Cisco on Trial in Queens
Charged with Violating the Education Law
Wanted His Son to Attend the School for White Children—The Indictment Dismissed.
(Special to the Eagle.)
Long Island City, L.I., June 30 — Samuel B. Cisco, the colored man of Jamaica who refused to send his children to the colored school and insisted upon having them attend the public school for white children, was placed on trial to-day before Judge Garretson and a jury in the Queens county court house here.
The specific complaint against Cisco is an indictment charging him with violation of the compulsory education law. The prosecution which is being conducted by District Attorney Noble, rested shortly after noon. William H. Wright, the officer who arrested Cisco, testified to the absence of Cisco’s boy, Jacob, from the colored school on May 4, 5 and 6, and the refusal of the father to send his children to the colored school.
Superintendent of Public Schools William H. Ballard followed and testified that there were two public schools in Jamaica, one for white children and the other for colored children. The school for colored children was in every respect equal to the white school for educational facilities.
The defense will go on this afternoon and it is said will endeavor to show that when Officer Wright was looking for Cisco’s child in the colored school, he had been to the white school. Cisco is liable to a penalty of $5 for the first offense if convicted.
Justice Garrettson this afternoon dismissed the indictment against Cisco on the ground that the consolidated school act gave colored children equal rights with the whites in attending the public schools. The fact that there were white schools and black schools in Jamaica, he held to be merely a social condition with which the legislature had nothin to do.