HR0679 104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0679 LRB104 20769 ECR 34275 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives wish to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Marquette Park March in Chicago; and

WHEREAS, August 5, 2026 marks the 60th anniversary of the historic 1966 march through Marquette Park, a pivotal chapter in the civil rights movement and the Chicago Freedom Movement led by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Albert Raby; and

WHEREAS, Working with a coalition of civil rights organizations known as the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations (CCCO), educator and activist Albert Raby invited Dr. King to move to Chicago to help launch the Chicago Freedom Movement, a campaign to expand the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's (SCLC) civil rights activities from the South to northern cities; and

WHEREAS, Groundwork for the Chicago Freedom Movement began in the summer of 1965 when Dr. King was invited by civil rights activists to Chicago to help lead a demonstration against de facto segregation in education, housing, and employment; and

WHEREAS, In consultation with the SCLC, the CCCO decided this campaign should be geared specifically at achieving fair housing practices; and

WHEREAS, In January 1966, Dr. King moved into a third-floor apartment in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago's West Side to draw international attention to the systemic disinvestment facing Northern urban centers, including shabby and dilapidated housing; and

WHEREAS, Throughout the spring and summer of 1966, Dr. King helped the campaign gain momentum through demonstrations and marches, even as he faced the organizational challenges of mobilizing Chicago's diverse African American community; and

WHEREAS, On July 10, 1966, over 30,000 people braved a 98-degree heat wave at Soldier Field to hear Dr. King declare that the movement was "tired of being lynched spiritually and economically in the North"; and

WHEREAS, On August 5, 1966, Dr. King led hundreds of demonstrators into the Marquette Park area to protest discriminatory real estate practices and to demand the right for African Americans to rent, own, and sell property on a nondiscriminatory basis; and

WHEREAS, The marchers were met by a mob of approximately 700 counter-protesters, who shouted racist slurs and hateful slogans while attacking marchers, legal observers, and police officers with a torrent of bricks, bottles, and rocks, including one of which that struck Dr. King and knocked him to one knee; and

WHEREAS, Dr. King stated after the attack, "I have never seen, even in Mississippi and Alabama, mobs as hostile and as hate-filled as I've seen here in Chicago"; and

WHEREAS, The courage displayed by these marchers led to a summit agreement with Mayor Richard J. Daley and real estate leaders, which Dr. King called "the most significant program ever conceived to make open housing a reality", eventually paving the way for the passage and enactment of the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968; and

WHEREAS, The seeds sown in Marquette Park contributed to the eventual election of Chicago's first Black mayor, Harold Washington, whose campaign was managed by Al Raby, in 1983 and to the election of Barack Obama as the first Black president of the United States in 2008 after he was inspired to move to Chicago by Harold Washington's election; and

WHEREAS, The legacy of the Chicago Freedom Movement lives on through the Martin Luther King, Jr. Living Memorial in Marquette Park; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Marquette Park March, and we honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Albert Raby; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we reaffirm our commitment to continuing the fight for fair housing and economic justice for all Illinoisans.