Chicago Public Schools and the Oppression of Black Students

By social critic, independent researcher, community organizer, and street scholar: Hakeem Muhammad. This article is fundamental in understanding the existing relationship between African-American students and Chicago Public Schools.

Chicago Public Schools

Chicago’s Public Schools are in a state of absolute decay. The predominately low-income black students are given a lackluster education in a substandard environment that is infamous for both its low college admission rates and low graduation rates. When one examines the deteriorating conditions of these schools – crinkled textbooks with dirty pages, decrepit computers with dusty keyboards, and overbearing security guards who occupy the halls – the truth begins to ring loud and clear: the purpose of the educational system in Chicago is not to enrich the minds of blacks, but rather to entrap them in a world of white hegemony, oppression and poverty. It is to leave black students exploited, degraded, and powerless. On average, only three out of one hundred black males go on to obtain a bachelor’s degree[1]. This disgusting history of second-rate education in the black community is not a new phenomenon, nor is it a product of mere incompetence amongst the school board. It is on purpose: an exemplification of institutionalized racism, a product of America’s social structure of white supremacy. America has consistently denied its black population a quality education. From those brutal slave days when the limbs of black people were savagely amputated for simply reading a book, to the repressive days of the present when blacks in the inner city are shoved into schools that have armed police patrolling the hallway as if the security guards were the FBI and the students were Al-Qaeda suspects seeking entry on a plane. Even after Brown v Board of Education, the schools in Chicago are still separate and unequal.

Chicago’s Schools: A History of Racism

African-Americans came to Chicago during the great migration. As a result of racist discriminatory laws and white terrorism, they were confined to the south side, which became known as the “Black Belt.” This area was treated with inconceivable neglect by the government. The houses blacks were forced to live in lacked basic plumbing, and did not even receive the benefit of regular garbage disposal services[2]. The schools built for black students in this area lacked basic resources, received significantly less funding than white schools, and were unbearably overcrowded. Benjamin Willis, one of the earliest superintendents of this city, proudly refused to comply with the Brown v Board of Education decision[3]. Essentially, he was the northern counterpart to Bull Conner but more powerful as he was a supporter of white supremacy who had control over the entity that educated masses of black youth. As a vehement defender of Jim Crow, an integral part of his social policy was dedicated to ensuring white schools would be allocated more attention and resources than black schools. In essence, Chicago Public Schools was founded upon the disgusting principles of white supremacy, segregation, inequality and deep-seated classism from its inception.

Eventually, as these oppressive conditions continued, black students began to protest these intolerable clogged conditions. [4] This issue came to the attention of Dr. Martin Luther King, who decided to stage a march challenging inequality in Chicago. One white person held up a sign that said “King would look good with a knife in his back.” Bricks and rocks were thrown at him for his effort to improve the living conditions of blacks.[5]As a consequence, of these protests, the federal government threatened to withdraw funding if Chicago failed to comply with the Brown V Board of Education. Mayor, Richard Daley, the same man who in his youth led attacks against the black community, was able to make inside-deals and bribe his way out of these sanctions and thus maintained educational segregation and inequality.[6]  Black schools remained in a desolate state not conducive to a proper learning environment.  Since they continued to be packed in schools with overcrowded hallways black youth continued their protests against the decrepit and overcrowded state of their schools.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, predominately white schools had empty seats and plenty of room. Since black schools were overcrowded and white schools had plenty of empty space, the simple decision should have been for white schools to take in black students in compliance with the Brown v Board of Education decision. Instead, Benjamin Willis ordered the creation of battered, portable trailer-like rooms outside already decrepit schools to mitigate the crowding. The portal trailer home had numerous fire hazards and safety concerns. [7] This move enabled the oppression and substandard learning environment imposed on African-American students to continue.  Benjamin Willis’ policies made it explicitly clear that he wanted Chicago Public Schools to function as a purveyor of white supremacy.

Years later, James Redmond, the successor to Benjamin Willis came on the scene as an integrationist. He had plans to send black students to all-white schools and, as result of this policy; he was met with protests by angry violent white mob groups.  In the end, James Redmond’s plan to integrate schools never materialized, and overtime he became disillusioned in his goals and he never vehemently enforced it to appease angry whites. [8] Thus, in 1980, long after the civil rights movement, the court finally ordered that Chicago must integrate its schools. [9]White parents began to quickly take their children out of these schools and enroll them into suburban schools in areas with low black residency due to housing discrimination, and/or private schools that, due to the racist system of economics in this country, many black students could not afford.  The number of whites attending Chicago’s Public Schools dropped by 75% and even today, Chicago’s Public Schools remain segregated and unequal.

Segregation In Chicago Public School

Chicago’s Public Schools are still in a state of segregation, despite the 1980’s legislation that was enacted endeavoring to enforce diversity. In 2000, over half of African-American students attended schools that did not have a single white person enrolled, and 274 Chicago Public schools were 90% or more black.[10] This statistic led the Chicago Teacher’s Union to say that “Chicago’s Public Schools….. [are] only a few percentage points from an experience of total apartheid.” [11]

Funding

In Illinois, a huge disparity exists between the funding of black schools and white schools. In Lake Forrest, a majority white Illinois school district, the average cost per student is more than $20k, but for blacks in southern areas it is only a mere $7000.[12]  In the current system, money is distributed to schools based upon the wealth of the community. Obviously, given the history of slavery, Jim Crow, and systemic racism against African-Americans today, all of which unjustly put wealth into the hands of white people, black communities generally have less wealth than white communities.

Racist Disciplinary Practices

Chicago’s Public Schools have been known to enforce their disciplinary guidelines in a racist discriminatory manner. Black students are more likely to attend schools with “Zero-Tolerance” policies which deny students any chance of rehabilitation [13]. Tim Wise indicates that black students are suspended two to three times as much as white students although there is not a significant violation of school rules between black and white students. Black students are more likely to be in trouble with the school authority for “disorderly conduct,” which usually amounts to nothing more than “talking while the teacher is talking” or throwing a paper ball[14]. This action, which usually results in putting your head in the corner for five minutes or a detention in white schools, leads to handcuffs and imprisonment in  these “Zero Tolerance” black schools. Indeed, 5,574 arrests were made on Chicago’s Public School property in 2004 and 74% of the students were black youth[15]. The charges range from battery, drug abuse, and disorderly conduct.  Interestingly enough, white students and black students do not differ significantly in their marijuana, alcohol, or in bringing weapons to schools, and white students are actually more likely to smoke cigarettes than black students. [16] As a result of these and other racist policies, Illinois has 20,000 more black males languishing away in its state’s prisons than enrolled in its public universities. [17]

 

Race Based Admissions

History has shown that what the white power structure grants, it can and will take away. Chicago was only ordered to racially integrate its schools in 1980.  Although Chicago never achieved anything even remotely resembling an integrated equitable school system, in 2011 the decision to enforce racial integration was overturned. [18] Not only that, but it is against the law for admission departments to take race into account when enrolling students. This means that African-Americans will most likely lose seats to many of the selective enrollment schools and thus we will see a decrease in the amount of blacks in these schools, ultimately allowing affluent white students to continue to benefit from years of inequality in the educational system.

Selective Enrollment Testing and the Maintenance of Segregation

Those that deny the apartheid-like conditions of Chicago’s Public Schools mention that the aforementioned statistics make sense, considering that Chicago’s Public Schools have a majority African-American population. They fail to realize that Chicago’s Public Schools have a majority black population precisely due to “white plight” and a host of racist practices that came after Brown v Board of Education to ensure that whites would receive a quality education and remain isolated from blacks. They also ignore the fact that Chicago’s Public Schools allocate more resources to “Selective Enrollment” schools in Chicago which have significantly more white students than other CPS schools [19].

When overt racism became socially unacceptable in American society, Chicago’s Public Schools came out with “selective enrollment” tests as a strategy to keep schools segregated. Selective Enrollment schools generally have better infrastructure, more resources, and more opportunities than the typical school-to-prison pipeline academic centers you often find in Chicago. Entry into Selective Enrollment High Schools relies upon two standardized tests that measure vocabulary, mathematical skills, and reading comprehension. It was against the law for black people to even read and attend college for the majority of their history inside this country.  The Chicago Housing Authority shoved black people into isolated ghettos, in homes that lacked basic plumbing, and then allowed corporations to dump their toxic waste there. Obviously, given the history of racist injustices in this country, black students (especially in the inner-city) typically do not come from educated households, and therefore the education they receive in primary school is not equal to whites.  Lack of education amongst parents, poverty, and substandard living conditions all correlate with lower vocabulary and many other attributes that are tested by selective enrollment schools.

The “Selective Enrollment” test exists purely to capitalize on inequalities and disparities between the primary school education of blacks and whites, to rationalize unequal distribution of resources to maintain educational inequalities. As the Chicago Teacher’s Union noted, “Standardized Testing grew out of the American tradition… as a pretext for racist and exclusionary policies.”[20] Every student has the right to a quality education; yet under the present system black students who are unable to perform well on these selective enrollment tests are shipped into pseudo academic centers which function as a direct pipeline to the prison system.

Northside College Prep, Walter Payton College Prep, and Whitney Young Magnet School are all the most academically successful Selective Enrollment schools in Chicago. Unfortunately, the magnets of these selective enrollment schools overwhelmingly pull in class-privileged people who received a quality primary school education and repel the “under-desirables” who are typically low-income blacks who received a lackluster education in primary school.  Chicago’s Public Schools are 43 percent African-American and 8.5% Caucasian as a result of the white plight to the suburbs. [21] With that in mind, you would expect most of Chicago’s Public Schools to be majority black, and indeed, most of Chicago’s Public Schools are black – except these selective enrollment schools.

At, Northside College Prep, a “selective enrollment” school, blacks only make up a miniscule 5.5% of the school’s population. Whites, while only comprising 8.5% of Chicago’s Public School’s total population, make up the majority of Northside’s population[22]. These selective enrollment schools generally have the most advanced facilities, with much greater resources than non-selective enrollment schools. Indeed, a facility hearing was done in which complaints were made about the conditions of certain Chicago Public Schools. All of these schools had majority black and Latino populations; one person stated that “The bathrooms are in deplorable condition, there are holes where the pipes are loose in the walls, and tiles are falling off the walls… one of the marble dividers fell down, marble, about an inch and a half thick, and it almost severely injured or killed a child.[23]“

While the infrastructure of majority black and Latino schools continues to deteriorate, this majority white school boasts new facilities that cost over 52 million dollars![24] Not to mention, Dr. James Lalley lobbied the Chicago’s Public School boards in order for Northside College Prep to bypass quotas that were put into place, which required schools to recruit from various socio-economic backgrounds. [25] Thus, it should be no surprise that this school boasts numerous academic accomplishments. They simply recruit from people who are already privileged, and capitalize on years of inequality from the educational system, both past and present

At Walter Payton College Prep, again another selective enrollment school, whites make up the majority of the student body.  [26]

At Jones High-School, white students outnumber the black population.[27] Lane Tech is a selective enrollment school with a significant Hispanic population, but whites still outnumber blacks, despite blacks significantly outnumbering whites in Chicago’s Public School’s total population. [28]

Whitney Young College Prep was built on an empty lot that was burned down by oppressed African-Americans; following Dr. Martin Luther King’s brutal assassination. It is the most racially diverse of all Selective Enrollment schools. 31 percent are African-American, 20.9 percent are Latino, 17.6 percent are Asian, and 30 percent are Caucasian. [29] At first glance, this school seems pretty equal and balanced, but be sure to take into account that African-Americans comprise 42.9% of Chicago’s Public School’s population, while whites only make up 8.5% of the Chicago Public Schools population. [30] This means that in a “fair and equitable” school system blacks should significantly outnumber whites at this school, certainly more than a statistically insignificant 1%, but they do not, and whites are still overrepresented in selective enrollment that have more opportunities when you take into account their total population size within Chicago Public Schools.  Moreover, you will almost never see a single white student in Chicago’s non-selective enrollment schools such as Fenger, Dunbar, Percy L Julian and Harlan. Hyde Park High-Schools sit in the middle of a diverse and middle class community. Despite this, the schools infrastructure is decrepit and the population is 99% black. [31] These are all deeply oppressed police-state schools with minimal opportunities and resources.

 

Brooks College Prep, Westinghouse College Prep, and King College Prep and are all selective enrollment schools with over 90% black populations. In 2010, King College Prep only had one white student in its graduating class, with the vast remainder of the students being African-Americans. King College Prep is a “Silver Medal” school and boasts several academic accomplishments. Many people look to this, and may believe this challenges the notion of educational inequality in Chicago Public Schools. This is definitely not the case. Only a small percentage of African-Americans have gained admission into these selective enrollment schools and the vast majorities are isolated in school-to-prison pipeline classrooms.   Far from being an example of “equality,” these black selective enrollment schools function in the overall scheme of capitalism by the white ruling class tactic to produce a “black bourgeois,” or what W.E.B Du Bois called “The Talented Tenth.”

The ruling class uses this anomaly as a propaganda tactic to create the illusion of equality, to point out a small token of blacks in high places as an example of progress while the vast majority of blacks suffer in deplorable conditions. These selective enrollment schools will produce the next “Black Middle Class” which will function as a  shield  to the white ruling class, when the masses of disfranchised black urban poor that constitute the  majority one day rise up to demand an equal distribution of wealth.   Likewise, African-Americans that do test into these “Selective Enrollment Schools” often have to travel unreasonable distances getting to school simply because of the lack of resources, quality education, and opportunities in their neighborhood school. All students deserve a quality school that is of reasonable distance. With that in mind, the most important point is that schools are still separate and still unequal as whites are overrepresented in selective enrollment schools that possess the most resources and opportunities.

Arne Duncan’s Renaissance 2010 & the Capitalist Oppression of Black Students

Arne Duncan, a man with absolutely no background in education, was made the CEO of Chicago Public Schools in 2001[32].  With no qualifications, this was a position he could have only obtained trough white privilege. His program, known as “Renaissance 2010,” was designed under the guise of revitalizing the school’s deteriorating conditions. Although heralded as the savior of Chicago’s Public Schools, this program was misnamed; in all actuality it never intended to propel blacks into an educational renaissance but instead it desired to push blacks deeper into the “dark ages” that the capitalist system had already forced them to live under. The program included closing down under-performing schools, building new charter schools under the hegemony of powerful corporations, school redistricting, building military schools, and increasing military recruiters access to high-schools. It had a devastating impact on the already disenfranchised black community and deeply increased the oppression of black students.[33]

Chicago now leads the nation in the amount of military high-schools in its school district as a result of Arne Duncan’s Renaissance 2010 program.  All of these military schools are concentrated in low-income, predominately African-American and Chicano ghettos. [34] These military schools are a center of American patriotic indoctrination seeking to gather oppressed black and Latino youth to sustain the American empire. These students, who have lived a life of poverty, day after day, of going home to empty refrigerators, are lured in by lucrative contracts offering them money and scholarships – of course this money is scraps compared to the amount the rich and their corporations make from waging wars.  These military schools teach masses of low-income black youth to participate in America’s imperialist quests, giving training and education to fill up slots in America’s military that contributes to environmental destruction, patriarchy, the death of innocents, resource exploitation, and chaos.

In addition to indoctrinating black youth with ideas of “American patriotism”, Arne Duncan’s program contributed significantly to the disenfranchisement of black students. The Renaissance 2010 school reform closed down certain schools and sent students to schools in areas with rival gang members.  Chicago’s Street Gangs are involved in drug trafficking as a direct result of the impoverished conditions enforced upon them. These gangs battle with one another to protect territory and often times the conflicts are retaliatory with gang-members seeking to avenge the death of fallen comrades.  His policy of school redistricting literally sent black students on a lethal voyage to school every morning [35].

Calumet High-School was comprised of members of the Black P. Stones while Englewood High-School was home to “Gangsta Disciples” and other gangs belonging to the Folk nation. Renaissance 2010 closed down these schools due to their poor academic performance and had plans to send their students to “Fenger” high-school, which was a “turnaround” school with brand new staff and teachers. Imagine being in the same classroom with rival gang members who shot down some of your closest friends in vicious street wars. After Renaissance 2010, schools turned into war-zones between different gangs that battled it out in and outside of schools[36].

In 2009, Derrion Albert lost his life on his way home from school as a result of the influx of rival gangs comprised in one area that was a direct result of this program. The progressive labor party indicates that ”While running CPS, Duncan closed dozens of  public schools and sent thousands of students outside of their poverty/gang-infested neighborhoods into new unfamiliar poverty/gang-infested neighborhoods… the intolerable number of CPS students fatally shot in these neighborhoods [rose] to over 40 fatalities and 290 shootings. These resemble numbers from Iraq or Afghanistan.” [37]

Under Renaissance 2010, Arne Duncan fired massive numbers of hard-working, experienced black teachers, allegedly due to the poor academic results of the students. Of course, he never realized that many of these teachers work overtime doing the best they can, with kids that often times come from dysfunctional, deeply impoverished and chaotic households. Moreover, they teach them with very little resources due to past and systemic racism practiced by Chicago’s Public Schools. Arne Duncan never thought about this, and instead got the “brilliant” idea to increase the performance of these underprivileged students by hiring majority white teachers who had significantlyless experience than the black teachers[38]. The Chicago Teacher’s Union rightly sued Chicago’s Public Schools for this instance of racism. Robin Potter, the attorney of the union, had this to say: “(CPS) is illegally terminating and laying off African-American teachers who are highly qualified and excellent teachers… it is a systematic effort to rid Chicago’s Public Schools of tenured teachers who are African-American.”[39]

Arne Duncan’s “Renaissance 2012” also resulted in the creation of more charter schools. The creation of charter schools are a subtle way to increase racial segregation while increasing the wealth of corporations[40]. On a national level, two-fifths of black students are enrolled in a charter school in which 99% of the students are low-income minority students. [41] In all, charter schools are three times more segregated than traditional public schools. Myron Orfield, professor of the University of Minnesota, writes that, “Charters are an engine of racial segregation. They are more segregated than public schools and cause public schools to be more segregated then they otherwise would be.” This is because there is no overarching body that forces charter schools to comply with federal civil-rights legislations.[42] Charter schools have classrooms are more segregated than traditional schools as they often hire teachers who are inexperienced [43]and thus more likely to put African-American students in classes for special education for simple classroom disruptions. Moreover, while the opportunities of black students continue to suffer due to budget cuts, Arne Duncan’s program continued to put wealth in the hands of corporations that had dominion over these charter schools.  These big businesses that are mostly white owned have never cared about providing black youth with a quality education. These parasitic corporations only seek profit. [44]

Arne Duncan , was a worthy successor to notorious racist Benjamin Willis, as he solidified segregation in schools.  Arne Duncan’s renaissance program can be described as follows;

• Black youth must die in the streets. Redistrict schools and put rival gang members in the same institution.
• Black youth must die. Create and fund more military schools to accomplish this. The net-benefit is that these youth will also carry out America’s imperialist agenda which will increase the wealth of corporations.  Military schools also give discipline to defiant black youth. This will make the city safe for white tourists and bring in more money.
• We need more segregation. Build more charter schools to accomplish this.  This will also increase the profits of corporations.
• We need more blacks in prison. Let’s make sure that most black students are concentrated in school to prison pipeline institutions.
• We need a small black bourgeoisie to act as a smokescreen for our oppression of blacks. We can have black selective enrollment schools to accomplish this.

Renaissance 2010 was a systematic effort to increase the oppression of black students and exploit them via a “free-market” system of education [45]  that reinforced capitalism to solidify social inequalities with black urban youth at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder.

 

Rahm Emmanuel’s School Reform & The Continued Oppression of Black students

Rahm Emanuel became mayor of Chicago in 2011, beating back arguments that he didn’t meet the city’s residency requirement, and continuing oppressive policies that subjugated the black population to the benefit of whites who mainly resided on the north side. His speeches and policies have demonstrated a gross ignorance of the on-going plight of black youth in the inner-city and in the face of gang violence that has been terrorizing Chicago, he had this to say,

“What happened is unacceptable. Our streets are for our children and for our law-abiding parents. Our streets do not belong to gang-bangers.”  [46]

Rahm Emmanuel doesn’t appear to even know that the ‘soldiers’ of Chicago’s street gangs are almost exclusively children! Robert Sandifer was only twelve years old when he shot down a 14 year old kid and a young girl. He grew up in a neighborhood that was impoverished as a direct result of racist policies. [47]

Of course, Rahm Emanuel didn’t know this because his entourage had never sat down and seriously thought about why Chicago has such a huge gang problem. These gang members have been systematically disenfranchised and instead of working to rehabilitate gang members into society, they have only responded through increased police occupation of black neighborhoods [48] and have failed to implement policies of social justice that confront the legacy of past and systemic racism. Nevertheless, Rahm Emanuel’s School reform simply involves increasing the school day by 90 minutes! If he honestly believes this will increase the academic performance of students, then he is an absolute joke.

This policy doesn’t even approach the root cause of why Chicago Public Schools are failing. Black youths aren’t dropping out of school at an alarming rate because the school system has a shorter teaching time than other districts. They drop out due to the deteriorating conditions of their schools and a colonial curriculum they are unable to relate to. A basketball team can increase their practice time but if they have sub par supplies, sub par resources, sub par coaching staffs and if they aren’t doing the proper drills, then that team will still be terrible.

The only thing this ‘School reform’ will achieve is to increase the dropout rates of black students and thus strengthen the school in fuelling the prison pipeline. Rahm Emmanuel also announced his support for the creation of more charter schools which will increase segregation of black students. To support his policy, Rahm Emmanuel indicates that the most successful school districts have longer school days. That’s wonderful, but other school programs also don’t implement a host of racist, discriminatory and capitalistic policies.

The Way Forward

Arne Duncan attended University of Chicago Laboratory Schools an affluent private school. Mayor Rahm Emmanuel sent his children to this very same private school.   The people in charge of running Chicago Public School’s do not even trust it to educate their own children.   So why should we trust it to educate our children?  The head of this administration are not from our community and are unaware of its dire problems. The problems are schools face are directly the result of institutionalized racism.  Schools are segregated at levels rivaling the Jim Crow Era. It is clear that CPS is an oppressive racist institution that is not providing black youth with an adequate education.  They are only providing the masses of black youth will incarnation, poverty, self-hatred, misery and destruction.

The only way forward is for black youth to engage in a massive protest movement to overtake and uproot the current apartheid educational system that exists in the status quo. The black led protest movement should create a “Black Liberation Curriculum” and demand that it be taught in all oppressed inner-city schools.  We have to take control of school buildings and radically transform them into liberation schools that function as beacons of African-American culture. We cannot rely upon Rahm Emmanuel’s school reform to improve the plight of our beautiful young children. We cannot rely upon any outsider to improve the education of our children. We cannot and will not wait on Uncle Tom school board members, LSC meetings where members argue over trivialities, or anybody else to improve the condition of our children.  We have to do it ourselves.  Relying upon policies crafted by outsiders will only continue the oppression of black youth.

It is for this reason that black youth must completely revamp the curriculum to make it directly relate to the problems facing the students.  The problems include poverty, gang-violence, homelessness, substance abuse, gentrification, and racist policies designed to disenfranchise them. Students must learn theories of social justice and use their brain to theorize solutions to the problem they face every under capitalism.

In the status quo students are told to “sit-down”, “shut-up” and not to “talk while the teacher is talking”.  Such teaching tactics are opposite of black culture which favors “call and response”. In these liberation schools students can learn through poetry, song, hip-hop, and other methods which are more representative of black culture.  The teachers must learn to teach in ways that resonate with black students by reading and applying methods pioneered by black scholars.

Listen, Black youth are being shot down in the streets. Our children are being incarnated at an alarming rate.   The education system which is supposed to give our children a future has only given them destruction. A black massive student ran protest movement is the only solution to this madness.   For too long our students have gone to school with no food, no folders, no paper, no books, and no pens all while having an empty stomach. That can all change! We must engage in a massive protest movement to demand a quality education where the primary concern is freedom from oppression.

1)”Chicago Public Schools – Stats and Facts”. Chicago Public Schools.

2)      Arnold Richard Hirsch, “Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago 1940-1960″, University of Chicago,1998,http://books.google.com/books?id=px0PuO7GWhsC&pg=PP1&ots=9I1rYsYyNh&dq=%22Making+the+Second+Ghetto%22+hirsch&sig=IPgKY-xgpCRZwpCsboI_rk0UPgc#PPA18,M1

3) School Desegregation http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1121.html

4) Education: A Short History http://southside.uchicago.edu/History/Education.html

5) Martin Luther King Jr. in Chicago

During his stay in the city, the civil-rights leader faced a “hateful” crowd.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-chicagodays-martinlutherking-story,0,4515753.story

6) School Desegregation http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1121.html

7) Education: A Short History http://southside.uchicago.edu/History/Education.html

http://socialistworker.org/2012/02/22/jim-crow-schools-in-chicago

8) IBID

9) School Segregation http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1121.html

10) Still Separate, Unequal: Race, Place, Policy and Racism Avoidance in and Around Chicago  http://dissidentvoice.org/Aug05/Street0812.htm

11) The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve 02/16/2012 HTTP://WWW.CTUNET.COM/BLOG/TEXT/SCSD_REPORT-02-16-2012-1.PDF

12) Still Separate, Unequal: Race, Place, Policy and Racism Avoidance in and Around Chicago  http://dissidentvoice.org/Aug05/Street0812.htm

13) Black Students Face more Discipline, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/06/education/black-students-face-more-harsh-discipline-data-shows.html

14) Tim Wise, Affirmative Action, white racial preference in education.

scribd.com/AAPFdocs/d/60126398-Tim-Wise-Affirmative-Action

15)  Kaba, Mariame and Edwards, Frank (2012) .Policing Chicago Public Schools. http://policeincps.com

16)                                                                                                                                                             Tim Wise, Affirmative Action, white racial preference in education.

scribd.com/AAPFdocs/d/60126398-Tim-Wise-Affirmative-Action

17) Still Separate, Unequal: Race, Place, Policy and Racism Avoidance in and Around Chicago  http://dissidentvoice.org/Aug05/Street0812.htm

18) City Schools’ New Criteria for Diversity Raise Fears

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/education/20cncschools.html?pagewanted=all

19) The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve 02/16/2012 HTTP://WWW.CTUNET.COM/BLOG/TEXT/SCSD_REPORT-02-16-2012-1.PDF

20) IBID

21) IBiD

22Northside College Prep http://www.cps.edu/Schools/Pages/school.aspx?id=609749

23) Chicago Facilities Task Force is taking a close look at neglected public schoolshttp://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=1685

24) Northside College Preparatory High School  http://www.publicschoolreview.com/school_ov/school_id/24419

25) IBID

26) Walter Payton College Prep http://www.cps.edu/Schools/Pages/school.aspx?id=609680

27) Jones High School http://www.cps.edu/Schools/Pages/school.aspx?id=609678

28) Lane Tech http://www.cps.edu/Schools/Pages/school.aspx?id=609720

29) Whitney Young http://www.wyoung.org/about_wymhs.jsp

30) WBEZ story on the IB High School Programs http://cpsobsessed.com/

31) http://www.cps.edu/Schools/Pages/school.aspx?id=609726

http://www.cps.edu/Schools/Pages/school.aspx?id=609751

http://www.cps.edu/Schools/Pages/school.aspx?id=609693

32) Arne Duncan http://cps.edu/About_CPS/At-a-glance/Pages/ArneDuncan.aspx

33) Arne Duncan and Neoliberal Racism

http://blackagendareport.com/content/arne-duncan-and-neoliberal-racism

34)  American Apartheid: Chicago school officials announce that 42 segregated all-black elementary schools could have been put into ‘turnaround’ this year, but only five were targeted

http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=631

35) IBID

36) IBID

37) Derrion Albert Is Not Racist Capitalism’s First or Last Victim

http://www.plp.org/challenge/2009/11/13/derrion-albert-is-not-racist-capitalisms-first-or-last-victi.html

38) Black Teachers Fired En Masse

http://blackagendareport.com/content/black-teachers-fired-en-masse

39) Chicago Teachers Union accuses CPS of discriminating against African-American teachers

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-02-08/news/ct-met-black-teachers-eeoc-0209-20120209_1_cps-teachers-chicago-teachers-union-african-american

40) Charter Schools, Market Capitalism, and Obama’s Neo-liberal Agenda  https://journal.buffalostate.edu/index.php/soe/article/viewFile/125/60

41)  Charter Schools Segregate Students by Race and Class

http://www.saveourschools.com.au/choice-and-competition/charter-schools-segregate-students-by-race-and-class

42) Charter School Segregation Report http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/22/charter-school-education-segregation-equity-race-legislation_n_1295043.html

43) Charter Schools, Market Capitalism, and Obama’s Neo-liberal Agenda  https://journal.buffalostate.edu/index.php/soe/article/viewFile/125/60

44) IBID

45)IBID

46) Rahm Emanuel On Chicago Shootings: ‘Our Streets Don’t Belong To Gang Bangers

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/24/rahm-emanuel-chicago-shootings_n_1376367.html

47) The Washington Syndicate

True Crime: The Forgotten Story of Robert “Yummy” Sandifer

http://thewashingtonsyndicate.wordpress.com/2011/01/21/true-crime-the-forgotten-story-of-robert-%E2%80%9Cyummy%E2%80%9D-sandifer/

48) Police Unveil Plan To Stop Gang Shootings Before They Start

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/05/29/emanuel-targets-stores-that-help-breed-gang-violence/