On 'Freedom Day' in 1963, thousands of Chicago students skipped school to protest segregation

Although civil rights leaders including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. supported the designation of Oct. 22, 1963, as “Freedom Day,” its success was not guaranteed. Older Black organizations and clergy didn’t relish asking parents to back a one-day school boycott to demonstrate that segregated schools weren’t limited to the South. It was politically dangerous for anyone beholden to the Boss, Mayor ...

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