epartments. The task of reconstruction,
however, was not completed until 1853, when the property of the
colored schools was transferred to the Board of Education of New
York.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, p. 366.]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, p. 366.]

The second transfer marked an epoch in the development of Negro
education in New York. The Board of Education proceeded immediately
to perfect the system begun at the time of the first change. The new
directors reclassified the lower grades, opened other grammar schools,
and established a normal school according to the recommendation of
the investigating committee of 1835. Supervision being more rigid
thereafter, the schools made some progress, but failed to accomplish
what was expected of them. They were carelessly intrusted for
supervision to the care of ward officers, some of whom partly
neglected this duty, while others gave the work no attention whatever.
It was unfortunate, too, that some of these schools were situated in
parts of the city where the people were not interested in the uplift
of the despised race, and in a few cases in wards which were almost
proslavery. Better results followed after the colored schools were
brought under the direct supervision of the Board of Education.

Before the close of the Civil War the sentiment of the people of the
State of New York had changed sufficiently to permit colored children
to attend the regular public schools in several communities. This,
however, was not general. It was, therefore, provided in the revised
code of that State in 1864 that the board of education of any city or
incorporated village might establish separate schools for children and
youth of African descent provided such schools be supported in the
same manner as those maintained for white children. The last vestige
of caste in the public schools of New York was not exterminated until
1900, in the administration of Theodore Roosevelt as Governor of New
York. The legislature then passed an act providing that no one should
be denied admittance to any public school on account of race, color,
or previous condition of servitude.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Laws of New York_, 1900, ch. 492.]

In Rhode Island, where the black population was proportionately larger
than in some other New England States, special schools for persons of
color continued. These efforts met with success at Newport. In the