Student and Youth Organizing/ Memorializing
“Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.
Our project
In 2013, the city of Philadelphia was faced with a challenge: many of the cities public schools were underenrolled and underperforming. Schools that had been central to their communities were struggling to stay afloat. As a school district that was strapped for money and resources, the Philadelphia school board decided to close 23 of these schools. The purpose of the Student and Youth Activism and Memorializing Working Group is to learn more about two of the schools that closed in 2013 (West Philadelphia High School and Bok High School) and the impact this closure has had on their communities. This work was inspired by the work of a group of Masterman High School students who are working to commemorate the 1967 student walkouts in Philadelphia. In commemoration of these high schools that were so central in their communities, we, too, hope to celebrate and memorialize these spaces.
Class Sessions & Syllabi
2013-14 Philadelphia School Closings
interactive Map of School Closures
Use the Map below to navigate through the Philadelphia area and see information about the 23 schools that were closed in 2013.
How should we memorialize this space? What do we choose to memorialize? Who should decide what we memorialize? What constitutes a memorial?
A Journey Through the Schools
To further study the impact of school closings and the importance of memorializing, we focused particularly on West Philadelphia High School and Edward W. Bok Technical High School. Begin your explorations of the schools by following the links below. For each school, you will get to read background on the school, see pictures, and listen to an audio tour guiding you through how the current space is being used. We encourage you to visit the schools to accompany your learning.
1967 Philadelphia Student Walkout
The history
On the morning of November 17th, 1967 students across the city of Philadelphia walked out to protest the conditions of black students in the public school system. The students gathered in the city and came to the Board of Education building on 21st Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway with list of demands. As they negotiated with board members for a more equitable educational system in Philadelphia, the Commission of Police Frank Rizzo ordered busloads of officers to attack and arrest students. Despite these efforts to interfere with justice, the students demands were ultimately met by the Board of Education. Most notably from this list of demands is the incorporation of African-American History into Philadelphia high school curriculum, which was officially implemented in 2005. The brave work of these students made a long-term impact on the education system in Philadelphia and ultimately served as a beacon of hope for how student voices can make change.
Memorializing the Walkout
Students from Masterman High School have been inspired by the brave acts that took place during the 1967 Philadelphia Student Walkout and are making efforts to have this event be formally recognized as a historical marker. If you would like to hear more about these efforts we encourage you to take a look through their website below.
In-Class Student Activist Panel
To build on our conversation of the importance of the 1967 Philadelphia Student Walkout, we invited a panel of speakers to discuss the significance of student activism in society. To hear more about our panelists you can read their biographies below. If you’re interested in hearing more about the activist panel, take a look through the “Student and Youth Activism: Impact and Memory” Class Recap linked above.
Group Members
