The right to education

Saturday, August 31, 2019

February 1865, a month after slavery was abolished in Missouri, the State Legislature approved annual appropriations of $25 for the education of Union soldier's orphans from Cape Girardeau County. Ten of the 22 children were of African descent, including three children of James and Harriet Ivers. But no school existed to admit black students. Laws enacted in 1847 still stood in Missouri, making it a crime to instruct African-Americans -- free or enslaved -- to read or write. By November, legislators wrote into the new State Constitution requirements for township boards of education to provide "Common Schools for Colored Children," to afford the advantages and privileges of education wherever 20 students, ages 6-21, were in residence but provided no funding.

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