Stolen School

Synopsis

STOLEN SCHOOL confronts the reality that desegregation wasn’t good for everyone. In 1967, the local school district in Evanston, IL, closed Foster School—the all-Black neighborhood school in the historically Black 5th Ward—in the name of integration. Rather than ensuring equal access to resources, this decision displaced generations of Black students, forcing them to be bussed across town while their community was left without a local school.

For nearly 60 years, 5th Ward children have had to leave their neighborhood each day to attend school, while the land where Foster once stood became repurposed for other uses. The closure fractured a vital institution and erased a cornerstone of Black educational and cultural life in Evanston.

Stolen School features the voices and stories of Foster School students, 5th Ward residents, educators, civil servants, and activists who describe their devastating losses and chronicle their ongoing fight to get their school back. It is a story of resilience, activism, and the unyielding demand for educational justice.