The Ellsberg Bill Signed (text)
Governor Approves Measure That Abolishes the Color Line in Schools of This State.
End of a Long Legal Contest.
Separate Schools in Jamaica, Flushing and Hempstead Affected—History of the Case.
(Special to the Eagle.)
Jamaica, L.I., April 20—The signing of the Ellsberg bill by Governor Roosevelt, removing all distinction of color in admission to public schools of the state of New York, was received yesterday by the negro people of Jamaica with many expressions of satisfaction. There is some grumbling on the part of many of the whites. One member of the Queens Borough School Board expressed himself in indignant terms to an Eagle reporter concerning the new law which had been passed after the city had gone to such an expense to provide a separate “colored school.” There are separate schools for negroes in Jamaica, Flushing and Hempstead, all of which will hereafter be opened and maintained as common schools for all children.
Since the passage of the bill through the Legislature, ex-Assemblyman George Wallace, who is the father of the measure, has received congratulations from persons in all parts of the state.
The enactment of this law has grown out of the school troubles at Jamaica. Samuel B. Cisco, a colored man was arrested in 1896 and taken before Justice Wood on a charge of not sending his children to school. Cisco employed counselor George Wallace to defend him, and for his defense proved that he did send the children to the school nearest to his residence and send them to the Central School where the principal assigned them to the separate colored school. Cisco claimed that color distinctions did not now exist and that his children were entitled to attend the common school. He demanded a jury trial and the jury rendered a verdict of not guilty.
Cisco was again arrested charged with the same offense and had the case removed to the County Court. He was indicted by the Grand Jury and tried before County Judge Garretson and a jury. He again secured a verdict of acquittal.
Not withstanding the results of these trials the School Board of Jamaica refused to receive the negro children in the common schools, claiming that as the law allowed them to establish colored schools, it also allowed them to exclude the negro children from white schools. Soon after this Cisco died and in 1898 the New York charter went into operation. Mrs. Cisco refused to send her children to the colored school and sent one away to Brooklyn and another to New Jersey to be educated, where they attended school and company with white children; she had one child remaining home of school age. Although she was arrested for not sending this child to school, the authorities failed to bring the case to trial. Her counsel then applied to the Supreme Court for a peremptory wit of mandamus to compel the board to admit her children to the common schools without regard to color. Justice Wilmot M. Smith denied the motion. The appellate division and court of appeals sustained Justice Smith in a long opinion.
Mr. Wallace then prepared a bill amending the school law so that negro children in New York City could not be excluded from any of the com common schools. This did not satisfy Governor Roosevelt, who learned of the introduction of the bill and insisted that Senator Elsberg, who had introduced it, should have the bill amended to apply to the whole state. He said that he did not want the laws of this state any longer to tolerate race or color distinctions, and that his own child sat in school with a negro child. The bill was so amended and had the support of the Republican leaders. It passed both Houses in the closing days of the session and on Thursday was signed by the Governor.
Ex-Assemblyman, George Wallace, who has made the long fight for the colored people, at his office in Jamaica said this morning:
“I am well satisfied with the result. The passage of this act is a good thing for the colored children of the state. Experience has shown that they do not make as good progress in separate colored schools as when attending one of the common schools. In the latter, they have competition with the children of other races, which arouses their ambition, quickens their perceptions, and is a great aid to their progress. The change is also a good thing for the white children who must in future compete with the colored children, will strive harder to maintain the supremacy which has so long been claimed for them. A white boy will not enjoy seeing a colored boy ahead of him in the class and will work harder than ever to hold on. On the whole, the passage of this act will be beneficial to all the children.”