344.]
As this scant consideration given Negroes of Illinois left one-half
of the six thousand of their children out of the pale of education,
earnest appeals were made that the restrictive word white be stricken
from the school law. The friends of the colored people sought to show
how inconsistent this system was with the spirit of the constitution
of the State, which, interpreted as they saw it, guaranteed all
persons equality.[1] They held meetings from which came renewed
petitions to their representatives, entreating them to repeal or amend
the old school law. It was not so much a question as to whether or not
there should be separate schools as it was whether or not the people
of color should be educated. The dispersed condition of their children
made it impossible for the State to provide for them in special
schools the same educational facilities as those furnished the youth
of Caucasian blood. Chicago tried the experiment in 1864, but failing
to get the desired result, incorporated the colored children into
the white schools the following year.[2] The State Legislature had
sufficient moral courage to do away with these caste distinctions in
1874.
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