Page:Race distinctions in American Law (IA racedistinctions00stepiala).pdf/198

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

a Negro, upon being refused admission to the white schools, brought suit,[88] and it was held that, as the law stood, colored children had equal rights with white children to admission to any public school, even though separate schools were maintained. The court said: "The whole policy of the legislative department of the government upon this matter is easily gathered from the course of legislation shown therein; and there can be no doubt but that it was never intended that, as a matter of classification of pupils, the right to establish separate schools for children of African descent, and thereby to exclude them from white schools . . . should be given to such boards [of education]." It was earlier, in 1872, that the provision for separate schools for Mongolians was made. The law of California seems now to be that Negro children may attend the same schools as whites, but Japanese, Chinese, and Korean children must go to separate schools if the board of education sees fit to provide them.

The legislature of Delaware,[89] in 1881, appropriated two thousand four hundred dollars annually for the education of colored children. In 1889 three colored schools[90] were incorporated and placed in control of boards of trustees elected by the voters of the district. These incorporated schools[91] as such were abolished in 1893, and after that they were placed under the supervision of the regular county superintendent just as the other public schools. The same State,[92] in 1898, provided for the establishment of separate kindergartens. Thus, Delaware is as strict as the Southern States in requiring separate schools for the races.

Although the Illinois statutes[93] clearly state that any