Distinctions in law have been made on grounds other than race. Thus, in those States in which men may vote by satisfying the prescribed requirements, but in which women may not vote under any circumstances, the law creates a distinction on the basis of sex. Laws forbidding persons under seven years of age from testifying in court and laws exempting from a poll tax persons under twenty-one years of age give rise to age distinctions. Other instances might be cited, but only race distinctions have a place here.
DISTINCTIONS AND DISCRIMINATIONS CONTRASTED
It is important, at the outset, to distinguish clearly between race _distinctions_ and race _discriminations_; more so, because these words are often used synonymously, especially when the Negro is discussed. A distinction between the Caucasian and the Negro, when recognized and enforced by the law, has been interpreted as a discrimination against the latter. Negroes have recognized that they are the weaker of the two races numerically, except in the Black Belt of the South, and intellectually the less developed. Knowing that the various race distinctions have emanated almost entirely from white constitution-makers, legislators, and judges, they regard these distinctions as expressions of the aversion on the part of the Caucasian to association with the Negro. Naturally, therefore, they have resented race distinctions upon the belief and, in many instances, upon the experience that they are equivalent to race discriminations.
In fact, there is an essential difference between race distinctions and race discriminations. North Carolina, for example, has a law that white and Negro children shall not attend the same schools, but that separate schools shall be maintained. If the terms for all the public schools in the State are equal in length, if the teaching force is equal in numbers and ability, if the school buildings are equal in convenience, accommodations, and appointments, a race distinction exists but not a discrimination. Identity of accommodation is not essential to avoid the charge of discrimination. If there are in a particular school district twice as many white children as there are Negro children, the school building for the former should be twice as large as that for the latter. The course of study need not be the same. If scientific investigation and experience show that in the education of the Negro child emphasis should be placed on one course of study, and in the education of the white child, on another; it is not a discrimination to emphasize industrial training in the Negro school, if that is better suited to the needs of the Negro pupil, and classics in the white school if the latter course is more profitable to the white child. There is no discrimination so long as there is equality of opportunity, and this equality may often be attained only by a difference in methods.
