More than 2,000 Chicago students from middle and high schools marched 13 blocks Friday morning on the Near South Side to speak out against gun violence and stand up for peace.
The chanting youth were students from the Perspectives Charter Schools network. which organized the event. The Youth for Peace march started at 24th and South State streets, near the network's Joslin campus high school, and ended at 36th and Wabash Avenue, near Perspectives/IIT Math & Science Academy.
"We're tired of this senseless gun violence," said Razia Hutchins, a Perspectives student. "Don't be a victim. Choose to be a voice. Stand up and uplift each other instead of killing each other."
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said, "There is nothing that happens in our schools, our places of worship and our community groups. There is nothing on the streets of the city of Chicago that's more powerful than what's here," "There is no gang banger. There is no gang, there are no guns stronger than the people here today."