“Suppose, for instance, there is a little community of fifty families, both black and white, whose cabins and clearings are scattered over an area five miles square. There are hundreds of such places in the South where the people are completely out of the world, and where not one adult in five sees a weekly paper regularly or could read it if he saw it. To these people, up on the mountain sides, in the pine forests or on the river-bottoms, my
BRAVE NEW ENGLAND TEACHER
will go. She will call them together and have a meeting. She will get them to pledge, say fifty dollars a year, and to this she will add another fifty. Half of this, perhaps, will go for periodicals, chiefly illustrated weeklies and magazines, and the remainder will be paid to some of the more enterprising who can read, and who will agree to hold neighborhood meetings weekly. The blacks will be with the blacks, and the whites with the whites, probably, and the reading matter will be read aloud for the benefit of all.
“Some responsible committee will take charge of the reception, distribution, and preservation of the papers and magazines, and at the end of the year they will, perhaps, be sold at auction among the contributors to the fund.
“If the reading matter were given outright there would be some chance against the success of the plan. People care little for what costs them nothing. But having had to sacrifice something to bring it about they will think it worth something.”
“What would you do, Miss Brewster,” the writer inquired, “in towns where reading-rooms were open to both whites and negroes? Have you any idea that the whites would tolerate being brought into contact with blacks on a par in a public reading-room?”
“Probably not,” replied Miss Brewster; “for racial animosity is still pretty strong in most sections, I imagine. But the difficulty could be
EASILY OBVIATED
by allowing certain days or certain hours for one race and other days or hours for the other race, so that all could be benefited without setting prejudices too much at defiance.”
At this juncture, Miss Brewster’s carriage being announced, the extremely interesting interview was terminated.