provision was made for an institution for the instruction of the blind, and an industrial home for the blind at Baton Rouge. The statute[46] relative to these concluded thus: ". . . no part of this act shall be construed so as to deprive any person on account of race or color of the privilege of admittance to the institution." A law[47] of 1875 which established an agricultural and mechanical college provided that there should be no discrimination of race or color in the admission, management, or discipline of the institution. The Constitution of 1879 did not expressly prohibit the separation of the races in schools, as that of 1868 had done, but on the other hand it did not require separation. It seems, rather, to have left the matter in the hands of the legislature. The first reference made to separate schools was in 1880, when a university was established for the education of persons of color, called the Southern University, four of the twelve trustees of which were to be Negroes.[48] Finally, the Constitution[49] of 1898 requires the general assembly to establish free public schools for the white and colored races.
A Maryland statute[50] of 1870 declared that all the taxes paid for school purposes by the colored people in any county or in the city of Baltimore, together with donations for that purpose, should be set aside for maintaining schools for colored children. The school commissioners were given power to make further appropriations as they should deem proper to assist the colored schools. A law[51] of 1872 provided that the school commissioners should establish one or more public schools in each election district for colored children, which must be kept open as long as the other public schools of the county were kept open.
