Chicago Freedom School

Background During the summer of 1964, thirty Freedom Schools were established in towns throughout Mississippi to address racial inequalities in the educational system.  Mississippi’s black schools were poorly funded, and teachers had to use hand-me-down textbooks that offered a racist slant on American history.    The Freedom Schools offered a rebuttal to this reality.  Their curriculum included black history, the philosophy of the Civil Rights Movement, and leadership development in addition to remedial instruction in reading and arithmetic.  The Freedom Schools had hoped to draw at least 1000 students that first summer, and ended up with 3000. 

In 2006, Chicago is brimming with the energy of young people who are taking action on issues of zero tolerance, criminalization, racism, sexism, and homophobia.  Typically these young people are affiliated with local community-based organizations and schools.  Some are unaffiliated and taking independent action.  The time is right in Chicago for a citywide effort to provide a space for these young people to gain new skills, build alliances across neighborhoods, identities, and ideology.