[2] Complying with this decision the School Society erected
the much-needed building in 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 U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, p. 334.]
Ardent antislavery men believed that this segregation in the schools
was undemocratic. They asserted that the colored people would never
have made such a request had the teachers of the public schools taken
the proper interest in them. The Negroes, too, had long since been
convinced that the white people would not maintain separate schools
with the same equipment which they gave their own. This arrangement,
however, continued until 1868. The legislature then passed an act
declaring that the schools of the State should be open to all persons
alike between the ages of four and sixteen, and that no person should
be denied instruction in any public school in his school district on
account of race or color.
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