would appear that while there was a failure in some
districts to enumerate their children of color, that in those
districts in which they were enumerated an increasing percentage of
the children of color attended the public schools.

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