[Footnote 2: Thorpe, _Federal and State Constitutions_, vol. vi., p.
3762.]

[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.]