Monday, July 10, 2017

51 Years Ago, This Very Afternoon -- Chicago Freedom Movement And MLK, Jr. -- At Soldier Field...


It is with some truly-profound pride, and yet, all due humility, that each year I mark July 10.

This year, it happens that events above Jupiter dominate my morning's thoughts, but by afternoon and evening -- I will be pondering this. From WikiPedia, with my now departed father in law, in the upper far left, as he was hosting Dr. King that day (as President -- of the local NAACP). . . smile.

. . . .About 35,000 persons jammed Chicago's Soldier Field for Dr. King's first giant 'freedom rally' since bringing his civil rights organizing tactics to the city. . . ." Other guests included Mahalia Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and Peter, Paul and Mary. By late July the Chicago Freedom Movement was staging regular rallies outside of Real Estate offices and marches into all-white neighborhoods on the city's southwest and northwest sides.

The hostile and sometimes violent response of local whites, and the determination of civil rights activists to continue to crusade for an open housing law, alarmed City Hall and attracted the attention of the national press. During one demonstration King said that even in Alabama and Mississippi he had not encountered mobs as hostile to Blacks' civil rights as those in Chicago. . . .


Now you know. Beaming with pride, and. . . later tonight -- well done, Doc. . . . Well-done.

नमस्ते

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