Yesterday, on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington (and just two months shy of the 50th anniversary of the 1963 Boycott), almost 500 students, parents, teachers, and activists boycotted school and marched on CPS headquarters and City Hall. Organized by community groups including Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization (KOCO) and Action Now, the march was peaceful, succinct, and concluded with members of the protest being admitted to a meeting of the CPS School Board. The primary objective of the protest was to call for an elected school board, among other demands. See our earlier post.
The ’63 Boycott production team was out in the streets to capture interviews with protestors. Surprisingly, we ran into several people who had participated in the 1963 Boycott, including a retired CPS teacher and who had taught classes in a Willis Wagon. She told us, “They were hot, they had no windows, if you had an emergency you had to get on an intercom, at lot of times they didn’t answer …” Expect to see some of this awesome new footage in our upcoming documentary.
