75 years ago, 13 Black children led by an organizer for Henry Wallace’s Progressive Party tried to enroll in whites-only public schools in East St. Louis. White students walked out in protest; police escorted the Black students out of the schools. School segregation was illegal in Illinois, but southern Illinois school districts ignored the law. East St. Louis schools didn’t desegregate until 1950; public schools in St. Louis waited until Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. #education#illinois
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