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Throughout the antebellum era African Americans were denied entry to the Baltimore City Public School System which was established in 1829. They wrote petitions, allied themselves with sympathetic whites, and campaigned in the press to gain access to the public schools. Their efforts did not materialize any significant results until the conclusion of the Civil War. With the assistance of the radical wing of the Union Republican Party in Baltimore they were able to gain access to the public schools in 1867. Once they gained entry there were still challenges to overcome. For the remainder of the nineteenth century African Americans in Baltimore fought for better school facilities, more schools to reduce overcrowding, to admit more students, a curriculum that was on par with the white schools, more grammar and high schools, and for the hiring of African American teachers. This paper examines the challenges faced by Baltimore's African American community to force the school board to hire "colored teachers for the colored schools." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]