The Chicago Project

 The Chicago Trip

Participants

Front row from left:  India Vance,  Trish Styer,  Tiara Walker,  Melissa Neece,  Eryn Schoenfeld,  Heather Chandler,  Amanda Bailey,  Stephanie Miles,  Charity Nestor,  Kristy Roadfeldt,  Brandi Thomas,  Back row from left:  Ms. Rachel Campbell (Teacher),  Ronin Reynolds,  Shannon Watson,  Samantha Brewer,  Jessica Hanes,  Elisha Deckard,  Jenna Combs,  Andrew Schweiterman,  Mr. John Wilson (Course Director)

In the Classroom  The Origin of The Chicago ProjectThe critical need for a program like The Chicago Project was made plain out of acts of racism involving students from two local schools in Greene County, Ohio.  The first incident involved high school students burning a cross on the front lawn of the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce, Ohio.  A short time later, a group of students from Antioch University hung a dark-complexioned mannequin from a tree to scare some friends.  These incidents, both occurring fifteen minutes from our high school, powerfully demonstrated the need to educate and inspire a new generation of civil rights advocates and leaders. 

Keep Your Eyes on the PrizeStudents spend seven months in the course which meets for an hour after school twice per week.  We also devoted two Saturday nights in eight hour “marathon sessions” to learn about the Civil Rights Movement using the video series “Eyes on the Prize”. Topics included the history of Black images in American culture, Jim Crow, and lynching as domestic terrorism. We learned how through the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., America was throwing off the last vestiges of overt public institutional discrimination as a result of the pressure of grassroots social protests.