Almost exactly 60 years ago, on Aug. 2, 1965, comedian and political activist Dick Gregory led protesters on a five-mile march from City Hall toward 3536 S. Lowe, the home of mayor Richard J. Daley.

They chanted “Ben Willis must go, snake Daley also” — Willis was the superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools, notorious for jamming Black students into “Willis wagons,” classrooms held in trailers, a solution to overcrowding not found in white schools.

They were met by a mob of several hundred Bridgeport residents, who poured out of their homes, shouting racist slurs, hurling rocks and eggs. The police ordered the marchers to disperse and, when they didn’t obey, arrested 65 peaceful marchers, charging them with disorderly conduct.

Opinion

“If I had arrested the crowd, I would have had

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