A dozen protestors are engaged in a hunger strike in Chicago, on behalf of a proposal to reconstitute a closed neighborhood high school. The hunger strike is now in its fourth day. The Walter Dyett high school is the only four-year high school in the Bronzeville section of Chicago. The group is led by Jitu Brown, a civil rights leader in Chicago who heads the Journey to Justice Alliance, which has helped to organize grassroots community action in other cities. In a city where the leadership has promoted choice, the one choice it seems unwilling to recognize is the choice of the local residents. “Choice” is honored, apparently, only when it is imposed by entrepreneurs, charter chains, and politicians.
The Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High School, which created the plan to re-open Dyett as a global leadership and green technology school, spearheaded the hunger strike. The 12 hunger strikers, including community and faith leaders, education activists and public school parents, held their protest outside the now-closed school, located in the Washington Park neighborhood at 555 E. 51st St.
“We are tired of our voices not being heard,” said hunger striker Jitu Brown with the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, one of many groups behind the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High School. “There has to be accountability to the public for the destabilizing of schools in our community and the sabotage of our children’s education.”
Brown said the hunger strikers will only drink water and “light liquids” and are prepared to remain outside Dyett “as long as the creator allows us to be out here.”
The Rev. Jesse Jackson and Chicago Teachers Union leader Karen Lewis have endorsed the Dyett protestors.
Show your support with the Twitter Hashtag: #fightfordyett
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Our Chicago thoughts are prayers are with the Dyett protest. CPS Board of Ed is no different than Bernie Madoff in its morals. http://windycityteachers.blogspot.com/2015/08/cps-board-of-ed-bernie-madoff.html
It’s really sad when the wishes of the tax paying public means nothing to these politicians and everything is about creating money making charters. This is what the local community needs to do, let these elected officials know that they can not sell off their community and force its residents into private charters. Refuse to support or participate in their privatization. Local to national opt out.
I support the hunger-strikers!
I need to explain to someone how this situation is intertwined with charters and vouchers.
Any pointers?
Involved Mom, Chicago doesn’t have vouchers, but it has an aggressive charter movement. Two years ago, Mayor Emanuel closed 50 public schools, as the charter sector continued its growth. Dyett may or may not end up as a charter school, but it is the last neighborhood high school in Bronzeville and the local community is fighting to keep it open for their children by offering its own proposal.
Involved Mom,
One of the major selling points for vouchers and charters is the idea of school choice. In Bronzeville, the schools have been intentionally defunded and systematically closed to the point where the only public choice is charters. The neighborhood has had enough, and as DR says the community, teachers, and activist have created an alternative; the Dyett Global Leadership & Green Technology HS (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dyett-Global-Leadership-Green-Technology-HS/444474968927301)
This is their choice, yet CPS and Mayor Emmanuel are not interested in hearing it or honoring it.
The strikers are in my heart.
WOW!!!! People with real moxie and back bone. Karen Lewis and Chicago teachers have blazed THE path in my opinion. TRAGIC that it had to come to this but as I mentioned before, history has not been kind to our general public until a real knock down drag out fight forced change.
In my younger more naive days I thought that when once the fallacies of beliefs were shown that obviously those fallacies would be pushed aside and intelligent progress would be made.
Naive is hardly the word.. All through our political system power, money prevail over right. People exist for political and corporate gain. Naively I thought government existed for people.
Old age and cynicism has set in. I find it very very scary for my children and grandchildren, the world they are inheriting.
Thankfully there now seem to be people taking up the fight.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.
ONLY with this fighting back will the country’s ideals which we have been taught to love and respect will be actuated.
Social media using the #FightForDyett hashtag has exploded with over 36,000 tweets and many thousands of Facebook posts. Former CPS teacher Eve Ewing wrote an incredibly thoughtful piece that puts the long struggle for Dyett into context.