{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Infobox film | name = Cicero March | image = CiceroMarch RobertLucas.png | alt = | caption = Still from ''Cicero March'' featuring Robert Lucas (center). | native_name = <!--(for non-English films: film's name in its native language)--> | director = <!-- or: |directors = --> | producer = <!-- or: |producers = --> | writer = <!-- or: |writers = --> | screenplay = | story = | based_on = <!-- {{based on|title of the original work|writer of the original work}} --> | starring = | narrator = <!-- or: |narrators = --> | music = | cinematography = | editing = | studio = The Film Group | distributor = <!-- or: |distributors = --> | released = {{film date|1966}} | runtime = | country = United States | language = | budget = | gross = <!--(please use condensed and rounded values, e.g. "£11.6 million" not "£11,586,221")--> }} '''''Cicero March''''' is a 1966 short documentary film made by the Chicago-based production company, The Film Group. The film details a civil rights march held on September 4, 1966, in Cicero, Illinois.
The film documents Robert Lucas and fellow members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) as they lead activists through Cicero to protest the city of Chicago's restrictions in housing laws. White residents of Cicero respond with vitriolic jeers as the police struggle to prevent a riot.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagofilmarchives.org/news/cicero-march-is-selected-for-national-film-registry|title = CICERO MARCH IS SELECTED FOR NATIONAL FILM REGISTRY – Chicago Film Archives| date=18 December 2013 }}</ref>
''Cicero March'' was filmed after Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel, and other Southern Christian Leadership Conference members had come to Chicago to participate in the Chicago Freedom Movement and organize a movement calling for fair housing in Chicago. Chicago city officials, including Mayor Richard J. Daley, negotiated a Fair Housing agreement with Dr. King, Bevel, and others in August, and King and Bevel agreed to end demonstrations.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/chi-chicagodays-martinlutherking-story-story.html|title=Martin Luther King Jr. In Chicago|website=Chicago Tribune }}</ref> Nevertheless, Robert Lucas and other members of CORE felt that the march was strategically necessary and proceeded with it anyway.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagofilmarchives.org/news/cicero-march-is-selected-for-national-film-registry|title = CICERO MARCH IS SELECTED FOR NATIONAL FILM REGISTRY – Chicago Film Archives| date=18 December 2013 }}</ref>
''Cicero March'' is one of a seven part module or educational film series ("The Urban Crisis and the New Militants") produced by The Film Group that, "teach by raising questions rather than by attempting to answer them." The modules tell their story through editing rather than voice-over narration and show "real events, with real people acting spontaneously," as the Film Group explained to NewenhouseNovo, a now defunct educational film distributor.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagofilmarchives.org/news/cicero-march-an-educational-film|title=CICERO MARCH...an educational film – Chicago Film Archives|date=19 December 2013 }}</ref>
The 16mm film prints and elements for ''Cicero March'' reside at Chicago Film Archives within the [https://www.chicagofilmarchives.org/collections/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/689 Film Group Collection]. In 2013 ''Cicero March'' was added to the National Film Registry.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-13-216/2013-national-film-registry/2013-12-18/|title=Cinema with the Right Stuff Marks 2013 National Film Registry|website=Library of Congress|access-date=2020-04-24}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Complete National Film Registry Listing |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/|website=Library of Congress|access-date=2020-06-01}}</ref>
==See also== * Civil rights movement in popular culture * List of American films of 1966
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links == *''Cicero March'' essay by Nancy Watrous on the National Film Registry website. [https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/cicero%20march.pdf] *{{IMDb title|3411590|Cicero March}} *[https://www.chicagofilmarchives.org/collections/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/2873 Streaming Version of ''Cicero March'']
{{Cicero, Illinois}}
Category:Documentary films about the civil rights movement Category:American short documentary films Category:1966 short documentary films Category:1966 films Category:United States National Film Registry films Category:Cicero, Illinois Category:Documentary films about Illinois Category:1966 American films Category:Congress of Racial Equality
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