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The Ridge Historical Society

Carol Flynn

School Series – Profile 12: George Cassell

As we start the new school year, the Ridge Historical Society will run a few more posts about the people for whom Chicago Public Schools (CPS) in the Ridge communities are named. So far, we have covered eleven schools and people: Alice Barnard, Percy Julian, Charles Wacker, John Vanderpoel, Johnnie Colemon, John S. Shoop, Annie Keller, Marcus Garvey, Henry Clissold, Rudyard Kipling, and Kate Starr Kellogg. You can look back on the RHS Facebook page to find any of these previous posts, or send a message and we can send you the post.

Today we will look at George Frederick Cassell (1884-1958), a lifelong educator and administrator in the CPS system.

Cassell was born on Chicago’s west side to parents who had immigrated from England. His father’s occupation was listed as a machinist.

Cassell was educated in Chicago’s schools. He graduated from Marshall High School in 1901, and attended every one of the school’s alumni reunions throughout his life. He was honored at the 1947 event. He married Lettice Owen, a fellow Marshall graduate, in 1918.

He received an associate degree from the Lewis Institute, a school that merged into what today is the Illinois Institute of Technology. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago. His bios report he briefly attended the University of Berlin and later Northwestern University, but he did not pursue a master’s degree.

Cassell took his first teaching job in 1908 at Lewis, where he taught English and German. In 1912, he became an English teacher at Marshall. In 1921, he became principal of a Chicago public elementary school, and served as principal at four other elementary schools until 1934, when he was named principal of Harrison High School.

He was active in the Illinois State Teachers Association during these years, and in 1930, at a conference of the National Education Association of the U.S., he presented a paper on “English and Its Value to Our Schools” which was widely circulated. In this paper he not only advised of the importance of students, including those of immigrants, learning the proper English language, but also the benefits of studying and learning from good literature, both fiction and non-fiction.

In 1935, Cassell was named district superintendent of high schools, and in 1936, assistant superintendent in charge of all Chicago high schools.

The Chicago schools weathered the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II in the 1940s. Cassell navigated Chicago high schools through a dramatic shift in priorities due to the war effort.

Manufacturing plants turning out war items lured young people away from school and into jobs by offering high pay. In 1943, the number of summer work permits for 16 and 17-year-olds soared, and school registration for fall dropped. Cassell encouraged the industries to not renew work permits for this age group so they would finish high school. Alternative work/study programs in partnership with businesses were implemented and counseling services were provided for young people seeking employment.

This tied into the other shift in high school education that came about as a result of World War II – a new emphasis on trade and vocational education programs and less emphasis on academic programs. Chicago had one of the largest war training programs in the country.

In 1946, Cassell was named acting superintendent of schools upon the resignation of William H. Johnson.

The North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (NCA) had announced it was considering withdrawing its accreditation of Chicago schools because the city did not have a politically independent school board whose members were recommended by a citizens’ advisory committee, with the superintendent serving as the chief executive officer of the schools. Johnson was considered a political appointee and the school board had a structure of departments reporting to the board, not the superintendent. Accreditation was important for the prestige of schools, and high school graduates from non-accredited schools had to take special entrance exams to get into colleges.

Cassell’s appointment was first met with resistance by the NCA because Cassell did not have a master’s degree, but due to his accomplishments and reputation, he was accepted in the position and even proposed as permanent superintendent. However, he announced that because he was so close to retirement, he would not consider the position as a permanent appointment.

Cassell dealt with everything from high school football issues to school board politics in his short time as acting superintendent. His philosophy and priorities as an educator and administrator are perhaps shown best by three instances from his time as acting superintendent.

First, he made this statement: “The success of the schools is conditioned largely by the abilities and attitudes of the teachers and their happiness in the conditions under which they work.”

He clearly kept his focus on the teachers and students, not on administrative issues and politics.

Second, he won applause from the Chicago Medical Society when he fully supported that students receive regular medical and dental care.

“The values of periodic medical and dental examinations and the correction of remedial defects are indisputable. Pupils should be encouraged to visit their family physicians and dentists wherever possible. Principals will please give their wholehearted support to this most worthwhile project,” wrote Cassell.

The third example of his philosophy was the appointment of Grace E. Munson as assistant superintendent. Munson was a psychologist with Ph.D.s in education and psychology who had been a teacher and principal. Under her, the Chicago schools developed some of the country’s best programs for special needs children. She started scientific testing programs, adjusting teaching services for individual special needs, and keeping cumulative records on students. Her appointment to the position was controversial but Cassell supported the need for special education, and Munson served in this capacity until both she and Cassell retired in 1949.

Cassell served as acting superintendent of Chicago schools for a year until a new superintendent was chosen, and Cassell returned to his position as assistant superintendent. Cassell was commended for his performance in the temporary role, and Herold C. Hunt, the new superintendent, appointed Cassell as the “first assistant superintendent” in 1948.

New taxes were introduced to increase the school system’s budget and give pay raises to all the staff. Cassell was paid $16,500 annually for the role of first superintendent. He was being paid $10,700 previously for his role as assistant supervisor in charge of high schools.

Throughout his career, Cassell gave speeches at commencement exercises and other events to honor students. For many years, Chicago featured a “Youth Week,” and WGN radio had a program “Citizens of Tomorrow” that profiled outstanding honor students from the high schools and junior colleges. At luncheons that were recorded for broadcast on the radio, Cassell gave talks and presented scholarships to students.

After he retired, the Reserved Officer Training Corps (ROTC), at a dinner sponsored by the Chicago Tribune and WGN radio, paid tribute to Cassell for his “enthusiastic backing” of ROTC programs in Chicago high schools. In attendance at the dinner were military officials, Chicago educators, and 200 cadets from eight states who had won awards from the Tribune for their military and naval work. Hunt, the superintendent of Chicago schools, gave the recognition speech for Cassell.

George F. Cassell died of a heart attack while he and his wife were vacationing in Colorado. He was 74. He was buried in Forest Park, Illinois.

In 1960, the George F. Cassell School opened at 113th Street and South Spaulding Avenue in Mount Greenwood.

The Ridge Historical Society

School Series – Profile 13: Medgar Evers

Carol Flynn

As the new school year begins, we will continue to run profiles of the people for whom schools in the Ridge communities are named.

Medgar Wiley Evers (1925-1963) was a civil rights activist in Mississippi who worked to end segregation and expand opportunities for African Americans, including the enforcement of voting rights.

Evers was a World War II veteran who served in the segregated U.S. Army, rising to the rank of sergeant. His unit participated in the D-Day invasion of Europe.

Returning home, he was forced away at gunpoint when he tried to exercise his right to register to vote in Mississippi.

He attended Alcorn College on the G.I. Bill, majoring in business administration. He was an honor student and president of the junior class. He competed on the debate team, sang in the school choir, and participated in football and track.

He worked as an insurance agent under a man who was a leader in the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL), a civil rights and pro-self-help organization. Involvement in the RCNL gave Evers crucial training in activism.

When his application to the University of Mississippi Law School was rejected due to a technicality, he approached the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for help. Impressed with the young man, the NAACP offered him a position as the organization’s first field secretary in the state. Evers accepted, opening an office in Jackson, and nearly doubled NAACP membership to 15,000 within three years.

As a field worker for the NAACP, one of his first assignments was to investigate the murder of Chicagoan Emmet Till, the 14-year-old African American boy kidnapped and murdered for flirting with a white woman in 1955 in Mississippi. Evers helped locate and protect witnesses.

In 1961, Evers was sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined $100 for speaking out against the sentence handed down to a young Black man who stole several bags of chicken feed. Evers appealed his own conviction all the way to the Mississippi Supreme Court, which surprisingly found in Evers’ favor. The court was lauded for “courageously deciding the case in accordance with the law of the land,” something that was recognized would not have happened even a few years before. The Chicago Tribune declared, “The time is not yet here but it is approaching when Negroes in the deep south can look with growing confidence to the state courts as well as the federal courts to equality before the law and protection of their rights as citizens.”

Evers was part of the movement to integrate the University of Mississippi in 1962, which led to President John F. Kennedy sending in 30,000 National Guardsmen to stop the riots that started when Blacks tried to register for classes.

In 1963, Evers was elected to the board of the American Veterans Committee (AVC). He was scheduled to receive the group’s meritorious achievement award at its annual convention in Washington, D.C., but he was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, and charged with a felony, restraint of trade, for picketing for desegregation of public places. The AVC attendees instead took up a collection of money to send to Jackson to “keep courageous children safe and well.”

After nine years of civil rights and voting registration work, several attempts to kill him, and numerous death threats, Evers was assassinated outside his home by a white supremacist in June 1963. At first, the hospital refused him admittance because he was Black. His wife and young children pleaded while he bled to death in the car. The hospital admitted him, but he died within an hour. He was 37 years old.

Evers had spoken at an integration rally the night before. Over 700 African American citizens were arrested that month alone in his area for protesting for the end to Jim Crowe laws which enforced racial segregation in the military, public places, schools, transportation, federal workplaces, restaurants, drinking fountains, and restrooms, creating institutionalized economic, educational, and social disadvantages for many African Americans living in the United States. Hundreds more were arrested when they attempted to march after Evers was killed. African Americans were rounded up for trying to enter whites-only restaurants and picketing other places and taken via garbage trucks and other means to campgrounds put aside for their holding which were declared no better than concentration camps. African Americans were not allowed positions on police forces in Mississippi in the 1960s.

Rewards for information on Evers' killer/s were offered by the city of Jackson, the NAACP, the United Steel Workers Union, local newspapers, and other groups. U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy assigned FBI agents to track down the sniper. However, Evers’ murderer was tried and released twice by white juries in the 1960s.

It took until 1994 for a racially mixed jury to find the murderer guilty and sentence him to life in prison.

Evers stated in 1960: “Threats sometimes frighten me, but I’m going to continue the work even if it means making the ultimate sacrifice.” He made that sacrifice. Evers was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. Over 3,000 people attended the ceremony. However, his legacy is not his death, it is the many positive contributions he made to advancing rights for all people.

The Medgar Evers School at 9811 S. Lowe Street opened in 1969.

School Series – Profile 14Elizabeth “Bessie” Huntington Sutherland

By Carol Flynn

The next person to be profiled in our series about people for whom Chicago Public Schools on the Ridge are named is Elizabeth “Bessie” Huntington Sutherland (1851 – 1924).

Bessie Sutherland was a very respected and forward-thinking leader in the education field.

She was born in 1851 on the Ridge. Her parents, Samuel and Maria Robinson Huntington, were part of the earliest Ridge pioneer families. Samuel was a farmer and kept stock and also became involved with the railroads, and served as sheriff of the City of Blue Island. Maria was reputed to have been an early teacher in Blue Island, making $1.00 per week for her efforts.

Around 1854, a two-room schoolhouse was built in Blue Island, and it is probable that Bessie attended this school as a child. She went on for training as a teacher at the Cook County Normal School, established in 1867. The name “normal school” was used for teacher preparation programs because they established teaching standards or “norms.” Bessie graduated from this school in 1869. This school eventually evolved into Chicago State University.

Bessie’s career as a teacher included the Blue Island school and the Hyde Park high school. She took graduate classes at the University of Chicago. She was a member of the National Education Association.

The Washington Heights public school started in 1874 and Bessie became principal there in 1883, the first woman to be named a principal in Cook County. In 1893, this school was renamed the Alice L. Barnard School, after another Ridge native who had become the first woman principal of a Chicago school.

A 1912 History of Education in Illinois reported that Bessie had three schools under her charge, nineteen teachers, and eight hundred students.

Bessie became a teacher during the “Progressive Era,” that time of significant reform. The field of education made great advances during this time, as the philosophy of learning changed from rote memorization to exploration and experimentation. Bessie surely knew two of the movement's leaders in Chicago, Francis W. Parker, who became head of the Cook County Normal School, and John Dewey, who established the University of Chicago Laboratory School.

An anecdote about Bessie illustrates the Progressive educator. While principal at the Barnard School, one day she heard that a camel had escaped from a traveling show and was freely roaming the local woods. She gathered the entire student body and led an impromptu field trip to the woods to observe the camel “in the wild” and share a lesson on animals of the world.

Bessie was a strong proponent of kindergarten, a unique program that developed in Europe separate from the traditional grade school model. This new model, which emphasized investigation and imagination, was just starting in U.S. schools in the late 1800s.

Bessie started a program at the Washington Heights School, and is quoted in a 1900 publication, Education in the United States, that when comparing siblings from families where the older children went through school before the kindergarten program was started, the younger siblings who had the advantage of kindergarten “were brighter in every way,” which she attributed to the “early wholesome awakening brought about by the training of the kindergarten.”

[RHS did an entire newsletter in the past on kindergarten and the pioneering educators in this area who lived on the Ridge, the Hofer family, and will run a series on this in the future.]

Bessie authored professional articles, including one on a county-wide spelling contest for the Journal on Rural Education. However, in a literature search, several articles about crime are attributed to her that were actually written by another E. H. Sutherland, Edwin H., a U.S. sociologist and criminologist.

During Bessie’s lifetime, women teachers were not allowed to marry if they wished to remain employed. It was believed that married women teachers would put their energies into their home and the classrooms would suffer.

Bessie put off marriage to David Sutherland until her 43rd birthday in 1894. Sutherland, seventeen years Bessie’s senior, was a real estate developer with considerable property on the south and west sides of Chicago. They made their home at 1638 West 103rd Street. The couple had no children, and David died in 1904. A favorite niece and her family made their home with Bessie.

Bessie kept her employment during her married years. She served as the “lady principal” of Barnard School for almost 40 years. She resigned in 1923, and died in 1924. She was buried in Mt. Greenwood Cemetery.

In 1925, the new school built at 101st and Leavitt Streets was named in her honor.