History
The school began in 1916 with 283 students. By the 1970s, the student population had grown to over 3,300, though the enrollment has decreased since then.
In 1934, 1,700 Morgan Park students went on strike, protesting the presence of African-Americans in school classes, leaving only 58 students in school. Parents had met with the school superintendent demanding that classes be kept segregated.
Eventually the strike was settled and the white students returned to the integrated school. Frank Sinatra visited the area to support integration during the strike and encourage the students return to the school.
Read more about this topic: Morgan Park High School
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—D.H. (David Herbert)
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“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
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