404 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
This table shows that the expenditure for the negro child is about one-half of that for the white child. In North Carolina they are more nearly even $1.17 for white, $1.03 for colored. In Florida the proportion is $5.92 for the white and $2.27 for the colored. 30 It is argued that the white school represents a higher grade of scholastic attainment than the colored school. This, however, does not change the point at issue.
The assertion is generally accepted as true that the education of the negro has been a heavy burden on the white taxpayers. I quote in full from the Report of the Department of the Interior* 1 in relation to the state of Georgia :
It was estimated that the negroes of Georgia paid during 1899 $26,347.43 in direct tax and $89,003 in polls, making a total of $115,530.43 paid directly by the race for educational purposes. The nature of the indirect taxation of Georgia is such that the negro is without any shadow of question entitled to his due proportion.
Western & Atlantic Railroad $ 2 10,000
Liquor tax 142,000
Convict lease 24,255
Dividend from stocks - 2,046
Shaw tax - 4,692
Oil tax - - - 12,503
The negro's pro rata share of the school fund raised by indirect taxation was $176,898.24, making a total of $292,248.67. The expenditure for negro schools, including proportional cost of superintendence, was $288,128. This would seem to show that the whites of Georgia do not contribute one cent to negro education.
On the same basis of calculation, though with confessed lack of definite data, the conference shows a like condition of things for the entire South. The negro is shown to have contributed in thirty years $104,530.593 toward public education. This sum, of course, includes his pro rata of general funds, such as land funds and indirect taxation. The total cost of negro education for the period was $101,860,601.
Maryland, Kentucky, and Delaware give only that portion of the local school tax paid by colored property-holders to colored schools. This does not apply to the state tax, since that is equally apportioned.
- Report of Department of Interior, 1901, VoL I.
" Ibid., p. 755.
