cannot be changed by law. Whether this distinction and prejudice, existing in the opinion and feelings of the community, would not be as effectually fostered by compelling colored and white children to associate together in the same schools, may well be doubted; at all events, it is a fair and proper question for the committee to consider and decide upon, having in view the best interests of both classes of children placed under their superintendence, and we cannot say, that their decision upon it is not founded on just grounds of reason and experience, and in the results of a discriminating and honest judgment." This line of argument is familiar to those who have studied the decisions of Southern courts upon the separation of the races in schools, in public conveyances, hotels, theatres, and other public places.
The attitude of the courts and legislatures of Indiana, Ohio, and Massachusetts, not one of which is a Southern State, toward the association of white and colored school children shows that there was ample precedent for the laws of the postbellum period. It is probable that a careful examination of the annual statutes of the other States before 1865 would reveal that separation was required in them also; that is, where any provision at all was made for the public instruction of Negroes. For instance, the law in Delaware[27] in 1852 was that the public school should be free to all white children of the district over five years old. The inference to be drawn is that colored children were excluded.
