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 disabled and indigent soldier of the State under the age of thirty might have instruction in the schools free of charge. This would seem to leave out the colored children. But the Constitution[38] of 1877 requires separate schools; so do the laws of 1872.[39]

The laws of Kentucky[40] of 1870 provided that it should be the duty of the trustees of the common schools of that State to invite and encourage indigent white children in the district to attend the school, and to inform them and their parents that such was their right for which the State paid, though they themselves might contribute toward paying the expenses of the school. The annual report of the trustees must always show that this duty had been performed; and no arrangement should be made for the benefit of some individuals of this description to the exclusion of others. Again, apparently no provision was made for the colored children, but the Constitution[41] of 1891 declares that in the distribution of the school fund no distinction shall be made on account of race or color, but that separate schools must be maintained. The statute[42] of 1904, under which the Berea College case arose, applies to both public and private schools and requires a separation of the races in both.

The government of Louisiana was early in the hands of the Reconstructionists, as its statutes show. The Constitution[43] of 1868 said: "There shall be no separate schools or institutions of learning established exclusively for any race by the State of Louisiana." A separation of the races in schools had been required by the Constitutions of 1845[44] and 1852,[45] which makes this provision of the Constitution of 1868 all the more significant. In 1871