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THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF NEW YORK
By JOHN PURROY MITCHEL, Mayor of New York City

No. 89, HARLEM; MOST OF THE PUPILS ARE
COLORED.

I am very glad to respond to your request
for a statement for THE CRISIS
on the general subject of the education of
the Negroes in New York City.

The latest available figures indicate that
there are more than 110,000 Negroes living
in the City of New York, and that of this
number 21,000 are children of school age,
attending the public schools of the city. It
seemed to me that so large a proportion of
the population of the city should not be
without direct representation on the Board
of Education. The educational problem of
a section like that of Harlem, for example,
where so many of our colored citizens live,
can best be understood and met by the sympathetic
consideration and devotion of a 
man of the colored race.  Although there
are many prominent Negroes in the city,
any one of whom would have honorably
represented these people, I feel that in obtaining
for the city the services of Dr. E. 
P. Roberts I was most fortunate. He is a
quiet and forceful citizen, and is known and
respected by all classes of the community.
His professional training makes him valuable
for school health work, and his deep 
interest in the social problems of the city
makes his advice on matters pertaining to
the Negro population specially desirable.

Dr. Roberts is not the first representative
of his race to take active part in the educational
work of our city. In 1882 Mayor
Low appointed a colored man, Philip A.
White, to serve on the Board of Education
of the old City of Brooklyn. In 1891 he
was succeeded by T. McCants Stewart, who, 
in 1894, was succeeded by Samuel R. Scottron.
Mr. Scottron continued as a memeber
of the Brooklyn Board of Education until
1898, as a member of the Brooklyn
School Board until 1902.  Thus, for twenty
years, the colored people of Brooklyn had a
representative in school matters.

I am glad that it has been my privilege
to recognize the needs of the race by again
giving them an official voice in educational
matters.

No. 79, EAST SIDE; THE PRINCIPAL IS COLORED,
TEACHERS AND PUPILS ARE WHITE.

132

The Looking Glass

LITERATURE.

From Ralph Waldo Emerson:

The spiritual stars rise nightly, shedding down
A private beam into each several heart.
Suns haste to set, that so remoter lights
Beckon the wanderer to  his vaster home.

We have received the following pamphlets:
"Christianity and Culture Versus the
Negro," by Charles Randall Graggs;
"Reaching to Heaven," by W. L. Edwards;
"Our Peculiar Work," by S. E. Shepard;
"Sermons and Melodies," by H. H. Proctor;
and "Songs and Sermons," by C. A. Whitfield.

The following books have been received:
"From Super-man to Man," a novel by J.
A. Rogers, published in Chicago, and "The
Colored Girl Beautiful," by Mrs. E. A. 
Hackley, published in Kansas City, Mo.

The death of Joseph Benson Foraker, late
Senator from Ohio, not only reminds the
Negro race of his great service but calls attention
to his autobiography, "Notes of a
Busy Life," in two large volumes. There
is much to interest colored readers in these
volumes--Mr. Foraker's service in the war,
his political career, but particularly the two
chapters devoted to the "Brownsville Affray."
This record is Mr. Foraker's finest
monument.

The African World of London, England,
has a special article on "Is the Negro Coming?"
by Hilda M. Ridley.  She says among
other things:

To the south of the states lie the great
twenty republics with which America is now
so anxious to enter into closer relationship.
"Pan-Americanism" is the slogan of capitalists
who look eagerly towards this vast
country of such immense commercial possibilities.
"We would be friends with you,"
say they--and all unwittingly they scarce
acquired even the elements of what would
constitute such a friendship.  Great difficulties
stand in the way of the much-to-be-desired
acquaintance. On the economic ones
I will not dwell.

Scarcely less important are the social
ones.  Differences of religion, race and language
intervene; and perhaps the most insuperable
of all is race. South Americans
are usually "half-breeds."  Few of them are 
of pure Spanish descent. Negro and Indian
strains predominate.

The treatment by the United States of the
"half-breed" is therefore, watched by them
with peculiar interest.  They do not discover
in it any justification for faith in the
assurance of Americans that they are conscious
of no sense of superiority to themselves.
They see that even a tincture of
Negro blood is sufficient to ostracize a man
or woman socially and that he or she is
placed on a plane with the Negro who is
lynched, segregated, and disfranchised.

"If I went into one of those restaurants
along Broadway," asked the son of a Portuguese
from the Azores, who held the position
of trust and responsibility as an officer in
the navy of his colored mother's country,
"would they serve me as they would in
Paris, or Newcastle-on-Tyne, or Rio de Janeiro?"

His question could be answered in part
by relating the treatment accorded the officers
of the Brazilian dreadnought which visited
America a short time ago.  The waiters
in the hotels where these men were being
entertained refused to serve some of those
who were black.  Cultured Latin-Americans
visiting parts of the states have been separated
from their white companions on the
street cars on account of color.

The South American is proud of his race.
Often highly cultivated, and turning to
France, Germany, and England for his
standards rather then to the states, he refuses
to admit that American civilization is
superior to his own.  In literary, artistic,
and musical appreciation he lays claim to
points of superiority; indeed,  he denies that
America has any literature or art worthy
of the name. In spite of internal difficulties--
difficulties which, it is to be feared, 
have been stimulated by the greed of American
and European investors--he resents
any imputation that his government is inferior
to that of the United States.

"The burning of Negroes, the lynchings
of thieves, the work of vigilance committees
in the Far West," says the American
writer, Roland Usher, "the failure to apprehend
and punish murderers--all these the
South Americans evidence as a lack of civilization
in the United States quite as serious
as their own particular difficulties."

MEMPHIS.

D. F. Peters in the Encyclopedia
Americana, vol. 10, on the city of Memphis
The city is well laid out and well-built.
The wide, well-shaded and well-paved
streets, the fine public and private buildings,
the parks with numerous large trees, all]
make the city most attractive.  The combined
park area is about 1,000 acres, besides
two fine race tracks.  The streets are
paved with asphalt, vitrified brick, macadam,
and gravel. About 250 miles of turnpike 
radiate from Memphis.  .  .  .

Among the prominent buildings are 123
churches, 65 schools and colleges, three
public libraries, three first-class theatres,
the customhouse, cotton exchange, Odd Fellows,
building, Porter, Scimitar, and Equitable 
buildings, Masonic Temple, Gayoso
Hotel, Women's building, Randolph building,
Goodwyn Institute, Memphis Trust building,

133