People’s fight to keep schools open in response to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s wave of school closings demonstrated that public schools are an integral part of neighborhoods, at the heart of communities, storehouses of history and memory that bring people together. Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side interrogates Chicago’s public schooling, beginning with a story of systemic racism, inequality, bad faith, and distrust that stretches deep into Chicago history.

Student Center East, room 302. Presented by the UIC College of Education.