an Appeal of the Colored People of the City of Boston, to the Honorable, The Mayor and Aldermen Said City. (Liberator, August 10, 1849, pg 3)
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