芝加哥市長伊曼紐在幾個月前提出要關閉部分芝加哥公立學校，以充分利用學校資源，節省不必要的開支，最初擬定的關閉學校數字高達200所，引起了軒然大波和多方的強烈反對。在努力了幾個月後，芝加哥公立學校董事會終於5月22日本週三做出決定，列出了要關閉的49所小學和1所中學的名單。
關閉學校的決定招來了諸多反對聲音。轄區內有學校上「關門榜」的區長表示，學校是將社區凝聚在一起的核心，關閉學校就等於解體了一個社區。芝加哥教師工會更是於上週向聯邦法院提交了兩項訴訟，力圖阻止關閉學校的措施，並表示伊曼紐將為此遭受政治上的打擊。
九歲小男孩Asean Johnson5月20日帶着自己的人馬在芝加哥市中心戴利廣場演講，準備和市長戰鬥。演講後有芝加哥人表示支持他在2025年參加芝加哥市長競選甚至參選總統。
演講全文：
Good evening, or, good morning. My name's Asean Johnson. I'm from Marcus Garvey School, located on103rd and Morgan. I come to you today to talk about the school closings. Rahm Emanuel thinks that we all are toys; he thinks he can just come into our schools and move all our kids all over they lines, and just say,"Oh, we can build a building right here. Let's just take this school out--we don't care about these kids." But it's kids in there. They need safety.
Rahm Emanuel is not caring about our schools; he is not caring about our safety. He only cares about his kids. He only care about what he needs. He do not care about nobody else but himself.
He let Barbara Byrd-Bennett, a woman that's from Detroit who don't even know the streets of Chicago where I'm from, come in and close these schools. She should not be closing these schools. They need safety and protection. You should be investing in these schools, not closing them. You should be supporting these schools, not closing them.
WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED TODAY!
We are going to City Hall, we're confronting Rahm Emanuel. We are not toys. We are not going, not without a fight. Like Martin Luther King said, like--I forgot his name but--he said that it is90% of school closings are African American. This is racism right here. This is racism. We are black and we are proud! We are white and we are proud! No matter what the color is, no matter if you're Asian, Chinese, it doesn't matter, you should not be closing these schools without walking into them and seeing what is happening in these schools!
EDUCATION IS OUR RIGHT, THAT IS WHY WE HAVE TO FIGHT!
EDUCATION IS OUR RIGHT, THAT IS WHY WE HAVE TO FIGHT!
EDUCATION IS OUR RIGHT, THAT IS WHY WE HAVE TO FIGHT!
EDUCATION IS OUR RIGHT, THAT IS WHY WE HAVE TO FIGHT!
EDUCATION IS OUR RIGHT, THAT IS WHY WE HAVE TO FIGHT!
EDUCATION IS OUR RIGHT, THAT IS WHY WE HAVE TO FIGHT!
EDUCATION IS OUR RIGHT, THAT IS WHY WE HAVE TO FIGHT!
