Minnie and Ambrose Bibb were seven and eight years old when they returned from summer break to resume studying at the Washington school, the same school they had attended the previous school year. Instead of the usual welcome, they were told that all Black children had to leave and attend one of the two new schools designated as Black schools. The other five schools in the city of Alton became white schools. The Black community fought this as much as they could, but teachers at Washington school refused to teach if there was a Black student in the classroom. Further, police blocked the entrances of the school when Black students attempted to enter. Scott Bibb, the father of Minnie and Ambrose, sued the mayor of Alton. By the time the case was finally decided, it was 1901, and the Bibbs children were now 18 and 19. The court ruled in favor of Scott Bibb and demanded that the Alton school district allow Minnie and Ambrose to attend whatever school was most convenient. The Black community was devastated to learn that the Alton school district had manipulated this ruling to make it so that only Minnie and Ambrose (and no other Black children) would be admitted. Even though Minnie had completed her education through homeschooling and tutors, the Alton School District refused to acknowledge the work she’d done outside of their system. They forced her to attend third grade, since she had not attended public school since second grade. Due to the horrendous social isolation of attending a classroom with much younger, all white children, Minnie left the school after two weeks. Schools in Illinois were not legally desegregated until the 1950s with some schools remaining segregated well into the 1970s.