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Wheeled Classrooms. Two weeks ago impatience with Willis pushed Chicago Negroes to violence. From sit-ins at the school board headquarters, demonstrators went on to lie-downs in front of "Willis Wagons," mobile classrooms that are sent into neighborhoods with crowded schools. Negroes regard the wheeled classrooms as devices for maintaining segregation. Police arrested 56 demonstrators. Brick-throwing teenagers injured several cops. Hotheads lofted a molotov cocktail at one Willis Wagon, set fire to another.
Last week the school board took under consideration a proposal to bring in a panel of outside educators to draw up a plan for eliminating segregation in the city's schools. Willis has already begun to yield.
Pressured by the school board, he has agreed to broaden his transfer plan. By a vote of 10 to 1, the school board has directed him to take a racial census of the schools, a step that he had previously resisted. Acting under a new state law, the board plans to redraw school district boundaries to speed integration. Says one board member: "I believe that Willis intends to carry out these proposals. I'm counting on it. He will either carry them out or leave. That's been made clear."