Belle School, East Caln Township, Chester County, PA, circa 1890.


General view of the school with students posing for a group photograph in front of school
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After an 1854 state law required districts to create separate schools for African-American children, "whenever such schools can be so located as to accommodate twenty or more pupils," many black children in Pennsylvania continued to attend the local public schools. Three of the children in this photo of Belle School classmates were African American.