Historian Hilary Green says it "was not merely a fight for access to literacy and education, but one for freedom, citizenship, and a new postwar social order."[44] The black community and its white supporters in the North emphasized the critical role of education is the foundation for establishing equality in civil rights.[45] Anti-literacy laws for both free and enslaved black people had been in force in many southern states since the 1830s,[46] The widespread illiteracy made it urgent that high on the African-American agenda was creating new schooling opportunities, including both private schools and public schools for black children funded by state taxes. The states did pass suitable laws during Reconstruction, but the implementation was weak in most rural areas, and with uneven results in urban areas. After Reconstruction ended the tax money was limited, but local blacks and national religious groups and philanthropists helped out.