[Footnote 1:  Public Laws of the State of Rhode Island, 1865-66, p. 49.]

Prior to the reactionary movement the schools of Connecticut were, like most others in New England at that time, open alike to black and white.  It seems, too, that colored children were well received and instructed as thoroughly as their white friends.  But in 1830, whether on account of the increasing race prejudice or the desire to do for themselves, the colored people of Hartford presented to the School Society of that city a petition that a separate school for persons of color be established with a part of the public school fund which might be apportioned to them according to their number.  Finding this request reasonable, the School Society decided to take the necessary steps to comply with it.  As such an agreement would have no standing at law the matter was recommended to the legislature of the State, which authorized the establishment in that commonwealth of several separate schools for persons of color.[1] This arrangement, however, soon proved unsatisfactory.  Because of the small number of Negroes in Connecticut towns, they found their pro rata inadequate to the maintenance of separate schools.  No buildings were provided for them, such schools as they had were not properly supervised, the teachers were poorly paid, and with the exception of a little help from a few philanthropists, the white citizens failed to aid the cause.  In 1846, therefore, the pastor of the colored Congregational Church sent to the School Society of Hartford a memorial calling attention to the fact that for lack of means the colored schools had been unable to secure suitable quarters and competent teachers.  Consequently the education of their children had been exceedingly irregular, deficient, and onerous.  The School Society had done nothing for these institutions but to turn over to them every year their small share of the public fund.  These gentlemen then decided to raise by taxation an amount adequate to the support of two better equipped schools and proceeded at once to provide for its collection and expenditure.[2]

[Footnote 1:  Special Report of the U.S.  Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 334.]

[Footnote 2:  Special Report of the U.S.  Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 334.]

The results gave general satisfaction for a while.  But as it was a time when much was being done to develop the public schools of New England, the colored people of Hartford could not remain contented.  They saw the white pupils housed in comfortable buildings and attending properly graded classes, while their own children continued to be crowded into small insanitary rooms and taught as unclassified students.  The Negroes, therefore, petitioned for a more suitable building and a better organization of their schools.  As this request came at the time when the abolitionists were working hard to exterminate caste from the schools of New England, the School Committee called a meeting