Rensselaer Journal, Volume 12, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1902 — WHITE GIRLS KISS NEGRESSES [ARTICLE]

WHITE GIRLS KISS NEGRESSES

Parents Resent Methods Employed by Ohio School Principal. Bellaire, 0., special: This city is indignant over the actions of J. D. Defenbaugh, principal of the Fifth Ward school, in forcing white pupils to kiss negro pupils. There had been differences between eighteen of the girl pupils, nine of them colored, and the trouble culminated in an open fight. The principal gave his ultimatum to the effect that the white girls must all kiss the negro girls or take a whipping. Frightened, they complied. The parents of the white girls are terribly wrought up over the affair and the school board will call an extra session to investigate the matter at once.