Education: Feather from Jim Crow

Last week in East St. Louis, III. (pop. 75,000), Jim Crow lost another tattered feather. The school board ordered an end to the practice (also followed by many smaller towns in southern Illinois) of segregating Negro children in the public schools.

The segregation practiced in East St. Louis and neighboring counties has been against Illinois law since the 1880’s. The grimy industrial town where race tension has long been a tradition (in 1917, 39 Negroes and eight whites were killed in a three-day race riot) got away with it until this year. Then the legislature tightened up the law and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People promised injunction suits if the law was not enforced. Threatened with the loss of some $680,000 a year in state funds, East St. Louis finally gave in.