Although Fourteenth Amendment requires that substantially equal opportunities and privileges shall be afforded every citizen regardless of race or color,equality of treatment does not mean identity of treatment with respect to a tax supported facility. U.S.C.A.Const. Amend. 14.
So it is that in making provision for public education for its citizens, the State, in its discretion, may establish separate schools for whites and Negroes--indeed should and must do so where the state constitution and statutes so require--without being thought guilty of any infraction of the Federal law solely by reason of that fact; the only proper inquiry in a given case being whether, having undertaken the burden of educating its citizens at public expense, the separate facilities provided each of the races affords substantially equal accommodations and opportunities to both races alike. And while the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution requires that substantially equal opportunities and privileges shall be afforded every citizen regardless of race or color, it is so well settled as hardly to need citation of authority that equality of treatment need not mean identity of treatment, with respect to a tax-supported facility. Hall v. DeCuir, 95 U.S. 485, 503, 24 L.Ed. 547; People ex rel. Cisco v. School Board, 161 N.Y. 598, 56 N.E. 81, 48 L.R.A. 113; Annotation 103 A.L.R. 713.