The Redeemers were a union of planters, merchants, and commercial industrialists who dominated politics. They declared to have redeemed the area from the assumed fears of misrule and “black rule.” They enthused to undo Reconstruction. State funds were cut, taxes reduced, and public amenities closed. New public-school systems were hit the hardest. Louisiana spent little on schooling that it became the only Union state in which the percentage of illiterate whites amplified from 1880 to 1900. However, as the rift between costs for black and white scholars expanded, black schools also began to
