“It is our judgment that the best interests of the colored people of this capital, and not theirs alone, but those of all classes, require the abrogation of all laws and institutions creating or tending to perpetuate distinctions based on color, and the enactment in their stead of such provisions as shall secure equal privileges to all classes of citizens. The laws creating the present system of separate schools for colored children in this District were enacted as a temporary expedient to meet a condition of things which has now passed away.”[2] How wise is that remark! These are colored men who wrote this. They say:-- “The laws creating the present system of separate schools for colored children in this District were enacted as a temporary expedient to meet a condition of things which has now passed away.” That condition of things was a part of the legacy of Slavery. They then proceed:-- “That they recognize and tend to perpetuate a cruel, unreasonable, and unchristian prejudice, which has been and is the source of untold wrong and injustice to that class of the community which we represent, is ample reason for their modification. The experience of this community for the last few years has fully demonstrated that the association of different races, in their daily occupations and civic duties, is as consistent with the general convenience as it is with justice. And custom is now fully reconciled at this capital to the seating side by side of white and colored people in the railway car, the jury-box, the municipal and Government offices, in the city councils, and even in the Halls of the two Houses of Congress. Yet, while the fathers may sit together in those high places of honor and trust, the children are required by law to be educated apart. We see neither reason nor justice in this discrimination. If the fathers are fit to associate, why are not the children equally so?”[3] I should like my honorable friend, the Chairman, to answer that question, when I have finished this Report: “If the fathers are fit to associate, why are not the children equally so?” The Report then proceeds:-- “Children, naturally, are not affected by this prejudice of race or color. To educate them in separate schools tends to beget and intensify it in their young minds, and so to perpetuate it to future generations. If it is the intention of the United States that these children shall become citizens in fact, equal before the law with all others, why train them to recognize these unjust and impolitic distinctions?”[4] Here I would interpose the further inquiry, Why will you make your school-house the nursery of prejudice inconsistent with the declared principles of your institutions? The Report proceeds:--