Reimagining Home: MLK In Chicago, 50 Years Later

Reimagining the idea of "home" as a safe, healthy and thriving space for all of our communities must be at the center of our spiritual, political and social calls to action.
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

2016-08-05-1470409517-2388363-mlk.jpg
Caption/credit: Jesse Jackson and Albert Raby at Chicago Freedom Movement rally (left). Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addressing a crowd (center). Mob and police during Chicago Freedom Movement march in Marquette Park in 1966 (right). Courtesy of Bernard Kleina

Tired? Go home!

It was among other offensive signs being held that August 1966 day in Marquette Park on Chicago's Southwest Side. Over 5,000 people -- grandmothers, young children and teenagers --gathered together by their rage against the presence of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and close to 700 other peaceful counter-protesters walking through "their" neighborhood.

(Picture taken by civil rights activist and photographer Bernard Kleina in Marquette Park on August 5, 1966)

Yes, indeed many of the marchers were tired. In fact, as Fannie Lou Hammer famously said, they were "sick and tired of being sick and tired." They were tired of the bigotry, racism and hatred that unscrupulous realtors and others were manipulating to induce fear and violence against blacks if they dared try and purchase property anywhere near "their homes."

This was Chicago in 1966. Around the country and world, the global movement for human dignity was ever present. Julian Bond was denied a seat in the Georgia House of Representatives and there was strong backlash to African Americans in urban and rural communities, seeking access to the ballot box. The state of Mississippi, the ancestral home of over 50 percent of Chicago Bronzeville natives, witnessed the bombing and eventual assassination of activists Vernon Dahmer in the city of Hattiesburg, MS. Cleveland, OH erupted in urban disturbance and riots as a result of repressive police and political practices pushed by the openly xenophobic Mayor Richard Locher. On the West coast, the Black Panther party was being formed by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton -- a direct response to the lack of police protection in black communities.

Internationally in Lagos, Nigeria, African activists and heads of state gathered to condemn the racist regime of Rhodesia and South Africa.

Chicago in 1966 was joining the global zeitgeist mural of freedom and dignity.

And so they marched. They fearlessly marched into the heart of hatred -- dodging rocks, bottles and nasty insults from the mouths of angry Marquette Park residents.

The marchers were organizers and everyday folks from around Chicago and the larger region. They were people who understood that the lingering evils of racism and violent segregation knew no boundaries and had to be confronted if we were ever going to live in an America we all could call home.

Fifty years later the project of radically reimagining "home" is ever so urgent. It's urgent because the political rhetoric of this last year has reminded us how alive and well the message of "Go Home" in America still is. It's urgent because "home" for so many of our communities in urban centers across America continues to be a woefully segregated and bifurcated tale of two cities -- two very different and profoundly uneven realities.

Reimagining the idea of "home" as a safe, healthy and thriving space for all of our communities must be at the center of our spiritual, political and social calls to action.

It's why over forty institutions, grassroot organizations, churches, mosques and synagogues from across the Chicagoland area have worked around the clock for two years to build the first memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Chicago Freedom Movement in "Chi-Town." It's why we selected to celebrate and honor the struggle and sacrifice of those marchers in the summer of 1966 and of those who have followed in their footsteps and spirit in the years and decades that followed. We do all of this fully aware that the journey to justice continues on so many levels. In the words of Dr. King, we must have a "real action plan" to rip down the triple walls of "poverty, racism and human misery" within which disproportionately large numbers of black and brown youth are being killed by one another and the police.

While in Chicago fifty years ago Dr. King reminded the city and country that in spite of all our pain and righteous anger our path forward is together as one people, "we are all tied in a single garment of destiny. We need each other." Our prayer is that the project of memorializing Dr. King and the Chicago Freedom Movement in Marquette Park will inspire us to prioritize and pursue policies and projects that can make the notion of "home" more equitable, just and peaceful for all who reside here.

Rami Nashashibi, Executive Director
Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) - Chicago
http://www.imancentral.org/arts-culture/takin-it-to-streets/

Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III
Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ - Chicago
https://trinitychicago.org/

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot