History & Facts

Kennedy-King College, formerly known as Woodrow Wilson Junior College, was established in the fall of 1935 at 6800 South Stewart Street as one of threep colleges in the Junior College System of the City of Chicago operated by the Chicago Board of Education.

On July 1, 1966, the Board of Trustees of Community College District No. 508, County of Cook and State of Illinois, became operative under the 1966 Illinois Public Community College Act. This law transferred control from the Chicago Board of Education to the Illinois State System of Community College Districts. The Board of Trustees, City Colleges of Chicago, serves as the policy-making body for Kennedy-King College and the other colleges that form the City Colleges of Chicago system.

In July 1969, the name of the college was officially changed from Woodrow Wilson Junior College to Kennedy-King College in honor of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Since then Dawson Technical Institute and Washburne Culinary Arts Program have become units of Kennedy-King College