grrlyman:blackvintage:Demonstrators in the wade-in leave Rainbow Beach with police escort on July 9,
grrlyman:blackvintage:Demonstrators in the wade-in leave Rainbow Beach with police escort on July 9, 1961.“Velma Murphy Hill, then 21, was the head of the youth council…Convinced that public segregation was ready to fall, she assembled a racially diverse group of young people — blacks from the youth council, whites from the University of Chicago and Hyde Park — and on the morning of Aug. 28, 1960, led them onto the beach.The sand was packed by families looking for relief from the oppressive late-summer heat. As the activists set down their blankets and unfolded their checkerboards, they felt all eyes upon them."You’re on the wrong beach,” one man growled.Scared as they were, the activists tried to act casually, as if this extraordinary scene were perfectly natural. Two hours passed in an uncomfortable limbo. Then Murphy Hill noticed that the women and children had vanished. In their place stood a murmuring knot of young men closing in on three sides…”You should read this.A (I think) lesser-known story of integration in the 60s…made rather depressing because the Trib had to close the comments section “for excessive violations of the Tribune’s comment policies.” (But racism’s over, guys!) -- source link
#chicago#integration#segregation#racism