In 1874 the school directors of McLean County, Illinois, erected a separate school building, twelve by fourteen feet, for the exclusive purpose of educating the three or four colored children in the district therein. It was admitted that there was plenty of room for them in the regular school building. One of the taxpayers of the district petitioned for an injunction against the building of the house, but it was completed before any decision was rendered. In a case which arose later, the court[428] held that the school directors had no right to make such a discrimination against Negroes, and that any taxpayer might object. In 1882 the board of education of Quincy, Illinois, divided the city into eight districts and set apart one school for Negroes. A case arising over this division and segregation, the court[429] ruled that, in the absence of State legislation, the board had no power to establish separate schools for Negroes. In 1886 the school board of Upper Alton passed a resolution excluding colored children from the white school unless they had reached the high school grade. A Negro, whose children below high school grade were refused admission to the white school, brought suit, and the court[430] held that the school board had no power to separate the children on account of color. In 1899 the common council of Alton established a school for Negroes, but the court[431] held that this involved an illegal discrimination against them. The Associated Press report[432] of November 28, 1906, had the following statement: “East St. Louis, Ill., Nov. 28, 1906—A large brick building at 1,400 Missouri avenue, which was leased last week by the Board of Education for a Negro school, was destroyed by fire to-day, and there is evidence that prejudice against the establishment of a school for Negroes caused the building to be set on fire. Late last night the building was discovered to be on fire, but prompt action saved it. The firemen found rags soaked in oil on the second floor hallway. The destruction of the building to-day makes the second building leased for a Negro school that has been burned within the last two weeks.” The latest Illinois case on the subject is that of April 23, 1908, The People v. The Mayor, etc., of Alton.[433] A Negro’s children were excluded from the public school most convenient to them and directed to a colored school less convenient. He petitioned for a writ of _mandamus_ against the mayor and common council to compel them to admit his children to the most convenient school, and after the case had been tried seven times by juries in the circuit court, the writ was finally granted by the Supreme Court. Although all of these cases were decided against race separation they show that there is still an appreciable feeling in Illinois against the white and colored children being taught in the same schools. The trouble at Alton is not yet over. After a fourteen years’ fight the Negroes won, as has