Sears Tower Renamed Willis Tower, Recalls Ugly Era of Segregation in Chicago Schools at the Hands of Benjamin Coppage Willis, School Superintendent

Chicago's Sears Tower, the tallest building in North America, has been renamed the Willis Tower, the name is a stark reminder of a period of hatred and segregation in the United States. The name reminds many Chicagoans of Benjamin Coppage Willis, Superintendent of Schools in Chicago in the 1960s, who was accused of perpetuating racial segregation by refusing to move black children into white schools. He died on Saturday in his home, ironically in a placed called Plantation, Fla., and was 86 years old. Willis presided over the schools during an ugly time in the city's history and in the era of court-ordered desegregation after the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 and the passage of the Civil Rights Act 10 years later. Willis' critics have accused him of deliberately keeping black children at overcrowded schools in the inner city, while there were many available spaces in white neighborhoods, in short, black segregation.

To many civil rights leaders, who led protests against Mr. Willis from 1963 to 1965, his 13-year tenure as superintendent was symbolized by the 625 mobile classrooms he established to alleviate overcrowding at mostly black schools on Chicago's South Side. The critics called the mobile classrooms ''Willis Wagons.''

Benjamin Coppage Willis was born on Dec. 23, 1901, in Baltimore. He received his doctorate from Columbia University and, after starting as principal of a four-room schoolhouse in Henderson, Md., eventually became superintendent of the school systems in Hagerstown, Md., Yonkers and Buffalo. Drew Praise at First

He was appointed to the Chicago post in 1953. Forceful and confident, described in one new account as confronting ''each hour as another landing on Guadalcanal,'' Mr. Willis drew praise in the 1950's for cutting class size, streamlining construction of new school buildings, and working out higher salaries for teachers.

But in 1963, protests broke out when civil rights leaders and black students accused Mr. Willis's administration of fostering segregation in the schools. Protesters burned mobile classrooms, boycotted classes, went on hunger strikes and picketed Mr. Willis's home. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led some of the protests against Mr. Willis. At the 1963 march on Washington, 3,000 Chicagoans strode down Pennsylvania Avenue, chanting ''Down with Willis.''

For three stormy years rife with similar upheavals, Mr. Willis kept his post, finally leaving in 1966, four months before his term was to end. After leaving Chicago, Mr. Willis worked for two years as schools superintendent in Broward County, Fla.. He retired in 1972. Source: NY Times

Benjamin C. Willis may have been revered in certain quarters, but he was a vile reminder of the scourge of segregation and racism in this country. Though the name of the Willis Tower, named after Willis Group Holdings, has nothing to do with him, the name is a stark reminder of the racial turmoil that existed in the United States during that dark period. It should also serve as a motivator for our young black men and women to reach for the stars, get a solid education and give back to your society because so many blacks fought and died for us to be treated with respect and not discriminated against.

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