Karen Lewis is president of the Chicago Teachers Union.*She left high school after her junior year.
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The 1968-’69 school year was one filled with turmoil and unrest. Black students across the city organized to address inadequate funding, irrelevant curriculum, and crumbling school buildings. The resultant “Black Monday” walkouts brought together an unprecedented number of supporters who mobilized against the hated “Willis Wagons” (mobile classrooms set up in parking lots and playgrounds purportedly to ease overcrowding in the city’s south- and west-side schools), obvious symbols of years of neglect. That winter had been particularly cruel, and among the major complaints was one small irritation: girls were not allowed to wear pants. While this may seem like nothing in terms of the issues of the day, the reasons given were so bizarre that a huge protest ensued—one that ended in a whimper.
After I wiped away the tears from my eyes and picked myself off the floor as the peals of laughter died down, she looked at me with a scowl so intense it made me laugh more. I railed at how ridiculous the assertion was and that on some level it was paternalistic and condescending. She acquiesced to pants for the spring on a trial basis but would not commit further than that.
