Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-01-11
NO MIXED SCHOOLS.
An Interesting Row in an I'LL.
nois Town.
RACES WARNING OVER EDUCATION

Negroes Insist on Attending the white
High school and IA Small Riot Breaks
Loose-Young White America Has q
Pitched Battle with Young Biacb
America-The Riot Act Read and the
Courts Appealed to- More Trouble
Ahead.
CHICAGO, Jan. 1.-The Herald has the
following special giving an account of lively
times over the color line at Upper Alton,
Ills:
In this quiet, unassuming village, noted
for its educational institutions, is raging a
race war that has developed all the bitter
ness of Georgia feud There has been an
undercurrent of trouble for several months,
and il eliminated yesterday almost in a riot.
Upper Alton has separate municipal gov
eminent from the city of Alton There is a
very large negro population in and around
the place, and several years ago, the board
of education erected separate schools for the
colored contingent. The great mass of the
colored people in Upper Alton live in one
part of the town known as Salus addition
and there the building set apart for the use
of the colored pupils stands. 1t is a large
and comfortable building, much superior to
that occupied by the whites before the new
building, which is now the white citadel
was erected.
Created Black District.
Recently the board redistricted the town
1t was easy without doing violence to geome
try to create a black district, ana this was
done The negroes were provided with the
best class of teachers, but they were moi
satisfied. Finally they instituted mandarin.
proceedings to compel the board to redistric
the town what was termed more
equitable" basis. Pending the decision o.
this case, a few negro families came into tn,
high school district with the avowed objec
of sending their children to the high schoo
building. This precipitated the first trouble
The War Breaks Out.
Thursday morning a score of colored chill
dren appeared at the high school, accom-
| panied by their parents. They demanded ad
| mission, and Superintendent Powell admit
| ted the children. Then came war tn,
white pupils, many of tn m girls rebelled
and began picking up their books and gun
and making other preparations to leave. Tn
white boys also got mad. They waited unit
| the mature darkies had departed, and thel
| they fell on the black inmates, and for tel
| minutes States books rulers and wool wer
| flying in the air. Superior intelligence wa
effective in the end, and, although 'the col
ored troops fought nobly," they were force
to fly. They were slugged in the yard an
chased down the sire, t, and the whites re
| turned in triumph, and received the thank
of the girls.
Had to Read the Riot Act.
This riot caused intense excitement. At
| O'Clock yesterday morning the negroes an
their children assembled at the school sc
apart for them. There were fully thirty mt
groes and they marched in body to tn
high school. The whites heard of the cor
templated raid on the high school and som
twenty white men hurried to the hig
| school prepared TO resist the attack of til
negroes. Rumors of probable riot reaches
the ears of the city marshal and he collecte
posse and reached the ground Just as tn
whites and blacks We're preparing to slaugf
ter one another He read the riot act an
commanded the belligerents to keep tn
peace. The whites swore by all that wa
holy that they would die in their tracks be
fore the negroes should take charge of tn
high school The blacks seemed equally d.
| terInined to enter. but after arresting tn
leaders the marshal induced the blacks t
withdraw. The negroes were searched an
some were found to be armed with revolver.
| Two white men were arrested and the
| were also found TO he armed
| The Widest Excitement Loose.
| The retreat of the negroes was hailed as
victory by the whites, but it was short Ii veC
The board of education held a meeting las
night and decided to have one mixed pr
mary school New boundaries were draw
in order to allow negro children in the hig
school When the action of the board wa
made known it produced the widest excit,
ment, and the members were abused in th
most violent terms. They defended then
selves by saying that they had taken legt
advice, and thought it was necessity. tn
whites will take their children from til
mixed schools, and threaten to default on a
school taxes
The Law i'm the Case.
Soon after the adoption of the constitution
of 1870 the Illinois supreme court decided i
a number of cases coming before it that CO
ored children Were entitled under the O
ganic laws to attend the same schools as til
whites, and could not be excluded therefor
on account of color. However for a nun
Der of years the court has given very wild
latitude to school boards in this matter, br
| 81 caS.a 6pcidnd 81 vaa,. tho 70 x-ora