1967 Black Student Walkouts
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
On Nov. 17, 1967, thousands of middle and high school students organized a citywide walkout to the former Board of Education Building here and were met with police violence. It was one of the largest and earliest youth-led demonstrations in the national ethnic studies movement. Students’ demands for culturally inclusive education were realized in 2005 when Philadelphia became the first US school district to mandate African American studies.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
On November 17, 1967, thousands of Philadelphia students walked out of their schools and gathered at the Board of Education building to demand an education that reflected their own histories. The peaceful demonstration met police violence, but it stands as one of the earliest and largest youth-led actions in the national ethnic studies movement. Decades later, in 2005, the students' vision was realized when Philadelphia became the first U.S. district to require African American studies.
Why it matters
This walkout links the civil rights struggle to today's fight over what American children are taught, showing that young people helped reshape the nation's classrooms.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Museums & culture
- African American Museum in Philadelphia1.3 mi away · 701 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Bridgette Mayer1.4 mi away · 709 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
- National Constitution Center1.4 mi away · 525 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Independence Visitor Center1.4 mi away · 599 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Liberty Bell Center1.4 mi away · 526 Market Street, Philadelphia
- Congress Hall1.5 mi away · Philadelphia, PA
Attractions
- The Universal Sphere0.4 mi away
- Rocky Steps0.5 mi away
- One Liberty Observation Deck0.6 mi away
- Reading Terminal0.9 mi away
- Chinatown Friendship Gate1.0 mi away · 10th and Arch Street
- Philly Gun Range1.1 mi away · North Percy Street
Food & drink
- Burger King1.3 mi away
- Philly Pretzel Factory1.3 mi away
- Munchie’s Cafe1.3 mi away · 728 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
- El Azteca1.3 mi away
- Dunkin'1.3 mi away · 634 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Park’s Salad Bar1.3 mi away
Places to stay
- Days Inn Philadelphia Convention Center - Philadelphia0.8 mi away · 1227 Race Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Residence Inn Philadelphia Center City0.8 mi away · 1 East Penn Square, Philadelphia, PA
- The Notary Hotel0.8 mi away · 21 North Juniper Street, Philadelphia
- Four Points by Sheraton Philadelphia City Center0.8 mi away · 1201 Race Street, Philadelphia
- Home2 Suites by Hilton Philadelphia - Convention Center, PA0.9 mi away · 1200 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Philadelphia Marriott Downtown0.9 mi away · 1201 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA
Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related events
- · 1967 Black Student Walkouts
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Girard College Civil Rights Landmark
Philadelphia, PA · est. 1992
Stephen Girard's 1831 will founded a school for poor white orphan boys, and for more than a century that racial restriction stood. Beginning in the 1930s, attorney Raymond Pace Alexander challenged it, and lawyer Cecil B. Moore later carried the fight into the federal courts. A 1968 ruling finally opened Girard College to students of all races, making its walls a landmark of the modern civil rights struggle.
Freedom Theatre
Philadelphia, PA · est. 1991
This building has worn many identities across a century and a half—first the home of famed tragedian Edwin Forrest, then the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, and later Heritage House. In 1968 it became the Freedom Theatre, a community-rooted Black theater dedicated to professional training in the dramatic arts. Amid the era's civil-rights ferment, it gave African-American performers a stage and a school of their own.
Opportunities Industrialization Centers
Philadelphia, PA · est. 1990
In 1964, in the unlikely setting of an abandoned Philadelphia jailhouse, Rev. Leon H. Sullivan opened the first Opportunities Industrialization Center to train Black workers for skilled jobs that discrimination had long kept beyond their reach. Born of the same organizing energy as Sullivan's earlier 'selective patronage' boycotts, O.I.C. paired vocational instruction with dignity and self-reliance, and the model spread from this city to hundreds of centers across the nation and eventually overseas.
Octavius V. Catto (1839-1871)
Philadelphia, PA · est. 1992
Octavius V. Catto was a rising leader of Black Philadelphia in the Civil War and Reconstruction years—an early graduate of the Institute for Colored Youth who became an educator, a military officer, and a tireless organizer for equal rights. On election day in 1871, as he urged Black citizens to exercise their newly won right to vote, he was assassinated by rioters. His death was mourned across the city as the loss of a brilliant champion of equality.