Crider - McDowell Family Tree

CIVIL RIGHTS IN HENRY COUNTY 1875

Negro Children Excluded from School

On the fourth day of January Charles Strong, who is teaching at district #10 in Liberty township, sent home from school two children of a colored man named Edward Bailey. His only pretext for doing so was the recent decision of the Supreme Court. Bailey, through his attorneys, Brown & Brown, has brought suit for damages, and has filed in the Clerk's office the following complaint:

Edward Bailey, Plaintiff, complains of Charles Strong, defendant, and says that he, the plaintiff, is a citizen of the United States, and a resident citizen of Liberty township, Henry county, Indiana, and has his domicile in school district #10, in said township; that he is a tax-payer in said township, and has uniformly worked the roads in said township, under or by the virtues of the laws of Indiana, as other citizens have worked the highways of their road district; that he is a colored person, and the father of John Sherman Bailey, who is of the age of ten years, and of Alice Bailey, who is of the age of eight years; that said children reside with them in said school district; and have been enrolled as scholars in said school district; that the said defendant is, and was on the fourth day of January, 1875, school teacher at school number ten of said township, teaching a public common school under and by virtue of the laws of Indiana, and was employed as such by the trustees of said township, and received, or is to receive his compensation for teaching said school, exclusively out of the school funds of Indiana; that on the fourth day of January the plaintiff sent his said children to said school, to be taught therein and to receive instruction in such branches of an English education as were being taught therein; that the said defendant, disregarding his duties as such school teacher, and intending and contriving to injure the plaintiff as the father of said children, and to deprive him of the benefits of said school, their being no other school accessible to them, and there being no school provided for colored children in said township, unlawfully and wrongfully expelled said children from said school and refused to admit them as scholars therein, on the ground that they were colored children, and for no other cause whatever; therefore, the plaintiff says he is damaged in the sum of five-hundred dollars, for which sum he demands judgment against the defendant.

2001 UEB
www.hcgs.net
(http://www.hcgs.net/civil1875.html)