Join WTTW’s Chicago Tonight for a virtual event, BLACK VOICES: A WTTW News Community Conversation, on Monday, October 30 at 12:00 pm.

October 22, 2023 marked the 60th anniversary of “Freedom Day”, the 1963 boycott and march in which more than 200,000 students across Chicago skipped class in protest of then-school superintendent Benjamin Willis and his policies that reinforced school segregation.

Chicago Tonight co-anchor and Chicago Tonight: Black Voices host Brandis Friedman will moderate this live virtual conversation with community and cultural leaders as they reflect on the boycott and its implications for today. Friedman will be joined by panelists Rosie Simpson, an activist and parent active in the 1963 boycott; political consultant Don Rose, who served as the media director for the 1963 boycott; architect Charles Smith, a former organizer and leader with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE); and Tanesha Peeples, Founder and Executive Director of The Roots Initiative. Simpson, Smith and Rose appear in the recent Kartemquin Films documentary ’63 Boycott.

Lead support for CHICAGO TONIGHT: BLACK VOICES is provided by Fifth Third Bank. Additional support is provided by Allstate, Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust, Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, Julian Grace Foundation, Gertrude Dyane and James H. Wooten, Jr., and Drs. Ian and Tristé Smith.