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Sub District of Mobile
Bureau of R.F and A.L.
Mobile, Ala. May 13 1868. 

To the Honorable [[?]] School Board of Mobile County.

Gentlemen:-

I have the honor to request your Board to take into consideration at an early day the propriety of appropriating a portion of the School Fund for the benefit of the colored schools of Mobile. 
These schools have hitherto been maintained at a great expense by the charitable efforts of Northern Societies, or by tuition paid by the colored people themselves. The General Government aid these efforts to the extent of renting suitable buildings.

The societies, in consequence of the magnitude of the work devolving from them, and laboring under constant financial difficulties. Their teachers are too few and are inadequately paid. 
It seems but just that in Districts like Mobile, when a large pro-portion of the school tax is collected from colored people an equitable portion of the accrued funds should be applied to their educational interests. 

I have no doubt that your Board has long since arrived at the same conclusion and you have only been prevented from appropriate action by the great financial embarrassment under which your labors have been conducted. 

The Government feels that it has now organized schools among the freed people of this district and he carried them to a point where it may [[strikethrough]]be[[/strikethrough]] justly call upon the local authorities for cooperation. (over)