Chicago’s civil rights movement of the early 1960s had a profound and continuing impact on the life of this city, touching people of all colors and faiths, affecting all its communities and helping shape policy and politics for generations to come. What Birmingham was to the South, Chicago was for the North — a crucible and a symbol of the struggle for social justice and for hard-won rights we take almost for granted today.

This conference, co-sponsored by Roosevelt University, will launch the creation of a permanent CAFSNCC (Chicago Area Friends of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) archive, exhibit, resource-development and documentation project. It will include a tribute to leaders no longer with us, such as James Forman, the Chicago teacher and Roosevelt University alumnus who went on to lead the fight for equal rights and justice in Mississippi and other parts of the South, and will feature a rare reunion of the wonderful Freedom Singers, who were the national voice of the southern student movement, joined for this occasion by the extraordinarily talented songwriter, singer and performer, Chicago’s own Maggie Brown.

Teachers, there was a Movement that shaped Chicago.
If you were there, come and tell your own story. Come and hear the stories of others who made the Movement.
Participate in workshops looking for resolution of today’s urgent problems. Much of the Movement concerned schools and education — bring the story to life in your classrooms.

In Chicago, the Movement ousted the segregationist school superintendent, Benjamin Willis, ended the use of Willis Wagons (mobile classrooms in trailers), demanded a superintendent and school board representative of and responsive to the needs of the children of the city. The Movement laid the basis for later events including the election of Chicago’s first Black mayor, Harold Washington, and many other people’s victories.

Many of those victories are being eroded and the social-justice goals of theMovement subverted. This project hopes to equip current and future generations with knowledge of the significance of the Movement in building democracy, economic and social justice, and a caring, compassionate culture that challenges the individualism, divisiveness, and separatism that still exist in Chicago.

The Mission:

* To preserve these stories by launching an archive, resource, and documentation project on the Chicago Area Friends of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (CAFSNCC) within the African American community that is easily accessible to that community and others not served by major academic and cultural institutions.

* To communicate to Chicago area high school and college students and teachers how to increase their knowledge of and to teach the unwritten histories of the Civil Rights Movement.

* To preserve this history for use in schools, community organizations, and social justice projects.

Information and registration on the Web at
www.chicagosncc.org