Here is never-before-seen footage of the Boycott organizing headquarters, pulled from our 16 mm footage from Oct 22, 1963. At this point in the afternoon, the numbers would have been pouring in, with activists tallying the number of students absent from school and talking to Freedom Day captains all over the city in preparation for the massive march on downtown scheduled for 4 pm.
Here is a school-by-school tally of absenteeism on Freedom Day, from the Chicago Defender the following day:
