Antislavery Activism in Lowell
Document 29

OUR COLORED CITIZENS. We very much regret
to learn that the proprietor of the Chemical Paint-
ings now exhibiting at the Mechanics' Hall refu-
ses to permit our colored citizens to go in and wit-
ness the exhibition. Mr. Peter Lewis, a most
respectable and worthy colored citizen, took his
children up to go in with other school children; but
they were refused admission and were not permit-
ted to enter the Hall. We deem it the duty of the
press to protest against this sort of exclusiveness --
having its origin in a narrow-minded prejudice -- and
to stand up manfully for the rights of the colored
citizens when trampled upon in any way. The
children of Mr. Lewis have as much right to visit a
public exhibition as those of the richest and most
influential of our citizens, and his feelings as a pa-
rent are as much to be respected. The proprietor
has very much mistaken the public sentiment of
Lowell by adopting such a course; let him visit our
public schools, and he will see children of col-
ored parents sitting side by side with those of white
parents -- a living evidence of toleration and mutual
respect. … The prejudice against
colored citizens has but a faint existence here; by
their own good conduct they have lived it down,
this solitary instance.  We sympathize with Mr.
Lewis in this marked disrespect shown to his chil-
dren, and we have felt it our duty thus publicly to
notice it, and we give warning, that if, in future, a
similar attempt of proscriptive intolerance be made,
we shall speak of it in much stronger terms than
we have now spoken of this.