State Superintendent and after an
annoying and repeated correspondence to collect the facts in the case
and to explain the law, the officers were induced to comply with the
law by threats of its execution. In counties at a distance from the
capital this threat was frequently of no avail because the Negroes
were either induced to drop the matter by promises of future
fulfillment, were unwilling to proceed to law, or lacked intelligent
leadership.

The next year the State Superintendent complained that the demand upon
this functionary to establish Negro schools in districts which
neglected to fulfill the law required an undue amount of his time. The
legislature which met that year, therefore, removed from the State
Superintendent the responsibility of enforcing this law. But it
provided[89] that any school district which neglected to establish a
Negro school or schools according to the law should be deprived of any
portion of the State school funds for that year. This was a severe
punishment in a State having as large a school fund as Missouri
has.[90]

By the year 1885 the public school system of Missouri was on a firm
basis. The right of every child in the State to the benefits of a free
public school education had been established. The Negro public schools
were prosperous. The Negro school population[91] had increased to
44,215 and the percentage of the enumerated actually enrolled in the
public schools had increased from forty-two per cent in 1877 to
sixty-three per cent in 1885.

THE PERIOD OF GROWTH, 1885 TO 1915

A few minor changes have been made in the State statutory law since
1885. Prior to 1889 not only the district but the whole township in
which a Negro school was located, was taxed for the support of this
school. In 1889 the law[92] was so revised as to throw the entire
burden of support upon the district in which the school is located. In
the same year, the statute which gave Negro adults the right to attend
the public schools was abrogated.

The last revision of the law relating to Negro public schools was made
in 1909. By the present law[93] the boards of directors in districts
having fifteen or more Negro children of school age are required to
establish and maintain schools for these children which shall have
the same length of term and shall enjoy the same privileges as are
enjoyed by the white schools of the same grade in the district. The
indebtedness incurred by the board of directors in pr