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Willie Wilson vows to re-open some of 50 schools Emanuel closed

Mayoral candidate Willie Wilson vowed Friday to reopen at least some of the 50 schools closed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and blamed the record closings for the steady decline in student population.

The Chicago Public Schools have 150,000 more seats than students. Much of that excess capacity is in South and West Side neighborhoods hard hit by a black exodus from the city. Pressure is building for another round of school closings now that a 5-year moratorium has expired.

But Wilson said Friday he would do just the opposite if he's elected mayor. He would reopen some of the 50 schools Emanuel closed in 2013.

"If I had closed 50 schools in the white community, they would have hung me on State and Madison upside down in 2018 vs. back in slavery," Wilson told the Chicago Sun-Times.

"If a black man would have closed 50 white schools in a white community, you would have hung me up. You would have nailed me to the cross. It would have been like Abraham Lincoln days if a black man had done that ... It was a racist move on the mayor's part."

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