Blair Holt Story 05102017

CHICAGO STREET NAMED IN HONOR OF SLAIN TEEN BLAIR HOLT By Naimah Latif For NNPA Newswire CHICAGO - Exactly ten years ago today, May 10, 2007, 16 year old Blair Holt, a student at Percy Julian High School, located at 103rd and Vincennes, boarded a bus on his way home. Another young man, Michael Pace, boarded the bus wth a gun and opened fire at a group of Julian students, a retaliation for a gang dispute. Blair, using his body as a human shield for one of his friends, was fatally shot. On this tenth anniversary of this tragedy, in an emotional ceremony, 103rd Street between Elizabeth and Vincennes was named Blair DeLane Holt Way in his honor. Blair’s parents, Ron Holt, a Chicago police commander, and Annette Nance-Holt, a battalion chief for the Chicago Fire Department, along with friends and members of the community, attended the ceremony and spoke words of tribute in memory of the heroic young man who gave his life to save his friend. Blair Holt was a popular student at Julian High School, and his death sent shock waves throughout the community. The honorary street naming is part of several events scheduled during this week known as Peace Week, the week before Mothers’s Day, in which many issues of violence and young people are being addressed. "We're gonna keep fighting to make a difference because I cannot stand to see another mother or father go through this in this city," Annette Nance-Holt said. Chicago has developed a national, even global reputation for urban violence that snuffs out the lives of young people. A succession of highly publicized deaths by gunshot earned the city the nickname “Chi-raq,” an implication that it has become a war zone similar to Iraq. Citizens who came to honor Blair Holt are hoping that this street sign at Percy Julian High School will remind students that their lives are valuable and that a peaceful future in Chicago is possible.