Alice’s Ordinary People

Back when Chicago schools were segregated, black schools were so overcrowded that students attended classes in two shifts, and Superintendent Benjamin C. Willis purchased mobile aluminum school units to handle overflow, even though superior white schools weren’t overcrowded at all. The name Alice Tregay might not mean much to you, but the Chicago woman was instrumental in protesting for equality, first with the so-called “Willis Wagons” and later on an increasingly larger scale. She didn’t bother with politicians, at least not at first. Instead, she challenged segregation by registering ordinary people to vote, and by making sure they stayed informed about the events that directly affected them. Illinois documentarian Craig Dudnick is touring his biography of Tregay at libraries nationally.