Part 28 (2/2)

[Footnote 1: _Acts and Resolves of the General Court of Mass_, 1855, ch 256]

In other towns of New England, where the black population was considerable, separate schools were established There was one even in Portland, Maine[1] Efforts in this direction were made in Vermont and New Hampshi+re, but because of the scarcity of the colored people these States did not have to resort to such segregation The Constitution of Verroes the benefits of the Bill of Rights,all arded aswhich was that of education at the expense of the State[2] The framers of the Constitution of New Haht to the dark race[3] But when the principal of an acaderoes to his private institution, a mob, as we have observed above, broke up the institution byto a swamp, while the officials of the town offered no resistance Such a spirit as this accounts for the rise of separate schools in places where the free blacks had the right to attend any institution of learning supported by the State

[Footnote 1: Adams, _Anti-slavery_, etc, p 142]

[Footnote 2: Thorpe, _Federal and State Constitutions_, vol vi, p

3762]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_, vol iv, p 2471]

The proble also to the minds of the people of the West The question became more and more important in Ohio as the black population in that commonwealth increased The law of 1825 provided that moneys raised from taxation of half a mill on the dollar should be appropriated to the support of common schools in the respective counties and that these schools should be ”open to the youth of every class and grade without distinction”[1] Soroes

To overcome the objection to the partiality shown by school officials the State passed another law in 1829 It excluded colored people from the benefits of the new syste from the school tax on their property[2] Thereafter benevolent societies and private associations maintained colored schools in Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, and the southern counties of Ohio[3]

But no help caislature passed a law authorizing the establishment of schools for children of color at public expense[4]

[Footnote 1: _Laws of Ohio_, vol xxiii, pp 37 _et seq_]

[Footnote 2: Hickok, _The Negro in Ohio_, p 85]

[Footnote 3: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p 374]

[Footnote 4: _Laws of Ohio_, vol liii, pp 117-118]

The Negroes of Cincinnati soon discovered that they had not won a great victory They proceeded at once to elect trustees, organized a syste on the money allotted them by the law on the basis of a per capita division of the school fund received by the Board of Education of Cincinnati So great was the prejudice that the school officials refused to turn over the required funds on the grounds that the colored trustees were not electors, and therefore could not be office holders qualified to receive and disburse public funds[1] Under the leadershi+p of John I Gaines the trustees called indignation s, and raised sufficient money to employ Flamen Ball, an attorney, to secure a writ of mandamus The case was contested by the city officials even in the Supreainst the officious whites[2]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the US Com of Ed_, 1871, pp 371, 372]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_, 1871, p 372]

Unfortunately it turned out that this decision did not roes There were not many of them in certain settlements and the per capita division of the fund did not secure to them sufficient means to support schools Even if the funds had been adequate to pay teachers, they had no schoolhouses Lawyers of that day contended that the Act of 1849 had nothing to do with the construction of buildings

After a short period of acco material, the laas amended so as to transfer the control of such colored schools to the ers of the white syste of the blacks of the city and tended to make them refuse to cooperate with the white board On account of the failure of this body to act effectively prior to 1856, the people of color were again given power to elect their own trustees[2]

[Footnote 1: _Laws of the State of Ohio_, vol liii, p 118]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_, p 118]

During the contest for the control of the colored schools certain Negroes of Cincinnati were endeavoring to ht to attend any schoolupon this contention a colored patron sent his son to a public school, which on account of his presence became the center of unusual excitement[1] Miss Isabella Newhall, the teacher to whom he went, i that he be expelled on account of his race After ”due deliberation”

the Board of Education decided by a vote of fifteen to ten that he would have to withdraw fro in the district of the tined[2]

[Footnote 1: New York _Tribune_, Feb 19, 1855]

[Footnote 2: New York _Tribune_, Feb 19, 1855; and Carlier, _L'Esclavage_, etc, p 339]

Thereafter soress in the development of separate schools in Cincinnati was noted By 1855 the Board of Education of that city had established four public schools for the instruction of Negro youths