Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1860-01-14
DECISION OF THE SUPREME COURT OF
OHIO IN THE CASE OF VAN CAMP VS..
THE BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE VII
LACE OF LOGAN

Enos Van Camp Us. The Board OF Education o.
the village of Logan Error to the District Cour
Of Hooking County.
Peek, j.. delivered the opinion of the majority
Of the Court.
The only question presented, as arising upon
the demurrer to the answer Of defendant below il
Whether, since the passage of the act of March
Ia, 1858, Swans Stat. 1861 to provide for the or
ganization, supervision, and maintenance of com
mon schools. children of five eights white and
three eights African blood who are distinctly col
ored and generally treated and regarded as color
ed children by the community where they reside
although in all other respects admissible, are,
Of right, entitled to admission into the schools Sc.
apart under that act for the instruction Of white
youth The plaintiff in error insists that his
children, though 10 part of African descent, being
more than one half of white blood, are, under the
law and the uniform decisions of this Court, to be
regarded as white, and were therefore wrongfully
excluded by the defendants in error from the com.
mon schools of the incorporated village of Logan.
Prior to l84S there was not any legislative provis
ion in Ohio for the education Of any but the white
youth resident in the various districts. Most of
the previous statutes-and they are quito numer-
ous-merely make provision for the instruction of
the white youth, and exempt the property of the
blacks and mulattoes from taxation for school pur.
poses, while some, like the act of Feb TO- 1929,
in express terms, exclude blacks aud mulattoes
from the schools The act of Feb. Oath, 184S, I'D
Curwep r. S. 1428,) provided for the first time
ia Ohio for the education Of colored children, MS
such, directing the levy of tax for that purpose
upon the property of colored persons, the organi-
cation Of colored school districts and the appro-
pria.on of the tax levied to the support of sep.
crate schools for colored children, if objection was
made to their admission into white schools, 5u!
prohibited the application of any part o. the taxes
levied upon the property of the whites, to the sup
port of such colored schools unless the whites
sented thereto. This law, which was very deiec-
tive and inefficient. was repealed in lees than a
year after its passage by the act of Feb 10, 1919,
I'D Curwen, r. S. 1862 which also provided for
the organization of colored schools and was COM
pee aud effective in its Details but like the law it
repealed, appropriated no other funds for the sup
port OF the other schools, those collected from
the property of colored persons
The law of lS49 continued in force until repeal,
ed Dy the law OF Marcn Iftn, 1000, Whlch con-
ceived in a more liberal and patriotic spirit, not
only provides for the education of coored children
and imposes the duty of organizing separate
schools for them, upon the Board of Education OF
the particular locality but gives to colored youth
their full share in proportion to numbers, of the
common school fund aud no longer restricts them
them to the miserable pittance collected from the
oolored fay payers rhus carving out what G.
D. Hitchcock in 10 Ohio l9s had intimated as the