Latin School of Chicago

Howard Ecker '62 Throughout the '60s and '70s the board of trustees and administration were realizing that Latin would not be able to move forward without becoming more diverse with Latin is complex. There were some very good times. "I loved Latin. It was a wonderful parent to me. The students were friendly, and the faculty was great," he said. "I sent my daughters there and wouldn't have sent them anywhere else. But, in some ways, it was just horrible. At that time, Latin sanctioned these social events at The Fortnightly Club on Bellevue, where all the proper kids went to dance. After the fifth grade, Jewish kids weren't invited. Those are painful memories, waiting outside the club for my friends to be finished so we could go out and do something together." In 1962, Howard Ecker would have a larger role in the story of diversity at Latin. As an upper school student, Latin sent him to a diversity conference in the public schools attended by students from all over the city. When participants discussed their own school situations, Ecker revealed that Latin had no black students. "I came back and raised the question, and I was told to shut up," Ecker recalled. Classmate Peter Grawe remembered Ecker standing up at the last student assembly of their senior year and making a motion to put the question of racial composition of the student body on the agenda for the first meeting the following fall. "In those days," Grawe said, "student assemblies were very interesting places for debate. Howard's motion was typical of the 'all things considered, open discussion' chat I remember so fondly." When asked, Ecker recalled that assembly. "I can remember seeing this sea of white shirts – we all wore shirts and ties then – in the auditorium at Scott Street. I remember that it just hit me: 'I mean, why don't we just do this?' So I stood up and made my motion. And there was dead silence." Grawe seconded the motion. The vote was called immediately and passed. Directly after the assembly, the two were called into the office of the headmaster, who, they agreed, was not pleased with the way the assembly had gone. Both young men graduated, leaving the matter to returning students. That fall, a new teacher arrived on campus. Fresh from the Ivy League corridors of the University of Pennsylvania, Judith Yohe (now Kritzberg), was hired to teach the "new math." She commuted to her job from Hyde Park and professed openly to be an ardent supporter of civil rights. "In 1962, there were no students or faculty of color, at least in the middle and upper schools. Zero. In fact, I mentioned that at the time I signed my second-year teaching In the '70s, Latin was becoming more integrated. 104 L AT I N M AGAZINE

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