Congress Of Racial Equality 1965 Chicago Segregation School Boycott CORE Freedom For Sale

DETAILS: Original pinback button issued by the Chicago chapter of the theCongress Of Racial Equality(CORE) for theFreedom Day II boycott held on February 25, 1964. The boycott was organized by CORE to demand the end of segregation in all Chicago Schools. The front artworkon the button provides theprotest locationalongwith inspirational drawing ofCORE school house flying a Freedom Now flag. Rare. One of only two examples known to still exist. Measures 1 1/2" inches.
BACKROUND: Freedom Day, also known as the Chicago Public Schools Boycott, was a mass boycott and demonstration demanding an end to the segregationist policies of the Chicago Public Schools (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.Although Brown v. Board of Education 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 to Chicago during the Jim Crow era. School boundary lines were drawn specifically to preserve racial segregation, even as predominantly black 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 Benjamin Willis instituted the use of mobile classrooms which were basically unventilated aluminum trailers parked in the parking lots and playgrounds of overcrowded schools. At one high school, these trailers were used to maintain segregation with black students classes held in the aluminum trailers without heat while white students went to class in the actual school buildings which were heated.
GUARANTEE: We offer a lifetime guarantee on all of our items to be authentic originals issued by the organization stated. They are not later re-issues or reproductions. We forensically examine all of our items prior to listing to make certain they are authentic.

BLACK CIVIL RIGHTS

Circa 1950-1970

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