“We desire and pray for the success of all our schools in the South that are under the fostering care of the Freedmen’s Aid Society, but not at the loss of the manhood and self-respect of our race. Having been long satisfied that this question would come up for solution and settlement, and now that it is before the Church, we are heartily in favor of the Church going steadily and faithfully forward in the path pointed out for it by the Master, regardless of prejudice, local or otherwise. Compromise will only delay the day of settlement, and gain not a single point for God or humanity. “Objections are made to the mixing of white and Negro pupils in the same Church schools, and it is said that there are as good schools for Negroes as the society provides for whites. Various other reasons are given favoring this view of the question. For us to admit that these objections to the children of Negroes attending the Church schools with whites are of sufficient force to lead us to be governed by them, is to admit our own inferiority, and the necessity of such a separation from our white brethren as to end in the putting out of the Church of every Negro member in it. If we admit discrimination as being proper here, we ask, where will it end? Whatever may be the opinion of others upon the subject, as to its expediency, etc., we can have but one opinion, and that is, that we are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, yield to none in devotion and loyalty to that Church, and can not admit that it is injudicious or impolitic to send our sons and daughters to any of the schools of the Church. “Christianity is colorless, and Christianity demands of the Church that it shall not recognize the exclusion of any of its members from any of its communities or schools by reason of rank in society or of race characteristics, especially when this exclusion carries with it a mark of degradation. The General Conference has given this principle expression. “We do not believe it well for this conference to remain silent upon this subject, when its silence may be construed into an indorsement of the unholy sentiment that it is proper to bow before this baseless prejudice, which is a relic of slavery. We believe this question will be settled, as all other questions have been settled which tended to elevate the Negro, and we believe the Church will firmly adhere to Christian principles, and lay aside everything that has the appearance of mere policy.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XIV WHAT WILL THE HARVEST BE?