It is time for those who wish to keep the Negro down to wake up; and they are doing so. They are none too soon. The Negro is rising. Those who do not wish him to rise must now sit on the safety valve; and that they will do. The unanimity with which this bill passes the Georgia Legislature is appalling. It shows that the white race there is given over to believe a lie, that it may reap the consequences. We shall now not be surprised to see this law followed by others, and enacted in other States, and a war of races provoked. Heaven knows we deprecate it. We pray for peace and liberty. The next thing may be to forbid white men and women to teach in Atlanta and Clark University. Why not? This is a crusade against Negro elevation, against Negroes being allowed to be as good as white men or being treated as well. But the end will come all right, even if it be through peril. It may require great courage and patience for a while. Our deep sympathy will go to those white teachers whose children attend these institutions. Our prayers are with them that they may be led in the Lord’s way. Just now the Devil’s way is popular in Georgia; but the Lord is on the side of the weaker battalions.
EXTRACTS FROM THE SOUTHERN PRESS.
THE AUGUSTA (GA.) CHRONICLE.
It is not new legislation to deprive the colored man of any rights under the law. It is not either harsh or arbitrary legislation. It is no interference with his personal or political rights. The Glenn law merely provides for the enforcement of the constitutional provision and statutory laws governing the public school system of Georgia. That is all that there is in the bill. Public sentiment justifies the enactment and demands a rigid enforcement of the law against co-education of the races.
Our stalwart friends bear false witness against the people of Georgia, unintentionally, we hope, and we desire, if possible, to remove the false impressions under which they labor. If they respect the organic and statute laws of the State, if they have any regard for the convictions and civilization and settled policy of our people, which is irrevocable and firm as the granite of our mountains, they cannot fail to see the injustice done the State by their misrepresentation and abuse. If our contemporaries proceed upon the higher-law theory and have no regard for the constitutional, legal and moral rights and customs of our people—if they have no regard for the right of each State to legislate for and regulate its own domestic affairs—they are advocating the claims of the socialists and communists of the land, who assert that there is a law higher than statutes and more imperative than the most sacred rights of civilization.
There is no law, and there will be no law in Georgia against the education of our brother in black, either in the primary or intermediate department—either in the high schools or colleges. There is a law against the co-education of the races, and if there were no law to prohibit, our civilization would prevent. The constitution of the State prevents co-education of races. The Negroes do not want it. The whites will not have it. It is the fixed policy of the State to do equal and exact justice to the colored man. The people of Georgia will regulate their own domestic affairs without being influenced by outside misrepresentation, or deterred by foolish intimidation. Our Legislature will enact such additional laws in reference to the education of the colored and white races separately as it may deem most conducive to the welfare of each, and secure the enforcement of the same without any regard to the silly ravings or foolish threats of men who know nothing about the educational status of the Negro in Georgia, and the relations that exist between the whites and blacks. Co-education of the whites and blacks in the South is an impossibility, and the reasons are so apparent that it is unnecessary either to present or discuss them any further.
THE SAVANNAH (GA.) MORNING NEWS.
The Glenn Bill is a wise measure for several reasons, but mainly because it will save the public school system from destruction. In the preservation of that system both races are interested. It can only be preserved by keeping the races separate in the schools. If the blacks were to demand mixed schools and were to attempt to secure them through the ballot box, the whites would at once oppose appropriations for schools, and the common school system would be ruined. There are two colored institutions in Atlanta in which white children are now taught. Co-education in these two schools will soon be made the excuse for mixed common schools. The agitation will be productive of much bad feeling and cannot help injuring the common schools by arousing public sentiment against them. The sentiment of the State is clearly against mixing the races in any way, and the Glenn Bill is in harmony with that sentiment.