the county
clerks. The county school superintendents and the county clerks were
in turn responsible to the State Superintendent of Schools. In 1874
the legislature[82] so changed the old statutes as to do away with
county and township supervision. The office of county superintendent
was abolished and each district became independent. Even the district
board was deprived of some of its power and the right which it had to
extend the school term and to levy money for new buildings was vested
in the voters of the district. The new State constitution sanctioned
tendency toward decentralization by providing[83] that the right of
the people to local self-government should not be impaired.

Although the old constitution was very objectionable to a large number
of the citizens of the State, nevertheless, it contained some good
school legislation and fortunately much of this was embodied in the
new constitution. The Constitution of 1865 had provided[84] that
"separate schools may be established for children of African descent."
The new constitution provided that "separate free public schools shall
be established for the education of children of African descent." The
legal school age provided by the old constitution was from five to
twenty-one but the legal school age provided by the new constitution
was from six to twenty.

The decentralization of the public school system caused many abuses to
spring up. Statistics became harder and harder to collect, and school
practice less and less uniform in the different parts of the State.
The school law was disregarded to such an extent as to cause a
decrease in the school enumeration and enrollment in spite of the fact
that the population was steadily increasing. In 1875 the
enumeration[85] showed 720,186 children of school age, 394,780 of whom
were enrolled in the public schools. In 1877 the enumeration had
shrunk to 553,278 and the enrollment to 364,189. From this time on
there was a steady growth until 1880 when the enumeration surpassed
that of 1875.

The Negro public schools of the State also suffered a decline[86] in
this period. In 1875 there was a Negro school population of 41,916 and
an enrollment of 14,832. In 1877 the reported enumeration was 32,411
and the enrollment was 14,505. The enumeration did not equal that of
1875 until 1885, but the enrollment of 1878 surpassed that of 1875 by
6,376. The enrollment of 1877 was only 328 smaller than the enrollment
of 1875. Thus, it