Gage Park also serves students living within three neighboring communities: Chicago Lawn, New City and West Englewood.

In the summer of 1966, Martin Luther King Jr led open housing marches in the Marquette Park neighborhood located just south of the school in order to protest discrimination against blacks in housing caused by illegal redlining real estate practices.

[5] In May 1970, a brawl erupted outside the school involving white and black students stemming from an incident during a lunch break.

The PTA and community members stressed that enrollment at the time was 3,109, 800 over capacity for the building; The proposal was denied by Ald.

Black parents charged whites with racism over the situation, blaming the school's PTA president Irene Schrader.

[10][11][12][13] By November 1972, A seven–point program to end violence and tension at the school was approved after a four-hour meeting with then- Chicago schools superintendent James Redmond, Chicago police superintendent James Conlisk and a committee of black leaders and parents.

[citation needed] Gage Park competes in the Chicago Public League (CPL) and is a member of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA).