school have the same compensation and qualifications as in other like schools in the city. Schools for colored children were originally established at the request of colored citizens, whose children could not attend the public schools, on account of the prejudice then existing against them. . . .
"In 1846, George Putnam and other colored citizens of Boston petitioned the primary school committee that exclusive schools for colored children might be abolished, and the committee, on the 22d of June, 1846, adopted the report of a sub-committee, and a resolution appended thereto, which was in the following words:
"'Resolved, that in the opinion of this board, the continuance of the separate schools for colored children, and the regular attendance of all such children upon the school, is not only legal and just, but is best adapted to promote the education of that class of our population.'"
At the time of this case, there were one hundred and sixty primary schools in Boston, of which two were set apart for colored children. The facts of the case were these: A colored child applied for admission to a white school on the ground that the colored primary school was one-fifth of a mile farther from her home. The general school committee refused her admission, and the colored girl, through her father, sued the city of Boston. The Supreme Court upheld the power of the committee to provide separate schools for colored children and prohibit their attendance at other schools. The court also said: "It is urged, that this maintenance of separate schools tends to deepen and perpetuate the odious distinction of caste, founded in a deep-rooted prejudice in public opinion. This prejudice, if it exists, is not created by law, and probably
