The Fight For Dyett: What It Teaches Us and Why It Matters

On Saturday, a group of parents, grandparents, teachers, and community members ended a historic 34-day hunger strike. Their cause? To save what is the last open enrollment public high school in the historic Bronzeville community in Chicago, Walter H. Dyett High School.  Several strikers had been hospitalized; one collapsed at a recent Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Board Meeting. The chief medical officer for the Cook County Department of Public Health, Dr. Linda Rae Murray urged Mayor Rahm Emanuel to negotiate with the strikers. Other prominent physicians echoed her calls. Yet for 34 days, the twelve hunger strikers remained resolved, and were joined by three more.  The attending nurse for the strikers, Erin Raether for Nurses for Justice, has pronounced that it was “a life threatening situation.”   Read more.

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