At first the segregation of pupils of African blood was, as stated above, intended as a special provision to bring the colored youth into contact with sympathetic teachers, who knew the needs of their students.

When the public schools, however, developed at the expense of the state into a desirable system better equipped than private institutions, the antislavery organizations in many Northern States began to demand that the Negroes be admitted to the public schools.

After extensive discussion certain States of New England finally decided the question in the affirmative, experiencing no great inconvenience from the change.

In most other States of the North, however, separate schools for Negroes did not cease to exist until after the Civil War.

It was the liberated Negroes themselves who, during the Reconstruction, gave the Southern States their first effective system of free public schools..