Thank you everyone for a wonderful reunion weekend! A big thank you to our generous sponsors Family Focus, Shorefront Legacy Center, and Hecky's Barbeque and to Doria Johnson and Dino Robinson for putting together and moderating such interesting and thought-provoking panel discussions.

Please check out our reunion photos and add your own to the album. We still need help identifying our fellow students in the missing classmates section of this site. You can also view our Class Yearbook, update your own profile, and view other's profiles. 

Many of you requested a copy of Gail Hutchison's poem Smoke. It is available here.

Until we meet again!

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Welcome

Please join us July 15-17, 2016 as we celebrate the momentous 50th anniversary of our 1966 Foster School Kindergarten class, an important milestone in the desegregation of Evanston's District 65 schools.

Registration

Register for our reunion events here. Friday's Welcome Dinner is $14 and Saturday's lunch is $12. 

Speakers

We are delighted to announce the following confirmed speakers for the two panel discussions:

• Doria Johnson, 1966 Foster Kindergartener and Moderator
• Dino Robinson, Founder and Director of the Shorefront Legacy Center and Moderator
• Wanda Len Davis, 1966 Foster Kindergartener
• Thomas J. Mertz, 1966 Foster Kindergartener
• Carlton Moody, former King Lab faculty
• Robin Tucker (formerly Robin Moran), parent of 1966 kindergartener, Chair of the Citizen’s Advisory Commission on Integration
• Dr. Iva Carruthers, noted educator and social advocate
• Bennett Johnson, Activist and Founder of Path Publishing, the first Black-owned book publishing company in the United States (past Executive, Third World Press);
• Reverend Dr. Michael C. R. Nabors, Senior Pastor of Second Baptist Church of Evanston  
• Oliver Ruff, Education consultant, District 65 administrator/teacher
• Dr. Gilo Logan, Diversity Consultant, Adjunct Professor Harper College, Critical Race Theory Expert, S.O.U.L Creations founder

Location

Unless otherwise noted, all events will be held in the original Foster/King Lab School, now Weisbourd Holmes Family Focus Center (2010 Dewey Avenue, Evanston, IL). The building is fully wheelchair accessible.

Our Partners and Sponsors

Shorefront Legacy Center and Family Focus.

Participants

While the focus of the reunion events is the 1966 Foster Kindergarteners and their family members, teachers, and administrators, the community is welcome to attend most events. 1966 Kindergarteners, please fill out your profile, even if you are not able to attend this reunion (we still want to stay in touch). If you were not part of the 1966 Kindergarten class but did graduate from Foster/King Lab with us in 1972, you are welcome to fill out a Classmate Profile and join all of our activities.

See our Reunion Yearbook for photos and profiles of all of the classmates we have found so far!

Missing Classmates

Please help us find our classmates by clicking on the "Missing Classmates" section of this website. If you can identify someone listed in this section or if you know of additional 1966 Kindergarten classmates not listed here, please contact susanhagstrom@yahoo.com.

Events

Events include panels of those who participated in the Foster School desegregation effort as students, administrators, parents, and teachers; as well as of current scholars, educators, and activists. The community is welcome to attend these open forums. The 1967 documentary by Larry Brooks, "The Desegregation of Foster School," will be shown.

Additional activities for 1966 Foster/King Lab alumni, teachers, family, administrators and community members will include shared meals and opportunities to share photos and memories. Please RSVP for Reunion Events here.

We will be reflecting back about the impact of these efforts as we dialogue about the current situation of race relations in Evanston and the country. Please come prepared to reminisce, meet and greet, and have fun and meaningful conversations.

Background

The Foster School/King Lab 1966 Kindergarten Reunion project is a gathering to commemorate the teachers, families, administrators, leaders, students, and community that tried to shift Evanston from a segregated society towards an integrated one.  

50 years ago in Evanston, IL, all-black Foster School began the process of elementary school desegregation by accepting white Kindergarteners (who were bused from predominantly white neighborhoods) to the school. The education we received from our passionate, talented teachers was excellent but it was a very tumultuous time in Evanston, resulting in the firing of the superintendent who oversaw the desegregation process (by a 4 to 3 vote of the school board). And eventually, Evanston's black community lost its only neighborhood school when Foster - by then renamed the Martin Luther King Jr. Laboratory School - closed down permanently.

Moving from de facto to de jure and back made national news, but also had lasting effects on many lives. We hope to gather as our central participants those who were there in 1966 when District 65 Superintendent Dr. Gregory Coffin was hired. We hope this gathering scaffolds the sixties environment, but also gives heft to the legacies that remain.

Those of us who were kindergarteners (plus parents, teachers, administrators and community members) are gathering to talk about what this experience meant for us and for our community, and what implications it has for the state of race relations and schools in the US today. 

PBS video clip from Larry Brook's 1967 documentary, “The Integration of Foster School” (aired on Chicago Tonight Aug 6, 2009) http://video.pbs.org/video/1208023192/ The full documentary will be shown on Saturday.

To volunteer, contribute ideas for this event, or help locate original participants (students, instructors, staff, parents, community leaders), please complete and share this on-line form: http://tinyurl.com/Foster-Kindergarten-Reunion

Join our Facebook page to share photos, memories, and to stay in touch: https://www.facebook.com/Foster-SchoolKing-Lab-1966-Kindergarten-Reunion-152398445119815 

We look forward to hearing from you!

Your Foster/King Lab School 1966 Kindergarten 50th Reunion Planning Committee:

Doria Johnson, 1966 Kindergartener, doriadee47@gmail.com

Dino Robinson, Founder of Shorefront Legacy Center, shorefront@me.com

Sarah Moran, 1966 Kindergartener, sbmoran@gmail.com

Gail Hutchison, 1966 Kindergartener,  gailjoy@sbcglobal.net

Carlton Moody, King Lab Faculty, cmoody2@gmail.com

Lisa Disch, 1966 Kindergartener,  ldisch@umich.edu

Susan Hagstrom, 1966 Kindergartener, susanhagstrom@yahoo.com

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