Latin School of Chicago

Background: Latin's Black Student Union in 1972. Keith Graham '74 In 1980, the "ethnic percentage" of the student body at Latin School was 13.3. Today, 30.4 percent of Latin students self-identify as students of color. 106 L AT I N M AGAZINE contract," said Kritzberg. "I told Headmaster Graham that it concerned me that there was no diversity at Latin, and he said, 'Well, do you know anyone?'" Kritzberg was impressed by Graham's desire to see the school change and signed on for another year. "John Graham was responsible for integrating Latin," said Kritzberg. "In fact, David Jones, the Morgan Park Academy headmaster at the time, credits John for advising him on how to integrate Morgan Park, too." Once the color barrier had been broken at Latin, attempts were made to ensure that there was ethnic diversity in every grade. At every step of the way, there were those who wanted the changes to be faster and more dramatic and those who resisted them. In the '60s and '70s, the entire nation was struggling with issues of civil rights and race relations, and the concerns raised elsewhere simultaneously had mobilizing and cautionary effects on people involved with the school. Keith Graham '74 was among the first African-American male students at Latin. He is philosophical about his time at the school, which he joined in the fall of his freshman year. "For most majority-race people at Latin, being around people of African descent was a new thing, and with any change there are bound to be discomforts," Graham said. "Most people from the majority population are privileged to not have to think about racial issues most of the time, and our being there sort of changed that." Graham's experience at the school was at once liberating and eye-opening. It was liberating, as his parents had predicted when they decided to send him to Latin, to be able to make friends with individuals around mutual interests like reading books and discussing ideas, he says. It was eye-opening because of its time in the history of the nation and the school. "Issues of difference and diversity were fairly new, and I got the sense that there were many people at the school making sure that everything went well and that this process of integration was a positive evolution." By the time the 1978 school history was published, its authors wrote that, during the '70s, "The trustees recognized and expressed the need for the maintenance of a broad balance in the student body of 850 in the areas of sex, religion, and ethnic backgrounds." The commitment to a diverse school community, though, did not appear in Latin's mission statement until 1993. As time has progressed, so has the school with regard to diversity issues. Latin continues to strive to make the school a welcoming community for students of all backgrounds, by increasing its admissions outreach to all parts of the Chicago area and ensuring that students, no matter where they come from or who they are, are supported by a diverse community of adults. n

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