The problem of educating the Negroes at public expense was perplexing also to the minds of the people of the West. The question became more and more important in Ohio as the black population in that commonwealth increased. The law of 1825 provided that moneys raised from taxation of half a mill on the dollar should be appropriated to the support of common schools in the respective counties and that these schools should be "open to the youth of every class and grade without distinction."[1] Some interpreted this law to include Negroes. To overcome the objection to the partiality shown by school officials the State passed another law in 1829. It excluded colored people from the benefits of the new system, and returned them the amount accruing from the school tax on their property.[2] Thereafter benevolent societies and private associations maintained colored schools in Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, and the southern counties of Ohio.[3] But no help came from the cities and the State before 1849 when the legislature passed a law authorizing the establishment of schools for children of color at public expense.[4] [Footnote 1: _Laws of Ohio_, vol. xxiii., pp. 37 _et seq_.] [Footnote 2: Hickok, _The Negro in Ohio_, p. 85.] [Footnote 3: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 374.] [Footnote 4: _Laws of Ohio_, vol. liii., pp. 117-118.] The Negroes of Cincinnati soon discovered that they had not won a great victory. They proceeded at once to elect trustees, organized a system, and employed teachers, relying on the money allotted them by the law on the basis of a per capita division of the school fund received by the Board of Education of Cincinnati. So great was the prejudice that the school officials refused to turn over the required funds on the grounds that the colored trustees were not electors, and therefore could not be office holders qualified to receive and disburse public funds.[1] Under the leadership of John I. Gaines the trustees called indignation meetings, and raised sufficient money to employ Flamen Ball, an attorney, to secure a writ of mandamus. The case was contested by the city officials even in the Supreme Court of the State which decided against the officious whites.[2] [Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, pp. 371, 372.] [Footnote 2: _Ibid_., 1871, p. 372.]