[Footnote 3:  Ibid., vol. iv., p. 2471.]

The problem of educating the Negroes at public expense was perplexing also to the minds of the people of the West.  The question became more and more important in Ohio as the black population in that commonwealth increased.  The law of 1825 provided that moneys raised from taxation of half a mill on the dollar should be appropriated to the support of common schools in the respective counties and that these schools should be “open to the youth of every class and grade without distinction."[1] Some interpreted this law to include Negroes.  To overcome the objection to the partiality shown by school officials the State passed another law in 1829.  It excluded colored people from the benefits of the new system, and returned them the amount accruing from the school tax on their property.[2] Thereafter benevolent societies and private associations maintained colored schools in Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, and the southern counties of Ohio.[3] But no help came from the cities and the State before 1849 when the legislature passed a law authorizing the establishment of schools for children of color at public expense.[4]

[Footnote 1:  Laws of Ohio, vol. xxiii., pp. 37 et seq.]

[Footnote 2:  Hickok, The Negro in Ohio, p. 85.]

[Footnote 3:  Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 374.]

[Footnote 4:  Laws of Ohio, vol. liii., pp. 117-118.]

The Negroes of Cincinnati soon discovered that they had not won a great victory.  They proceeded at once to elect trustees, organized a system, and employed teachers, relying on the money allotted them by the law on the basis of a per capita division of the school fund received by the Board of Education of Cincinnati.  So great was the prejudice that the school officials refused to turn over the required funds on the grounds that the colored trustees were not electors, and therefore could not be office holders qualified to receive and disburse public funds.[1] Under the leadership of John I. Gaines the trustees called indignation meetings, and raised sufficient money to employ Flamen Ball, an attorney, to secure a writ of mandamus.  The case was contested by the city officials even in the Supreme Court of the State which decided against the officious whites.[2]

[Footnote 1:  Special Report of the U.S.  Com. of Ed., 1871, pp. 371, 372.]

[Footnote 2:  Ibid., 1871, p. 372.]

Unfortunately it turned out that this decision did not mean very much to the Negroes.  There were not many of them in certain settlements and the per capita division of the fund did not secure to them sufficient means to support schools.  Even if the funds had been adequate to pay teachers, they had no schoolhouses.  Lawyers of that day contended that the Act of 1849 had nothing to do with the construction of buildings.  After a short period of accomplishing practically nothing material, the law was amended so as to transfer the control of such colored schools to the managers of the white system.[1] This was taken as a reflection on the standing of the blacks of the city and tended to make them refuse to cooeperate with the white board.  On account of the failure of this body to act effectively prior to 1856, the people of color were again given power to elect their own trustees.[2]