1876/77 public laws – Ch. 234 Sec. 2

That it shall be lawful for the state board of education to establish a normal school at any place they may deem most suitable, either in connection with some one of the colored schools of high grade in the state, or otherwise, for the teaching and training young men of the colored race, from the age of fifteen to twenty-five years, for teachers in the common schools of the state for the colored race, and to aid in defraying the expense of carrying on such normal school the state board of education is authorized and instructed to draw upon the treasury for an amount not to exceed two thousand dollars annually for the year of one thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven and the year.ofone thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight, to be paid out of any money in the treasury, not otherwise appropriated, to be used for the purpose herein stated, and no other. _