school officer who excludes from a public school any child on account of color shall be fined from five dollars to one hundred dollars for each offence, and prohibits school directors and officers from excluding, directly or indirectly, children on account of color, still the numerous cases which have arisen involving the point show that the school officers have not always been in thorough agreement with the law.
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[94] 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[95] 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[96] held that the school board had no power to separate the children on account of color. In 1899 the com-
