Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1879 — NO BULLDOZING IN THIS. [ARTICLE]

NO BULLDOZING IN THIS.

More Colored Pupils Ilian Will to in South Carolina Schools; also, More Colored Children Now in Attendance Than Under Carpet-bag Rule. [Columbia (8. C.) Cor. New York Sun.] The persistent assertions made that the negroes of the South are systematically oppressed and terrorized is certainly disproved, so far as South Carolina is concerned at least, by facts taken from the annual report of the State Superintendent of Education. Many who give no credence to the blood-curdling tales of horror so industriously circulated on the eve of important elections are nevertheless inclined to believe that, while the Southern Democrats yield obedience to the Reconstruction acts and re pect the political and civil rights of the negro, they studiously refrain from taking any steps to ameliorate his condition or elevate his intellectual status. An examination of these educational statistics conclusively proves that the Democratic party of the South heartily lends a helping hand to the newly-enfranchised citizen. By the report in question it appears that the total school attendance for the years 1878-’9 was 122,463, of which 58,368 were white pupils and 64,095 colored, an excess of 5,727 colored pupils. During the period of reconstruction, between the years 1868 and 1876, the average colored attendance in the State was 41,691. The average colored attendance during the three years of Democratic rule has been 60,723, an increase of 45 per cent. Every s hool district in the State contains separate schools for white and for colored children. These run for an equal period of time, and are alike paid from the treasury. The first colored school in Charleston, the Morris Street School, was established by a Democratic City Board in 1867. In 1868, a Republican Board was elected, and during its term of two years the attendai ce at the school never exceeded 900. In 1871, the schools of Charleston were closed, and teachers’ salaries for six months remained unpaid A Democratic lj oar d, elected in 1871, found empty schools and an empty treasury. The schools, including the colored one, were reopened. Since then the attendance in the Morris Street School has steadily increased. During the past year it had an enrollment of 1,404 pupils, under twenty-six teachers. Other first-class colored schools in the city run up the attendance to 3,568, while the entire county shows a colored attendance of 7,800. This favorable showing is by no means confined to Charleston, but is general through the State. It will be sufficient to cite the returns from Edgefield, Aiken, and Barnwell counties. These are given only because, in bloodyshirt harangues, the names Edgefield, Hamburg, and Ellen ton are synonymous with shot-gun Democracy, bulldozing and blood. Edgefield reports 2,150 white and 1,980 colored pupils; Aiken, 2,220 white and 1,533 colored, and Barnwell 2,173 white and 2,514 colored. In Aiken the white population predominates; in the other two the blacks are somewhat in excess. If in these much-slandered counties the colored people, instead *>f fleeing terror stricken to the woods, are quietly pursuing their peaceful avocations, and raising cotton to sell for 11 cents a pound, while their children freely attend schools supported by a tax of which seven-eighths is paid by Democratic property holders, it is convincing proof that those tales of terror are fabrications out of whole cloth. Again, in the whole State there are 2,090 white and 1,076 colored teachers. This is a most favorable showing for the colored race, and also for the Democratic officials who employ colored teachers for colored schools wherever they are found competent. The only institution of higher learning in the State receiving State aid is the Claflin University and Agricultural College, devoted solely to the education of the colored race. Its President, Rev. Dr. Edward Cooke, is a Northern eminent minister of the gospel, and a teacher of large experience. The faculty consists of seven instructors, two of whom are natives of the "State. Over 200 students were enrolled last year. Here it may be added that native white teachers, bearing honored names in South Carolina, are engaged in the task of instructing -the colored race. The Rev. P. F. Stevens, formerly Superintendent of the State Military Academy, a Confederate Colonel during the late war, and now Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church, is the School Commissioner of Charleston county, and devotes himself with zealous ardor to the intellectual and spiritual elevation of the colored people of the -eeacoast. The principal of the Morris Street School is a distinguished graduate of the State Military Academy, and most of his assistants are graduates of the Charleston Normal School. This school building is the handsomest in the city, and was erected at a cost of $30,000. The distribution of the Peabody fund may also be taken as an evidence of the educational facilities of the blacks. It is given only to a thoroughly graded school, containing at least 100 pupils, continuing in session ten months, and deriving a support from other sources of at least twice the amount contributed by the Peabody fund. During the years 1878-9 five white schools received $1,950, and five colored schools $2,250, the difference being due to the larger attendance in the schools of the latter class. To secure this fund a liberal support by the State was required by the terms of the Peabody trustees. In addition to the schools maintained by the State there are several excellent colored schools supported by missionary funds from the North. When statistics show that the South raises 5,000,000 bales of cotton yearly, chiefly by colored labor, while colored children secure equal benefits from a school fund contributed principally by Democratic property-holders, it is easily seen why Liberia exodus associations and Kansas immigration societies alike fall still-born. Much needless sympathy is wasted upon the “oppressed negro” in the South. South Carolina does more for the colored population than many of the States who thank God that they are not as she is. Pine B lvwt, Ark., has a public school building worth $20,000.