Anthony Overton Elementary School
1965-2013
Chicago Public Schools closed 50 schools in May, 2013, the largest number of school closings by a single school district ever.The school closings represent loss in a multitude of ways. Children lost the constant that their school homes provided, neighborhoods lost their epicenters, and Chicago lost strength in public infrastructure. The closings also represent a historical loss for the people that the schools were named for.While many new, Chicago schools are named for the neighborhoods they reside in, or for the specialty curriculum they offer, school nomenclature in the past memorialized public figures of significance. Public education was so highly regarded, that school names were reserved for notable inventors, scientists, activists, elected officials and renowned athletes. And while the people that the schools were meant to eternalize were lost to the ages, their names found new meaning as the place where generations of Chicago youth aspired for better lives through education.The daily mention of the name ensured that some shred of legacy remained in the collective conscious.These names, like the school communities they came to represent, will be forgotten. The goals of the So Close to Ghost project are to bear witness to the loss of the closed schools, to preserve the people that the schools were named for, and to give voice to the school communities that the names came to represent.
Born into the waning days of slavery in either 1864 or 1865 in Monroe, Louisiana, Anthony Overton was one of the most powerful black men in the early 20th century. During his early career, he earned a law degree and served as a municipal judge in Kansas. In 1898, he founded the Overton Hygienic Company, a cosmetics manufacturing firm. Overton moved his growing business to Chicago in 1911, where he became a leader in the Bronzeville neighborhood. By the time of his death, he was one of the wealthiest and most connected men on the south side, and was an important black national and international figure as well, as his “high brown” cosmetics line enjoyed a wide distribution. Overton’s commercial successes were due in part to the limited options available to African American consumers in the early 20th century, and he branched out into other areas of business to serve the burgeoning black community. At a time when black customers were routinely refused service at the city’s white-owned banks, Overton organized the Douglass National Bank in 1922. Despite becoming an important and popular institution in the black community, the bank closed during the Great Depression. In addition to the bank and an insurance company, Overton founded a black newspaper in 1926, and the Chicago Bee remained in print until Overton’s death in 1946. Overton’s impact on the development of Chicago’s black community was very significant. Although known for paying his employees an extremely low wage, he nonetheless provided much needed jobs as well as cultivated black-controlled businesses at a time when such was very unusual. During the heyday of the Civil Rights Movement in 1965, a Chicago Public School was named after Anthony Overton to commemorate his role in the Chicago’s Black history.
This school had a great impact on me. The people I grew up with are still involved in my life. Some of the teachers I still know to this day and they are very encouraging. -Brandy Sanders, 24, Overton alum
June 2013. Photo by Michael Shin for Equal Voice News
July 2014
The reason for school closings, in my opinion, is pa
artially money and partially racially motivated. - Quinn Gilmore, neighborhood resident
...you rarely get to see a lot of kids that come out and play anywhere in the neighborhood.You rarely see any kind of activity over here nowadays. - Brandy Sanders, 24, Overton alum
It’s a waste to me to have a building that large abandoned‌. And the lights are always on still so there's still an electric bill. It's just a waste. - Quinn Gilmore, neighborhood resident
#SOCLOSETOGHOSt www.soclosetoghost.com This project proudly brought to you by Visionaries, an After School Matters program in the Youth Options Unlimited department at Erie Neighborhood House. Special thanks to Dr. Lara Kelland and her Source and Audience: Academic and Public Historical Methods and Practices students at UIC and Megan Erskine for their support, biographical research, and inspiration.
SUMMER 2014