To bring these Northern examples to an end, consider Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. _Ohio_ had racially separate schools at the time it ratified in 1867; such schools specifically were continued by a statute of 1874, and the system was not discarded by State law until 1887. _Pennsylvania_ also had a system of segregated schools at the time of its ratification in 1867; the legislature continued the system by statute in 1869; the system was not abolished until 1881. _West Virginia’s_ legislature ratified the Fourteenth on January 16, 1867. On February 27, precisely six weeks later, the same legislature adopted a statute providing that “white and colored persons shall not be taught in the same schools.” What is one to say of West Virginia’s understanding of the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment?
Action of the Southern States was entirely in accord with the understanding thus demonstrated by their recent enemies in the North. To summarize these briefly:
_Alabama_ ratified under coercion on July 13, 1868; but less than a month later, on August 11, 1868, the same legislature--even though it was dominated by Negroes and Carpetbaggers--enacted a law prohibiting mixed schools “unless it be by the unanimous consent of the parents and guardians of such children.”
_Arkansas_ ratified on April 6, 1868. The same military legislature on July 23, 1868, passed a statute directing the State Board of Education to “make the necessary provisions for establishing separate schools for white and colored children.”
_Georgia_ ratified twice, once in 1868 and again in 1870. The latter legislature still was under Reconstruction rule; a majority of both houses were Republicans. But even this legislature, immediately after its renewed ratification of 1870, adopted a school act providing that “the children of the white and colored races shall not be taught together in any sub-district of the State.”
_Kentucky_, not subject to military reconstruction, rejected the Fourteenth in January 1867. The same legislature provided for racially separate schools, and the State’s constitution of 1891 required them.
_Mississippi’s_ legislature, dominated by Republicans and Negroes, ratified the Amendment in 1870 and simultaneously provided for a public school system. It was a segregated system, though the law did not require this specifically. Segregation was made mandatory in the schools in 1878.