Vintage Chicago Trib ‘Freedom Day 1963’ story recalls 60 year buried memory

 

Vintage Chicago Trib ‘Freedom Day 1963’ story recalls 60 year buried memory

 

 

On October 22, 1963, I was in my second month as a University of Chicago freshman. My dorm mate Eric Gold and I volunteered to teach in a Freedom School set up by civil rights activists. They had called for a one day absence from school to protest Chicago School Board policy over portable school rooms derided as ‘Willis Wagons’ that School Super Benjamin C. Willis crammed into black school playgrounds to keep black students out of neighboring white schools. 

 

Eric and I bused from Hyde Park to a church at 49th and State to where we spent the day teaching the kids there about civics in a very personal way.

 

The Trib Vintage Chicago article on that one day protest that pulled over 200,000 students from regular school, triggered an ‘Oh my gosh’ moment…”I was there.”

 

It made me review my now 60 yearlong avocation of working in my own fashion for peace, social and political justice. I realized that Freedom Day 1963 was my first direct action in support of the causes I believe must be addressed by citizenry and the state. 

 

During those 60 years I've seen much progress on many issues I’ve supported. I’ve long realized the path of progress is never a straight line upward. Many times it stalls; ever can turn backward on a dime. Fifty years ago I rejoiced at Roe v. Wade, only to be disheartened when it was overturned this year.

Retired 10 years, I spend part of every healthy day I’m fortunate to enjoy, working for the better world I wish to see in my lifetime. My kids are thankful for my meager but committed efforts to leave them a better world. Someday my grandkids will too.