Reparations Won Curriculum

As part of the reparations legislation for Chicago police torture survivors, a curriculum about the history of Burge police torture and the successful fight for reparations was collaboratively developed for 8th and 10th grade history classes and adopted by Chicago Public Schools in 2017.

Anthony Holmes

Burge police torture survivor and CTJMF Board Vice President

We suffered and the fact that we’re able to talk about it, it helps us heal some. The healing part comes in us being able to tell our stories.

Essential Questions for Students

Enduring Understandings

The program of torture conducted by Jon Burge and other officers of the Chicago Police Department must be understood in the context of racial, institutional, historical, and economic factors.
Using the legal system and community action to achieve their goals, individuals and groups, with leadership from the African American community, worked for decades to stop torture and gain reparations for those who suffered at the hands of Chicago police officers.
Because difficult historic episodes often represent enduring issues or conflicts, studying and discussing them can help us understand contemporary controversies.

Lauren Bianchi

CPS teacher

This curriculum deals with very traumatic and difficult topics of violence, people surviving violence, racism, police brutality. And I think that students really appreciate that they're being trusted to handle these very difficult topics in a mature way... I think it gives students an opportunity to experience school as a space where they can learn about difficult history, as well as challenge those things.

Curriculum Units

Part 1: Unit Launch

Students are introduced to a Talking Circle strategy to begin building the classroom environment necessary to deal with difficult issues.

Part 2: What Is the Burge Torture Scandal?

Students are introduced to basic facts about the torture scandal using primary and secondary sources.

Part 3: How Did the Burge Torture Scandal Affect Survivors and Their Families?

Students read testimonies from torture survivors and use words from the testimonies to create found poetry that helps convey the impact of torture on the survivors and their families.

Part 4: How Did This Happen?

Students use primary source documents to investigate how systemic racism, individual racism, concerns about crime, tension between the Chicago Police Department and the African American community, and the role of political leaders contributed to the scandal.

Part 5: How Did the Community Respond?

Students learns how people and organizations used a variety of tactics to seek justice in the case.

Part 6: Reparations and Reflections

Students focus on the reparations legislation and take space to reflect on what they have learned and felt as they studied the torture scandal.

Unit Assessment: Designing a Memorial

Students are asked to develop a plan for a memorial that will educate the public about the torture of Chicagoans by members of the Chicago Police Department.

Elizabeth Todd-Breland

CPS board member and Reparations Won curriculum developer

[This] is one of the most collaborative curriculum development spaces I've ever been in. We had members of Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Teachers Union, Teachers Social Studies, teachers in the district, legal organizations, nonprofits, representatives from organizations that included survivors, myself, and another historian.

Field Trips to the Chicago Torture Justice Memorial

Once completed, the Chicago Torture Justice Memorial will be a site for interactive, hands-on learning for students participating in the Reparations Won curriculum.

Timeline & Living Website

One of the most important features of the memorial will be the timeline constructed under the memorial roofline, which will present the history of Burge police torture in Chicago and the decades-long movement against it. The timeline will also be connected to a living website that will provide further information and can be updated and expanded far into the future.

Oral History Project

Students and teachers will also have access to recordings of survivors, their family members, and community organizers telling their stories in their own words through our on-going oral history project, providing an organic, personal experience.

Tours and Interaction with Survivors

Students visiting the memorial will be able to learn directly from survivors of police violence through survivor-led tours, and programming for all ages will be offered year-round to foster intergenerational community-building and empowerment.