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In 1868 the Mississippi constitutional convention meets in Jackson.
The state’s 1868 Constitutional Convention in Jackson became known as the Black and Tan Convention because most of the well-educated black men who had fought against slavery expected to have their political priorities met. Their political agendas were rather modest, calling basically for free public education and the right and freedom to vote. The white Northerners could be just as racist as their Southern counterparts, but they realized the expediency of sharing some of the power with the black leaders, who were serious about building a society that would bring black men and women up to the same standards as whites.
The Mississippi Constitution of 1868 was the first piece of legislation which provided for the free public education of all children regardless of race. The purpose, procedures, and guidelines for these state supported schools is stated in Article VIII, Sections 1-9. The Constitution established “a uniform system of free public schools, by taxation or otherwise, for all children between the ages of five and twenty-one years….” Enabling legislation was passed in 1870 which created county school districts under the supervision of an elected State Superintendent of Education and appointed county superintendents. Towns with a population of at least five thousand were permitted to establish separate school districts and extend the school term to at least seven months. The Constitution provided the following features in its plan to establish a public education system in the state:
1. Administration: An elected State Superintendent of Public Education to provide “general supervision of the common schools and the educational interests of the State.” A State Board of Education, composed of three members: the State Superintendent of Education, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of State. An elected County Superintendents of Public Education.
2. School Term: The school year would be “at least four months.” Any county failing to abide by this guideline risked forfeiting its share of the school fund and taxes.
3. Funding: The common schools were to be funded from a combination of revenue sources – revenues earned from sixteenth section lands and other lands owned by the state, an excise tax on alcoholic beverages, military exemption fees, and public and private donations designated for public education. These monies were then to be invested in United States bonds and the interest on the bonds was then appropriated for the support of the school system. In addition to this source of funding a poll tax of two dollars per person was levied for the specific use of public education. The constitution also left open the option of additional taxes to fund public schools with the monies being divided pro rata among the children of school age.
Because of some punitive elements of the 1868 Mississippi Constitution, it went down in defeat, due partly to some white manipulation of ballots in rural areas where blacks had never voted before and partly because some of the white Republicans were creating secret alliances with a group of local white Democrats who dreaded black rule.
Under Gen. Adelbert Ames, all political offices were declared to be illegally held by “unredeemed” white Confederates who had not regained citizenship in the U.S. The generals appointed their own choices to every local office pending the constitutional convention of 1867-1868 and the elections that were to follow in 1869, elections in which black men would be able to compete for office.
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