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"An
Undoubted Right" |
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Harper's
Weekly, May 30, 1874, page 451 (Editorial) |
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There is one kind of civil right which
the strictest constitutional interpretation will not deny to the colored
citizens of the Southern States, and that is the right of educating their
own children at their own expense, assisted by the voluntary aid of others.
This is what William Craft, whose story was very familiar during the
Fugitive Slave Act excitement twenty-three years ago, proposes to do in
South Georgia. His object is to give the poor country colored children a
chance at the rudiments of education. Mr. Craft and his wife and son have
bought a plantation or farm of 1800 acres about twenty miles from Savannah,
to which families with children will remove, hiring part of the land and
paying a portion of the crop toward the school, while the children will work
upon the land to raise grain and vegetables for their own use. Mr. Craft in
1871 tried a similar experiment upon another spot, advanced the money, and
secured a good crop; but the Ku-Klux destroyed the buildings and the
harvest. Several gentlemen in Boston, in New York, and elsewhere have
subscribed to further a project which is in such capable hands; and whoever
is disposed may address Mr. Craft at 252 West Twenty-sixth Street, New York.
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Harper's
Weekly, May 30, 1874, page 451 (Editorial) |
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Note:
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Editor George William Curtis
considered education to be of
the utmost importance for
individuals, women,
minorities, and the entire
nation. In this brief commentary
he solicits contributions for
the establishment of a private
school for Southern blacks. His
reference to strict
constitutional interpretation is
a veiled criticism of the U.S.
Supreme Court’s decision in
the Slaughterhouse Cases
(1873), which limited the
federal government’s authority
under the 14th
Amendment to enforce civil
rights. The destruction of the
original school points to the
fact that black schools were a
key target of arson by the Ku
Klux Klan and other racist,
paramilitary organizations.
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