[Footnote 1: The Constitution of Illinois, in the Journal of the
Constitution of the State of Illinois, 1847, p. 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.[3]
[Footnote 1: Thorpe, Federal and State Constitutions, Const. of
Illinois.]
[Footnote 2: Special Report of U.S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 343.]
[Footnote 3: Starr and Curtis, Annotated Statutes of Illinois, ch. 105, p. 2261.]
In other States of the West and the North where few colored people were found, the solution of the problem was easier. After 1848 Negroes were legal voters in the school meetings of Michigan. Colored children were enumerated with others to determine the basis for the apportionment of the school funds, and were allowed to attend the public schools. Wisconsin granted Negroes equal school privileges.[1] After the adoption of a free constitution in 1857, Iowa "determined no man's rights by the color of his skin." Wherever the word white had served to restrict the privileges of persons of color it was stricken out to make it possible for them not only to bear arms and to vote but to attend public schools.[2]
[Footnote 1: Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 400.]
[Footnote 2: Journal of the Constitutional Convention of the State of
Iowa, 1857, p. 3 of the Constitution.]