The Gary American

The New Roosevelt School

The dedication of Gary's new million dollar school,
the Roosevelt high school, is an epoch in the history
of Negroes in this state. In every detail the new
building is the equal of any school building or educational
center supported by public taxation in this section of the
nation.

This newspaper has never approved of the separate
public school for Negroes. It has always believed that
Negroes and whites should receive their training in the
same classrooms, that, step by step, they should be prepared
for citizenship together and not separately.

It has always argued that the education of Negro boys
and girls cannot be considered a trivial matter, that training
of Negro youth should not be half done just to give
Negro teachers a few jobs. The Gary American still believes
that the only way to remove the inferiority complex
from the minds of Negroes is to give them training in the
same class rooms with the whites, and if Negro teachers
want to get work teaching school they should get their
jobs teaching both whites and blacks.

But if separate schools have to be established, they
should be the equal of white schools in matters of equipment
and efficiency of its teaching staff. In this regard,
the new Roosevelt high school comes up to the requirements.