“1. The last General Conference authorized the Freedmen’s Aid Society to aid in the maintenance and establishment of separate schools among the white members of our Church in the South. It did this by recognizing the separate white schools then existing in the South as entitled to aid; by directing the Freedmen’s Aid Society to co-operate in maintaining and establishing such schools; by approving the aid this society had already extended to these schools; and by directing the pastors when taking collections for the Freedmen’s Aid Society to ‘state plainly that the educational work of the society is among both white and colored people.’ There can, therefore, be no doubt that it was the intention to continue separate schools in connection with the Freedmen’s Aid Society; yet, in the judgment of this board of managers, it is in harmony with the prevailing sentiment of the last General Conference to interpret its action as being designed to forbid the exclusion of any student ‘from instruction in any and every school under the supervision of the Church because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude;’ and we hereby declare that no pupil should be excluded on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, from instruction in the schools under the control of this Freedmen’s Aid Society or aided by its funds, under the authority of the last General Conference. “In the above interpretation of the action of the last General Conference touching this general principle of equality, it is the judgment of this board that it was not the expectation of the General Conference that any advantage would be taken of its deliverance on this subject by persons or parties interested in embarrassing the work of our Church, or of this society; and, therefore, we trust that the parties directly interested in its practical application will so act as to promote good-will and insure the usefulness of all the schools under the care of this society. We also call attention to, and emphasize, the following action of the last General Conference, viz.: “‘The establishment of schools for the benefit of our white membership in the South we believe to have been a wise and necessary measure. Their success has been gratifying. The beneficial results have not been confined to those immediately interested, but their liberalizing effects upon public sentiment have greatly redounded to the advantage of our colored people. We regret that for so great and important a work so little has been done by the Church, and we desire most emphatically to give expression to our conviction that the time has come when this portion of our educational work should be strengthened and placed upon a strong and permanent basis, as its importance certainly demands.’