Chapter XI: Appendix: Southern Taxation and Education

As small as may appear to be the amount expended by the South on public education, those who have not known conditions there can have little idea as to the strain upon her resources which this amount has caused. In “The Present South,” pp. 42, 43 _et seq._, Edgar Gardner Murphy says:

“The figures of our national census show that from 1860 to 1870 there was a fall of $2,100,000,000 in the assessed value of Southern property and that the period of Reconstruction added, in the years from 1870 to 1880, another $67,000,000 to the loss.

“In 1860 the assessed value of property in Massachusetts was $777,000,000, as contrasted with $5,200,000,000 for the whole South.

“But at the close of the war period Massachusetts had, in 1870, $1,590,000,000 in taxable property, as contrasted with but $3,000,000,000 for the whole South.

“It is interesting to note that in 1890 there was ‘expended for public schools on each $100 of true valuation of all real and personal property’ 22.3 cents in Arkansas and 24.4 cents in Mississippi, as compared with 20.5 cents in New York and 20.9 in Pennsylvania. See Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1902, Vol. I. p. xci.”

ILLITERACY IN THE SOUTH.

The following is taken from Publication 8, Twelfth United States Census:

“The illiteracy of the native white population of the Southern States ranges from 8.6 per cent. in Florida, 8 per cent. in Mississippi, and 6.1 per cent. in Texas, to 17.3 per cent. in Louisiana, and 19.5 per cent. in North Carolina, as contrasted with 0.8 per cent. in Nebraska, 1.3 per cent. in Kansas, 2.1 per cent. in Illinois, 1.2 per cent. in New York, and 0.8 per cent. in Massachusetts. A far juster comparison, however, is that which indicates the contrast, not between the South and the rest of the country in 1900, but between the South of 1880 and the South of to-day.’

TABLE SHOWING THE RANK OF EACH STATE IN PERCENTAGE OF ILLITERACY OF THE NATIVE WHITE POPULATION TEN YEARS OF AGE AND OVER:

1900.

1 Washington 0.5
2 South Dakota 0.6
3 Montana 0.6
4 Nevada 0.6
5 Wyoming 0.7
6 Massachusetts 0.8
7 Minnesota 0.8
8 Nebraska 0.8
9 Connecticut 0.8
10 Oregon 0.8
11 Utah 0.8
12 Dist. of Columbia 0.8
13 North Dakota 0.9
14 Idaho 0.9
15 California 1.0
16 New York 1.2
17 Iowa 1.2
18 Wisconsin 1.3
19 Kansas 1.3
20 New Hampshire 1.5
21 Michigan 1.7
22 New Jersey 1.7
23 Rhode Island 1.8
24 Illinois 2.1
25 Pennsylvania 2.3
26 Ohio 2.4
27 Maine 2.4
28 Oklahoma 2.5
29 Colorado 2.7
30 Vermont 2.9
31 Indiana 3.6
32 Maryland 4.1
33 Missouri 4.8
34 Delaware 5.6
35 Texas 6.1
36 Arizona 6.2
37 Mississippi 8.0
38 Florida 8.6
39 West Virginia 10.0
40 Virginia 11.1
41 Arkansas 11.6
42 Georgia 11.9
43 Kentucky 12.8
44 South Carolina 13.6
45 Indian Territory 14.0
46 Tennessee 14.2
47 Alabama 14.8
48 Louisiana 17.3
49 North Carolina 19.5
50 New Mexico 29.4

POPULATION AT LEAST TEN YEARS OF AGE AND NUMBER AND PER CENT. ILLITERATE FOR THE NEGRO AND WHITE RACES: 1900 AND 1890.

———————————————————+—————————————————————————————————————————————————————
| POPULATION AT LEAST TEN YEARS OF AGE.
+——————————+——————————+———————————————————+———————————
RACE. | | | Number Illiterate.| Per Cent.
| | | |Illiterate.
| 1900 | 1890 +—————————+—————————+—————+—————
| | | 1900 | 1890 |1900 |1890
———————————————————+——————————+——————————+—————————+—————————+—————+—————
Continental U. S.: | | | | | |
Negro population. | 6,415,581| 5,328,972|2,853,194|3,042,668| 44.5| 57.1
White population. |51,250,918|41,931,074|3,200,746|3,212,574| 6.2| 7.7
———————————————————+——————————+——————————+—————————+—————————+—————+—————
South Atlantic and | | | | | |
South Central | | | | | |
divisions: | | | | | |
Negro population.| 5,664,975| 4,751,763|2,717,606|2,883,216| 48.0| 60.7
White population.|12,020,539| 9,456,368|1,401,273|1,412,983| 11.7| 14.9
———————————————————+——————————+——————————+—————————+—————————+—————+—————

“There are 352 counties in the United States in which one-half the Negro population at least 10 years of age was illiterate in 1900. With the exception of New Madrid County, Mo., all these counties are in the South.

“If the educational facilities of the country should remain up to their present standards, but not improve, and should impart the elements of education to as large a proportion of the rising generation as they have done to those between 10 and 14 years in 1900, then, at the end of the generation, illiteracy among the Negroes in the country will have sunk from 44.5 to 30.1 per cent.; that is, nearly one-third of it will have disappeared. At the same time, illiteracy among the whites in the country will have sunk, immigration aside, from 6.2 to 3.5 per cent.; that is, about three-sevenths of the illiteracy among the whites will have disappeared.

“At the present time, nearly one-half of the Negroes in the Southern States are unable to write, but if educational facilities for that race remain about as they are at present for another generation, and be availed of to the same extent, the proportion would sink to one-third. The illiteracy of the Negro at the present time is about four times that of the white in both the North and the South; in the North a little less, in the South a little more.”

COST OF VIRGINIA PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

Total amount of State and Local Taxes
expended in Virginia on Public Schools
from 1870-71 to 1890-91—20 years $22,759,249.38
Amount received from Peabody Fund 296,134.00
Private contributions 324,926.59
——————————————
Total $23,380,309.97
==============
Cost of Negro education in Public Schools,
including total Current Expenses $4,792,290.06
Amounts appropriated by the State to
Hampton and Virginia Normal Institutes 471,708.72
Cost of permanent improvements, sites,
buildings, etc., for Colored Schools 588,223.05
—————————————
Total cost of Colored Public Schools and
Normal Institutes for 20 years $5,852,222.57
Total cost of White Schools for same period 17,528,087.60
——————————————
Total of all Public Schools same period $23,380,310.17
==============

Percentage of whole fund expended on White Schools $75.00
Percentage of whole fund expended on Colored
Schools 25.00
——————
$100.00

Actual statistics for 1891 show the following facts:

Total taxes. Per cent. of whole.
White $1,769,576.06 91.7
Colored 163,175.67 8.3
————————————— —————
Total $1,959,751.73 100.0

The U. S. Census for 1890 shows the population of Virginia to be as follows:

White 1,015,123 = 61.3%
Colored 640,857 = 38.7%
————————— ——————
Total 1,655,980 = 100.0%

Thus showing that while the Negroes comprise nearly four-tenths of the population, they furnish less than one-tenth of the amount expended on public schools.

The number of Public Schools for the year 1898-90 was

White 5,358
Colored 2,153
—————
7,511

The total cost of Public Schools for the year
1889-90 was $1,604,508.80

The cost of Negro Schools for the same year
was about 420,000.00

Now, if we use the percentages on preceding pages and allow all the taxes paid by Negroes (on both personal and real property) to go into the School Fund, we will see that there was a deficit of $256,824.33 to be made up from the taxes paid by white people, or, in other words, the total amount of taxes on personal and real property paid by the Negroes will cover less than half the expense of their schools alone.

By THOMAS NELSON PAGE

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Transcriber’s Notes

pg ix Changed: due consideration of every other question whatsover.
to: due consideration of every other question whatsoever.

pg 115 Changed: barbarism shown by the prevalance
to: barbarism shown by the prevalence

pg 218 Changed: any other relation, believes this implicity
to: any other relation, believes this implicitly

pg 237 Changed: that this war it not waged
to: that this war is not waged

pg 299 Changed: hte enterprising will go off
to: the enterprising will go off