Harrison High School 1968 Student Uprising Poster

In September 1968 on the West Side of Chicago, members of a student group the New Breed at Carter H. Harrison Technical High School organized Black Mondays. Each week they walked out of classes to demand college preparation classes, more homework, more Back teachers, and Afo-American history and culture classes. Despite violence and threats from police, in October Latinx students joined their classmates in weekly walkouts, marches, and sit-ins. Harrison students Sharron Matthews and Victor Adams organized schools throughout Chicago resulting in a massive citywide school strike of 80,000 students on October 15th. Student activists and Black teachers maintained their pressure on the Chicago Board of Education who were finally forced to change their policies to increase community control of Chicago public schools.

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