As has been pointed out before, the emancipators[87] of the Negro, in attempting to provide equal school rights for the Negro child, made more stringent laws for the enforcement of his school rights than were made for the enforcement of the school rights of the white child. The State Superintendent was empowered to enter districts which did not provide schools for Negro children according to the law, and to establish schools for these children, and to levy taxes for the maintenance of the schools. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that the State Superintendent was called upon a number of times in this period to exercise his power.
This official reported[88] in 1878 that the law in relation to the public schools for Negro children had been repeatedly evaded and violated during the two preceding years, and that a wicked and malicious advantage was being taken of the ignorance and the weakness of the Negro to shield the law-breaker who was using the money appropriated by the law for the education of the Negro youth. The method of evasion was fully described. In the first place, there was a failure to enumerate a sufficient number of Negroes of school age before the convening of the annual school meeting. After the meeting, when the directors were appealed to, they required the production of evidence that there was a sufficient number and then required time to look into the evidence which took a month or more. They would then inform the Negroes that it was too late to do anything that year, that they should have attended to the matter before the annual school meeting and that they must attend to it in time the following year. In many cases while the money due the Negroes was being used for other purposes, they were promised schools for the next year which the directors did not intend to give them. Sometimes the directors promised well and were then unable to find teachers or they disagreed with the Negroes concerning the site of the school. The year would thus elapse and a new board knowing nothing of the promises of the old board would be elected. The same course would then be followed sometimes with a little variation to suit the emergency. Finally the case would be brought to the State Superintendent and after an annoying and repeated correspondence to collect the facts in the case and to explain the law, the officers were induced to comply with the law by threats of its execution. In counties at a distance from the capital this threat was frequently of no avail because the Negroes were either induced to drop the matter by promises of future fulfillment, were unwilling to proceed to law, or lacked intelligent leadership.
The next year the State Superintendent complained that the demand upon this functionary to establish Negro schools in districts which neglected to fulfill the law required an undue amount of his time. The legislature which met that year, therefore, removed from the State Superintendent the responsibility of enforcing this law. But it provided[89] that any school district which neglected to establish a Negro school or schools according to the law should be deprived of any portion of the State school funds for that year. This was a severe punishment in a State having as large a school fund as Missouri has.[90]
By the year 1885 the public school system of Missouri was on a firm basis. The right of every child in the State to the benefits of a free public school education had been established. The Negro public schools were prosperous. The Negro school population[91] had increased to 44,215 and the percentage of the enumerated actually enrolled in the public schools had increased from forty-two per cent in 1877 to sixty-three per cent in 1885.
The Period of Growth, 1885 to 1915
A few minor changes have been made in the State statutory law since 1885. Prior to 1889 not only the district but the whole township in which a Negro school was located, was taxed for the support of this school. In 1889 the law[92] was so revised as to throw the entire burden of support upon the district in which the school is located. In the same year, the statute which gave Negro adults the right to attend the public schools was abrogated.
The last revision of the law relating to Negro public schools was made in 1909. By the present law[93] the boards of directors in districts having fifteen or more Negro children of school age are required to establish and maintain schools for these children which shall have the same length of term and shall enjoy the same privileges as are enjoyed by the white schools of the same grade in the district. The indebtedness incurred by the board of directors in providing suitable buildings, hiring teachers, and maintaining the school shall be paid out of the appropriate funds of the district. If the average daily attendance for any month falls below eight, the school can be closed for a period not to exceed six months. If there are adjoining districts in either or both of which there are less than twenty-five Negro children of school age, a joint Negro school may be established in either of the districts. The expense of maintaining the school is borne by the districts which established it in proportion to the number of Negro children enumerated in each. The control of the school is vested in the board of directors of the district in which the school is located.
When the number of Negro children residing in a district is less than fifteen as shown by the last enumeration, these children have the right of attending any school for Negro children in the county for the same length of time as school is maintained in their own district. Their tuition is paid by the district in which they reside. When the directors of a district neglect to establish a Negro school according to the law, the district is deprived of any part of the State school funds for that year.
From 1885 to 1890 the Negro schools of Missouri steadily grew. In 1890, 70.8 per cent of the school population[94] was enrolled in the schools. This marked the high water mark in the per cent of enrollment. From this date to 1900 the per cent of the school population enrolled in the public school decreased. In 1899 only 55.05 per cent of the school population was enrolled in the public schools. The school population, however, increased from 44,214 in 1885 to 54,600 in 1899. In 1900 there were 472 Negro schools with 769 school rooms with 804 Negro teachers employed. The Negroes[95] of the State received about $475,000 as their share of the State school fund, between a third and a half of the money appropriated for the support of their schools coming from the white tax payers. As the result of this good school system, Missouri stood last among the sixteen ex-slave States in illiteracy in 1890.
Since 1900 the rural Negro population has been decreasing and city population has been steadily increasing. Lured by the prospect of better wages, shorter hours, and better educational advantages for his family, the rural Negro has migrated just as his white brother[96] has to the large cities. The Negro population of the small towns is also decreasing. The populations of Kansas City and of St. Louis are being swelled by the Negro from the farm and from the small town. The problem of Negro education, therefore, is largely a city problem. In 1910 the Negro school population was 42,764. Of this population 33,465[97] dwelt in cities and only 9,299 dwelt in the rural districts. The enrollment showed that of the 29,562 pupils who were attending school, 21,694 were enrolled in the city schools and only 7,868 in the rural schools.