For our Jan. 1, 1976, edition, Illinois Times asked local leaders to prognosticate on the year ahead. Irv Smith, then the Sangamon County Superintendent of Schools: “I think it’s predictable Springfield schools will continue to drop in enrollment as long as people are undecided on what integration is going to bring. In mid-sized cities. . .schools are getting blacker and blacker [while] suburban schools are growing. The two districts that gain the most will continue to be Rochester and Chatham.” Howard Veal, then executive director of the Springfield Urban League, said this: “There’s no recovery in sight for black people. Blacks and poor people are last hired, first fired. . . . Because of white flight, the financial problems of the cities will continue to grow with erosion of the tax base.” And Sister Kay, a palmist, card reader and advisor, predicted: “I think Ronald Reagan will be strong competition for Ford. I think Walker will lose. . . . Money will get better this year [but] money doesn’t mean everything. Everybody should live equal and help one another.” –Fletcher Farrar, editor and publisher
This article appears in Jan 2-8, 2014.
