Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 13.djvu/219

THIRTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS. Sess. I. Ch. 156. 1864. 191 against such collector by suit or warrant, and if he recover he shall have judgment for double the amount improperly and unjustly extorted from him, and costs. The levy court of Washington County shall exercise a Levy courttc general supervision over the proceedings of said commissioners, may ex- **;P°"l¤? *l°i¤€°_ amine their books and papers, and shall prosecute for any delinquencies ° °°mmlw°°m’ or violations of their duty. It shall not be lawful for a member of the member of, not levy court of said county to be a commissioner of primary schools or *9*** °°'¤ml'· trustee of any of the school districts, nor for any person to be at the same m01m` time commissioner and trustee as aforesaid. Sec. 16. And be it further enacted, That any white resident of said Who ips? _ county shall be privileged to place his or her child or ward at any one of m the schools provided for the education of white children in said county he ` or she may think proper to select, with the consent of the trustees of both districts; and any colored resident shall have the same rights with respect to colored schools. Sec. 17. And 6e it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the School, 4-0,. said commissioners to provide suitable and convenient houses or rooms colored children. for holding schools for colored children, to employ and examine teachers therefor, and to appropriate a proportion of the school funds, to be determined by the numbers of white and colored children between the ages of six and seventeen years, to the payment of teachers’ wages, to the building or renting of school-rooms, and other necessary expenses pertaining to said schools, to exercise a general supervision over them, to establish proper discipline, and to endeavor to promote a thorough, equitable, and practiml education of colored children in said county. It shall be lawful for such commissioners to impose a tax of not more than fifty cents per month for each child on the parents or guardians of children attending said schools, to be applied to the payment of expenses_ of the school of which said child shall be an attendant; and in the exercise of this power the commissioner may, from time to time, discontinue the payment altogether, or may graduate the tax according to the ability of the said taxpayers and the wants of the school: Provided, That no child shall be excluded from such school on account of the inability of the parent or guardian to pay said tax. And said commissioners are authorized to receive any donations or contributions that may be made for the benefit of said schools by persons disposed to aid in the elevation of the colored population in the District of Columbia, and to apply the same in such manner as in their opinion shall be best calculated to effect the object of the donors, said commissioners being required to account for all funds received by them, and to report to the levy court in accordance with the provisions of section nine of this act. Sec. 18. And be it further enacted, That the first section of the act Re 8,],,,-, 1,,, of congress entitled “An act providing for the education of colored chil- actofl863,eh.83. dren in the cities of Washington and Georgetown, District of Columbia, VOL xi, P 40, and for other purposes," be, and the same is hereby, repealed; and thaf ` from and after the passage of this act it shall be the duty of the municipal authorities of the cities of Washington and Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, to set apart each year, from the whole fund, received from all sources, by such authorities, applicable, under existing provisions proportionate of law, to purposes of public education, such a proportionate part thereof pm of school as the number of colored children, between the ages of six and seventeen ;‘;)';$,t}’0E‘;f,f£°b years, in the respective cities bear to the whole number of children for colored thereof, for the purpose of establishing and sustaining public schools in °h*ld'°¤· said cities for the education of colored children ; that the said proportion shall be ascertained by the last reported census of the population of said cities made prior to said apportionment, and shall be regulated at all times thereby; and that the said fund shall be paid to the trustees appointed under the act of congress approved July eleven, eighteen hundred and 1352,ch, 15;, sixty-two, entitled "An act relating to schools for the education of colored Vol- P- 537-