PRESENT EXTENT OF SEPARATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS (_a_) _In South_ It is a matter of general knowledge that white and colored children are not permitted to attend the same public schools in the South. The separation is required both by State Constitutions and statutes. The Constitutions of Alabama of 1875[362] and 1901[363] provide for a system of public schools, but add that separate schools must be maintained for white and colored children. The laws[364] of 1868 have this provision: “In no case shall it be lawful to unite in one school both colored and white children, unless it be by the unanimous consent of the parents and guardians of such children; but said trustees shall in all other cases provide separate schools for both white and colored children.” The separation is also required in the laws of 1878[365] and 1884.[366] Arkansas has no constitutional provision as to separation, but an act[367] of 1867 reads: “No Negro or mulatto shall be permitted to attend any public school in this State, except such schools as may be established exclusively for colored persons.” And a statute of 1873[368] declares that the board of education must provide separate schools. The Constitution[369] of Florida of 1887 provides that white and colored children shall not be taught in the same school, but that impartial provision shall be made for both. A statute[370] of 1895, which will be considered later, makes it a penal offence to educate white and Negro children in the same schools, whether public or private or parochial. Under a Georgia statute[371] of 1866, any free white citizen between the ages of six and twenty-one years and any 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[372] of 1877 requires separate schools; so do the laws of 1872.[373] The laws of Kentucky[374] 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[375] 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[376] 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.