The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

Section 1. That all the territory embraced within the corporate limits of the town of Clinton, Sampson County, shall be, and is hereby, constituted a public school district for white and colored.

Sec. 2. That the board of commissioners of Sampson County are hereby authorized to submit to the qualified voters of said school district within three months after the ratification of this Act, under such rules and regulations as they prescribe, the question whether an annual tax shall be levied therein for the support of graded public schools for white and colored in said district; each voter shall vote a written or printed ballot without device the words "for school" if in favor of levying said tax, and those who are opposed to levying said tax shall vote on written or printed ballot without device the words "against school." The penalties for illegal and fraudulent voting in this election shall be the same as in the election for members of the general assembly. The county commissioners shall give at least thirty days' notice of the time of holding said election, in the newspaper published in said school district.

Sec. 3. That if the inspectors of said election shall certify that a majority of the votes cast are in favor of said tax the same shall be levied by the county commissioners and collected by the sheriff under the same rules and regulations under which other school taxes are levied and collected, and the sheriff shall be subject to the same liabilities for the collections and disbursement of said taxes as he is or may be for other school taxes, and he shall receive as compensation for such service two per centum commission: Provided, that special taxes so levied and collected shall not exceed sixty cents on the one hundred dollars valuation of property and one dollar and eighty cents on the poll. That the school committee whose appointment is hereinafter provided for shall establish graded schools in said district for the white and for the colored children between the ages of six and twenty-one years, and the school for each race herein provided for shall have the same length of school terms, and the tax levied and collected under the provisions of this Act shall be applied exclusively for the establishment and maintenance of said schools, and shall not be appropriated or expended for any other purpose.

Sec. 4. That the school committee of said district shall consist of six members instead of three, as required by the general school law, and shall be elected in the following manner: each voter, at the time of the general election hereinbefore provided for, shall write upon his ballot the name of six citizens resident in said school district who shall be his choice for said committee, who shall be divided into three classes of two each; the two citizens securing the highest number of votes at said election shall constitute the first class, and their term of office shall expire at the end of six years from the first day of July, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, and the two citizens securing the next highest number of votes at said election shall constitute the second class, and their term of office shall expire at the end of four years from the first day of July, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, and the two citizens receiving the next highest number of votes shall constitute the third class, and their term of office shall expire at the end of two years from the first day of July, eighteen hundred and ninety-five. Whenever the terms of office of any class shall expire, as above provided, their successors shall be selected and appointed by the said committee for a term of six years, and whenever any vacancy occurs in said committee, except by the expiration of the terms of office, the vacancy for the unexpired term of the member or members shall be filled by said committee.

Sec. 5. That the school committee provided for by this Act shall have entire and exclusive control of the public school interests and property in said district; shall prescribe rules and regulations for their own government not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act; shall employ and fix the compensation of officers and teachers of said public or graded schools, subject to removal by the said committee; shall make an accurate census of the school population of the district annually as required by the general school law of the state, and do all other acts that may be just and lawful to manage the public school interest in said district; Provided, that all children resident in said school district between the ages of six and twenty-one years shall be admitted into said schools free of tuition charges, and those desiring to be admitted into said schools as pay students may be admitted upon such terms as committee may direct.

Sec. 6. That the school committee created under this Act shall elect annually a superintendent of schools, established under this Act, who shall be the principal of the graded schools for the white children, if the same shall be established; and the said superintendent shall examine all applicants for teachers' positions in the said schools and issue certificates to the same, which certificates shall be valid for one year from the date thereof, and do and perform such other diities as may be prescribed by said committee.

Sec. 7. That the per capita part of the school fund of the county raised under the general school laws of the state and apportioned to said public school district, and moneys to which the said district may be entitled by reason of any special tax, gift, grant, apportionment or otherwise, shall be received by the treasurer of the county of Sampson, North Carolina, who shall be ex officio treasurer of said school committee. The moneys received as aforesaid shall be held by the treasurer as a separate fund to be disposed of under the direction of the aforesaid school committee, whose warrants, signed by the chairman and countersigned by the secretary of said committee, shall be the only valid vouchers in the hands of the said treasurer for the disbursement of said money in any settlement required of him by law. The said treasurer shall furnish annually to the county board of education a statement in writing of his receipts and disbursements of the school money for said district, properly and duly credited and approved by the chairman and secretary of the school committee: Provided, the accounts, books and vouchers of the said treasurer shall be open for the inspection of the school committee at any time.

Sec. 8. The bond of the treasurer of the county now required to protect the public school funds of the county in his hands shall be an amount sufficient to include double the amount received under this Act, independent of the amount to secure other funds which may come into his hands. The said treasurer shall receive as compensation a commission of not exceeding two (2) per centum on the funds received from the special taxes levied, collected and disbursed under this Act.

Sec. 9. The school committee provided for by this Act shall apportion the money raised or secured for educational purposes in said district as shall be just to the white and colored races, without discrimination in favor of or to the prejudice of either race, due regard being paid to the cost of keeping up and maintaining the public schools of both races.

Sec. 10. That the committee aforesaid shall make to the board of education, at such times as is required under the school law of the state, a report containing an accurate census of the school population of the district, showing the work done and the money expended under their direction in the district on account of public schools therein, a copy of which report shall be forwarded to the state superintendent of public instruction and a copy to the superintendent of public instruction in the county of Sampson. The beginning and ending of the school year shall be fixed by the committee.

Sec. 11. The school committee hereby created shall be a body corporate by the name and style of the "School Committee of the Town of Clinton," and by that name shall be capable of receiving gifts and grants, of purchasing and holding real and personal estate, of selling, mortgaging and transferring the same for school purposes, of prosecuting and defending suits for or against the corporations hereby created; conveyances to said school committee shall be to them and their successors in office, and all deeds, mortgages and other agreements affecting real estate shall be deemed sufficiently executed when signed by the chairman, one member of the committee and the secretary thereof.

Sec. 12. That all laws and clauses of laws in conflict with this Act is hereby repealed.

Sec. 13. That this Act shall be in force from and after its ratification.

Ratified the 13th day of March, A.D. 1895.

Elias Carr, Governor
Rufus A. Doughton, Lt. Governor and President of the Senate
Zebulon Vance Walser, Speaker of the House of Representatives

State of North Carolina,
Office of Secretary of State,
Raleigh, May 23rd, 1895.

I, Octavius Coke, Secretary of State, hereby certify that the
foregoing (manuscript) are true copies of the original acts and
resolutions on file in this office.

Octavius Coke,
Secretary of State.