The demonstrations aimed to end the de facto segregation of Chester public schools that persisted after the 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka.
[1] The racial unrest and civil rights protests were led by Stanley Branche of the Committee for Freedom Now (CFFN) and George Raymond of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons (NAACP).
The protests intensified from February to April 1964, featuring civil rights rallies, marches, pickets, boycotts, and sit-ins.
National civil rights leaders such as Dick Gregory, Gloria Richardson, and Malcolm X came to Chester to support the demonstrations.
[4] The demonstrations were marked by violence and police brutality; activist James Farmer dubbed Chester the "Birmingham of the North".
The white exodus fortified residential segregation, until 80% of the black population lived in a cluster of census tracts in central Chester.
The library at Franklin Elementary was merely a few piles of books, the gym an empty coal bin, and the playground a cement area with a dangerous 4-foot drop on one side.
[8] George Raymond became the leader of the Chester branch of the NAACP in 1942 and began to implement programs to end racial discrimination.
[9] He worked with J. Pius Barbour, the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Chester, to adopt a gradualist approach to civil rights.
[10] In 1945, Raymond and the NAACP desegregated movie theaters, restaurants, hotels, and other businesses in Chester through non-violent protests and the threat of legal action.
[13] Stanley Branche arrived back home in Chester in 1962 after participating in activism in the Cambridge movement in Dorchester County, Maryland.
After media coverage of the mass arrests drew public attention, the mayor and school board negotiated with the CFFN and NAACP.
On April 3, the mayor of Chester, James Gorbey, issued "The Police Position to Preserve the Public Peace", a 10-point statement promising an immediate return to law and order.
[4] On April 20, The CFFN, the NAACP, and the Chester School Board met to discuss the legal charges brought against protesters who were arrested.
[19] The next day, April 21, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission admitted that it failed to bring the civil rights groups and the school board to a compromise.
[24] Scranton created the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission to conduct hearings on the de facto segregation of public schools.
[2] On May 4, 1964, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission began hearings to determine the state of de facto segregation in Chester.
When President Lyndon B. Johnson initiated his War on Poverty, the GCM became a conduit through which federal dollars were distributed in Chester with Branche serving on the steering committee.