SEPARATION IN PRIVATE SCHOOLS
Thus far, except in the matter of Berea College, the separation of the races in private schools only has been considered. Legislation as to private schools is comparatively meagre. A statute[[486]] of Florida of 1895 makes it a penal offence to conduct a school of any grade—public, private, or parochial—wherein white persons and Negroes are instructed or boarded within the same building, or taught in the same class, or at the same time by the same teacher. The punishment for violating the law by patronizing or teaching in such a school is a fine of from one hundred and fifty to five hundred dollars, or imprisonment from three to six months. A statute[[487]] of Tennessee of 1901 makes it lawful for any school, academy, or other place of learning to receive both white and colored pupils at the same time. It is unlawful for any teacher to allow them to attend the same school or to teach them together or to allow them to be taught together, under a penalty of fifty dollars for each offence and imprisonment from thirty days to six months. The most recent statute on the subject of private schools is that of Oklahoma in 1908. It is plainly modeled after the Kentucky law of 1904. Under the Oklahoma statute,[[488]] it is unlawful for a person, corporation, or association of persons to maintain or operate any college, school, or institution where persons of the white and colored races are both received as pupils for instruction. The person, corporation, or association that operates a school in violation of the statute is guilty of a misdemeanor, and may be fined not less than one hundred nor more than five hundred dollars. Each day such a school is kept open is a separate offence. One who teaches in such a school is guilty of a misdemeanor and may be fined from ten to fifty dollars for each day. One who goes to such a school as a pupil may be fined from five to twenty dollars for each day. It is not unlawful, however, for a private school to maintain a separate and distinct branch thereof “in a different locality.” The Kentucky statute, it will be remembered, required the separate branch to be, at least, twenty-five miles from the main school. The Oklahoma legislature declared that it was necessary “for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, and safety” that this act take effect at once.
Florida, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Tennessee are the only States that expressly prohibit the teaching of white and colored persons in the same private school. Other States—as Georgia and Texas—declare that, if a school admits both races, it shall have none of the public school fund, saying, by implication, that one may operate a school for both races if he will give up his claim to State aid. On the other hand, Minnesota has enacted a statute to the effect that, if a school refuses to admit pupils of both races, it shall have none of the public school fund, thus saying, by implication, that it is not unlawful to conduct a private school exclusively for one race. The recent decision of the Supreme Court of Michigan to the effect that a private school may exclude Negroes even though the law of the State requires public schools to be open to all, regardless of race or color, has been considered.