- mon council of Alton established a school for Negroes, but
the court[97] held that this involved an illegal discrimination against them. The Associated Press report[98] 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 fire-*men 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.[99] 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 been seen, before the Supreme Court of the State. But when the Negro children applied for admission to the public schools, they
