Public Schooling was not offered to most American citizens until after the Civil War. In 1875, the NC General Assembly passed legislation that allowed the taxation of property for the funding of public schools. Three times the vote came before the citizens of Buncombe County—three times it was defeated. In 1886, the White working class proponents of public schools went to Isaac Dickson and asked him to organize the Black male property owners (at the time, only property owning males could vote—Black or White). With Dickson’s influence, the vote for public schools passed by a margin of two votes. Mountain Street School was opened 1887 and Catholic Hill School in 1892.

Voting Rights and which party the majority could put into power, added a new voting constituency to the rolls beginning in 1865 with the enfranchisement of Black men. The growing women’s suffrage movement called for the right of women to vote. Many White women suffragists were not interested in the rights of Black women to enjoy the same privilege. By 1890, more often White women worked in competition than in coalition building with Black Americans for the right to vote.