718                CHURCH REVIEW





                        IV
       EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS IN PHILADEL-
                 PHIA.--Continued.

                THERE are quite a number of mat-
                  ters that I should like to mention
                  here, in this, the second and conclud-
                  ing paper on this subject, but I must
                  pass on to the school attendance of
                  Philadelphia.
                    Up to within a year school attend-
                  ance has practically been wholly
voluntary. But now we have in force the compulsory
attendance law which will in time, that is, as soon as
adequate school room can be provided, exact that all
children between 8 and 13 years of age must go to
school, and further, that unless at work, those between
13 and 16 years of age must likewise attend school. So
that there will very soon be no choice left to us about
sending to school all our children within the ages and
under the conditions named.
  I wish, however, to speak of our voluntary action in
the matter, both because I think we ought to know
something about it and because also I think it altogeth-
er creditable to us and a justification as far as we are
concerned of the principle upon which the law rests.
By the census of 1890, which is, of course, the latest
that we have, the entire population of this city was
1,046,964, of whom 39,374 were colored, or in other
words we were a little less than 4 per cent, or more
nearly, 3 3/4 per cent of the whole.  The census' school
data, are scarcely full enough to form the basis of an




			

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 15, Num. 3

Education and Schools in Philadelphia

D.

Volume:  15
Issue Number:  03
Page Number:  718
Date:  01/1899