These gentlemen 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 U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, p. 334.]
[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, p. 334.]
The results gave general satisfaction for a while. But as it was a
time when much was being 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 comfortable buildings and
attending properly graded classes, while their own children continued
to be crowded into small insanitary rooms and taught as unclassified
students. The Negroes, therefore, petitioned for a more suitable
building and a better organization of their schools. As this request
came at the time when the abolitionists were working hard to
exterminate caste from the schools of New England, the School
Committee called a meeting 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.
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