The Chicago Public Schools boycott, also known as Freedom Day, was a mass boycott and demonstration against the

segregationist Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crime against humanity under the Statute of the Interna ...

policies of the

Chicago Public Schools Chicago Public Schools (CPS), officially classified as City of Chicago School District #299 for funding and districting reasons, in Chicago, Illinois, is the third-largest school district in the United States, after New York and Los Angeles. ...

(CPS) on October 22, 1963. More than 200,000 students stayed out of school, and tens of thousands of Chicagoans joined in a protest that culminated in a march to the office of the

Chicago Board of Education The Chicago Board of Education serves as the board of education (school board) for the Chicago Public Schools. The board traces its origins to the Board of School Inspectors, created in 1837. The board is currently appointed solely by the mayor ...

. The protest preceded the larger New York City public school boycott, also known as Freedom Day.

History

Although ''

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segrega ...

'' prohibited racial segregation in schools, in 1963, Chicago's public schools continued to be segregated as a result of residential segregation. This was exacerbated by the migration of more black Americans from the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

to Chicago during the

Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...

era. School boundary lines were drawn specifically to preserve racial segregation, even as predominantly

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

schools grew overcrowded. Classes were held in hallways, and there were not enough books for all of the students. Some schools held double shifts, meaning students attended less than a full day of class. Rather than send black students to underpopulated white schools,

Superintendent of Chicago Public Schools Chicago Public Schools is headed by a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) appointed by the mayor of Chicago. Currently serving as CEO is Pedro Martinez. This job is equivalent to a superintendent, and, before 1995, the occupant of this office was known ...

Benjamin Willis instituted the use of mobile classrooms; 625

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...

trailers parked in the parking lots and playgrounds of overcrowded schools. Rosie Simpson of

Englewood, Chicago Englewood is a neighborhood and community area located on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is also the 68th of the 77 community areas in the city. At its peak population in 1960, over 97,000 people lived in its approxima ...

, coined the term "Willis Wagons" to describe the mobile classrooms. At one high school, these trailers were used to maintain segregation within the school; black students' classes were held in Willis Wagons, while only white students went to class in the school.

Freedom Day

In response to the school segregation enacted by Willis, community members began organizing resistance. Organizers included Chicago activist

Albert Raby Albert Anderson Raby (1933 – November 23, 1988) was a teacher at Chicago's Hess Upper Grade Center who secured the support of Martin Luther King Jr. to desegregate schools and housing in Chicago between 1965 and 1967. Raby was a part of the civ ...

. The Coordinating Council of Community Organizations (CCCO) took the lead, organizing "Freedom Day," the mass boycott and protest. According to the chairman of the CCCO, Lawrence Landry, "The boycott is an effort to communicate dissatisfaction on how schools are being run." ''

The Chicago Defender ''The Chicago Defender'' is a Chicago-based online African-American newspaper. It was founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott and was once considered the "most important" newspaper of its kind. Abbott's newspaper reported and campaigned against Jim ...

'' estimated that forty percent of CPS students would participate in the boycott. On October 22, 1963, nearly half of all CPS students skipped school, leaving schools on Chicago's South Side and

West Side West Side or Westside may refer to: Places Canada * West Side, a neighbourhood of Windsor, Ontario * West Side, a neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia United Kingdom * West Side, Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Westside, Birmingham E ...

mostly empty. The ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' reported that 224,770 students were absent from CPS, amounting to 47 percent of the student population. Some students opted to attend makeshift

Freedom Schools Freedom Schools were temporary, alternative, and free schools for African Americans mostly in the South. They were originally part of a nationwide effort during the Civil Rights Movement to organize African Americans to achieve social, political and ...

instead. In addition to the boycott, nearly 10,000 protesters marched in Chicago's downtown, stopping outside the Chicago Board of Education offices.

Chicago police The Chicago Police Department (CPD) is the municipal law enforcement agency of the U.S. city of Chicago, Illinois, under the jurisdiction of the City Council. It is the second-largest municipal police department in the United States, behind t ...

kept protesters from entering the building. While Freedom Day was popular and widely covered, it did not have significant impact in changing the policies of Superintendent Willis. This ''

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

'' school segregation was supported by da Mayor

Richard J. Daley Richard Joseph Daley (May 15, 1902 – December 20, 1976) was an American politician who served as the Mayor of Chicago from 1955 and the chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party Central Committee from 1953 until his death. He has been cal ...

, who went on to nominate two school board members who did not support the CCCO's push for integration. Ultimately, CPS was not moved to integrate after Freedom Day, despite the best efforts of Black activists and the CCCO. Use of Willis Wagons prevailed, and Willis himself did not retire until 1966 (albeit four months before the end of his term). However, the size of the first Freedom Day protest inspired subsequent boycotts in Chicago and the United States. The Freedom Day protest inspired Reverend

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

's move to Chicago in 1966. Before Freedom Day, in August, 1963, then-college student

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 2007 ...

was arrested while protesting the policies of Superintendent Willis.

References

External links

Chicago History Museum Chicago History Museum is the museum of the Chicago Historical Society (CHS). The CHS was founded in 1856 to study and interpret Chicago's history. The museum has been located in Lincoln Park since the 1930s at 1601 North Clark Street at the in ...

Facing Freedom in America, "School Boycott" (Image collection)

''63 Boycott'' (Documentary)

Morning Shift: Fifty years after the 1963 school boycott, where are we on reform?
Civil rights protests in the United States Student protests in the United States Student strikes Chicago Public Schools History of Chicago Protest marches October 1963 events in the United States 1963 protests {{Chicago Public Schools