Part 27 (2/2)

[Footnote 1: Randall, _Hist of Common School System of New York_, p

249]

In New York City h the schools of the Manu population of color necessitated additional facilities, the Manumission Society obtained from the fund of the Public School Society partial support of its system The next step was to unite the African Free Schools with those of the Public School Society to reduce the nuro education Despite the argument of some that the two systems should be kept separate, the property and schools of the Manumission Society were transferred to the New York Public School Society in 1834[2]

Thereafter the schools did not do as well as they had done before The administrative part of the work almost ceased, the schools lost in efficiency, and the foration roes, intimidated by frequent race riots incident to the reactionary movement, had left the city, while others kept their children at home for safety It seemed, too, that they looked upon the new system as an innovation, did not like the action of the Public School Society in reducing their schools of advanced grade to that of the pririevously that so many of the old teachers in who order out of chaos the investigating committee advised the assimilation of the separate schools to the white

Thereupon the society undertook to re them into a systerammar departments The task of reconstruction, however, was not completed until 1853, when the property of the colored schools was transferred to the Board of Education of New York[2]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the US Com of Ed_, 1871, p 366]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the US Com of Ed_, 1871, p 366]

The second transfer ro education in New York The Board of Education proceeded iun at the tie The new directors reclassified the lower grades, opened other gra to the reco coid thereafter, the schools ress, but failed to accomplish as expected of them They were carelessly intrusted for supervision to the care of ward officers, soave the work no attention whatever

It was unfortunate, too, that some of these schools were situated in parts of the city where the people were not interested in the uplift of the despised race, and in a few cases in wards which were almost proslavery Better results followed after the colored schools were brought under the direct supervision of the Board of Education

Before the close of the Civil War the sentied sufficiently to perular public schools in several coeneral It was, therefore, provided in the revised code of that State in 1864 that the board of education of any city or incorporated village ht establish separate schools for children and youth of African descent provided such schools be supported in the same e of caste in the public schools of New York was not exterminated until 1900, in the administration of Theodore Roosevelt as Governor of New York The legislature then passed an act providing that no one should be denied admittance to any public school on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude[1]

[Footnote 1: _Laws of New York_, 1900, ch 492]

In Rhode Island, where the black population was proportionately larger than in soland States, special schools for persons of color continued These efforts met with success at Newport In the year 1828 a separate school for colored children was established at Providence and placed in charge of a teacher receiving a salary of 400 per annum[1] A decade later another such school was opened on Pond Street in the same city About this time the school law of Rhode Island was modified so as to make it a little more favorable to the people of color The State temporarily adopted a rule by which the school fund was thereafter not distributed, as fore of sixteen It was to be apportioned, thereafter, according to the nuether with five-fourteenths of the said [colored] population between the ages of ten and twenty-four years” This law remained in force between the years 1832 and 1845

Under the new systeress In 1841 they were no longer giving the , but corades[2]

[Footnote 1: Stockwell, _Hist of Education in RI_, p 169]

[Footnote 2: Stockwell, _Hist of Education in RI_, p 51]

Thereafter Rhode Island had to pass through the intense antislavery struggle which had for its ultiro and the democratization of the public schools Petitions were sent to the legislature, and appeals werefor a repeal of those lahich peration of the colored children in the public schools But intense as this agitation becaently as it was put before the public, it failed to gain sufficient islature of Rhode Island passed an act abolishi+ng separate schools for Negroes[1]

[Footnote 1: _Public Laws of the State of Rhode Island_, 1865-66, p

49]

Prior to the reactionary movement the schools of Connecticut were, like land at that time, open alike to black and white It seems, too, that colored children ell received and instructed as thoroughly as their white friends But in 1830, whether on account of the increasing race prejudice or the desire to do for themselves, the colored people of Hartford presented to the School Society of that city a petition that a separate school for persons of color be established with a part of the public school fund whichto their nu this request reasonable, the School Society decided to take the necessary steps to co at law the islature of the State, which authorized the establishment in that commonwealth of several separate schools for persons of color[1] This arrangement, however, soon proved unsatisfactory Because of the sroes in Connecticut towns, they found their pro rata inadequate to the s were provided for them, such schools as they had were not properly supervised, the teachers were poorly paid, and with the exception of a little help from a few philanthropists, the white citizens failed to aid the cause In 1846, therefore, the pastor of the colored Congregational Church sent to the School Society of Hartford aattention to the fact that for lack of means the colored schools had been unable to secure suitable quarters and competent teachers Consequently the education of their children had been exceedingly irregular, deficient, and onerous The School Society had done nothing for these institutions but to turn over to theentlemen then decided to raise by taxation an amount adequate to the support of two better equipped schools and proceeded at once to provide for its collection and expenditure[2]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the US Com of Ed_, 1871, p 334]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the US Coeneral satisfaction for a while But as it was a ti done to develop the public schools of New England, the colored people of Hartford could not remain contented

They saw the white pupils housed in coraded classes, while their own children continued to be crowded into sht as unclassified students The Negroes, therefore, petitioned for a anization of their schools As this request ca hard to exterland, the School Co of the memorialists to decide whether they desired to send their children to the white or separate schools[1]

They decided in favor of the latter, provided that the colored people should have a building adequate to their needs and instruction of the best kind[2] Co with this decision the School Society erected thein 1852 To provide for the maintenance of the separate schools the property of the citizens was taxed at such a rate as to secure to the colored pupils of the city benefits similar to those enjoyed by the white pupils[3]

[Footnote 1: _Minority Report_, etc, p 21]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_, p 22]

[Footnote 3: _Special Report of the US Com of Ed_, 1871, p 334]