stablished before those
of Missouri, the greater illiteracy of their population in 1870 and
1880 show that these schools were not as efficient as those in
Missouri.

THE CRITICAL PERIOD, 1875 TO 1885

The year 1875 marked an epoch in Negro education in Missouri. That
year a new State constitution was adopted. This meant the beginning of
a critical period in the school history of the State. In order to
understand the educational trend of this period it is necessary to
consider the political history of this and the preceding period.
During the Civil War the State had been almost equally divided between
the Union and the Confederate sympathizers; but the Union forces held
control of the government. At the close of the war and while the
feeling between the two factions was still very bitter, there were
enacted very harsh laws[78] by which those who had sided with the
South were not only disfranchised, but were also deprived of the right
to practice law, to preach, or to teach. As the intense bitterness of
the war died out there was strong agitation to restore the right of
suffrage to the disfranchised citizens. In 1870[79] the Liberal
Republicans gained control of the State with the result that there was
passed the next year a law removing the restriction placed upon the
southern element. In 1872 the Liberal Republicans and the Democrats
united to defeat the Radical Republicans, and at the next election
which took place in 1874 the Democratic Party came into full power.

One of the first acts of the new administration was to call a
constitutional convention which drew up a new State constitution which
was ratified by the people in 1875. With the return to power of a
party[80] which strongly favored local self-government, and which was
supported to a great extent by those who but a few years before had
been reported to have been opposed to the extension of their public
school rights, it is not surprising that the progress of the public
school system was for a time checked. In many districts the people had
accepted the public schools but they had not become thoroughly
reconciled to the system.

In 1870 the local district school boards[81] were subordinate to the
township boards of education. The clerk of the township board was both
treasurer and recording secretary of all the school districts within
his township. He was responsible to the county school superintendent
and he made statistical reports to him as well as to