CHICAGO—Southsiders For Peace will join thousands of marchers that will march Saturday, Aug. 1, in the steps of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Chicago Freedom Movement of 1966. Dozens of organizations have come together to sponsor the march.
Next week marks the 60th anniversary of King's visit to Chicago, where he led hundreds of Black Chicagoans on a march to Marquette Park on Aug. 5, 1966, to protest housing segregation on Chicago's Southwest Side. At that time, real estate agents refused to sell homes in white neighborhoods to African American families.
As the marchers approached Marquette Park, they were greeted on both sides of the street by a name-calling, rock-throwing crowd. King was hit in the head by a rock, prompting the civil rights leader to say he never encountered mobs as hostile and hate-filled as he experienced in Chicago.
The Chicago Freedom Movement and march in Marquette Park became a pivotal moment in the nation's struggle for racial and social justice.
This national gathering, titled "The Fierce Urgency of Now," is a coordinated call to action that connects the unfinished work of 1966 to the defining moral challenge that connects the unfinished work of 1966 to the defining moral challenges of this moment, organizers say.
The event will begin with a gathering and mass march along the historic route of the 1966 Freedom Movement, starting at 63rd and Kedzie and culminating in Marquette Park. The gathering will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday. A rally will begin at 9:30 a.m. and the march will proceed at 11 a.m. The march is about a half mile long. If you can't or don't want to march, come for the rally.
The gathering anchors a broader campaign advancing the protection of free and fair elections, an end to ICE detention and criminalization of immigrants, and a moral movement rooted in dignity, justice, and shared humanity.
Participants in Saturday's 60th anniversary of the Chicago Freedom Movement march are asked to register at "The National March Into Marquette Park."
Following is a list of participating organizations:
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