Black Lives Matter Activists Meet With CPS After Canceling Planned Protest at Chicago High School

As racial tensions continue to heat up in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood on Chicago's Far South Side, Black Lives Matter Youth activists met with city and Chicago Public Schools officials Friday after canceling a planned protest due to safety concerns. 

Activists met with Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, 19th Ward Alderman Matt O’Shea and Marist High School Principal Larry Tucker, the group said in a statement.

Upset over racially-charged text messages from a group of Marist students, and the fatal police-involved shooting of 25-year-old Joshua Beal, organizers had planned to protest at Marist Friday. But both classes and the demonstration were canceled after the protesters received online messages threatening violence. 

"The safety of the kids right now is the main concern and I'm glad they're doing something about it, but the fact that this is happening all entirely, it shouldn’t be," said John Dilagaf, whose cousin attends Marist.

Black Lives Matter Youth and Walter Payton College Prep’s Black Student Union had planned to meet at Wrigley Square Millennium Park and travel to Marist High School to denounce “the racist response of locals in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood and students at Marist High School to the murder of Joshua Beal.”

Beal, of Indianapolis, was killed in a police-involved shooting during a traffic dispute in Mount Greenwood Saturday afternoon, Beal's family and authorities said.

Since Beal’s shooting, supporters of both Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter have clashed in protests near where Beal was fatally shot.

Officials at nearby Marist High School, a private Catholic school, canceled classes on Friday due to safety concerns for students and to limit disruptions on school grounds, the school announced on its website Thursday. 

Instead, activists met with officials for approximately two hours to talk about race relations, and said their demands were met. 

“Superintendent Johnson agreed to hold mandatory workshops that educate officers on the efforts of Black Lives Matter as an organization,” activist Eva Lewis said following the meeting. “He also agreed to hold monthly meetings to discuss police brutality.”

"We have established a dialogue with them and I am committed to meeting with them on a monthly basis," Johnson added.

"Today we began to turn the corner and can begin the healing process to find peace," Ald. O'Shea said.

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