6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS MLK DAY Civil rights struggles never end: When Dr. King accepted Albert Raby's invitation to join the Chicago Freedom Movement Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was closely involved in many noteworthy civil rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s. Among the significant contributions were the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 to 1956; The “I Have a Dream Rally” of August 28, 1963; The Civil Rights Act of 1964; the March From Selma to Montgomery of March 1965; and obviously, the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. After the two successful national civil rights policy achievements of 1964 and 1965, Dr. King and the Southern Christian Leadership Council turned their attention to the struggles of school segregation, housing discrimination and employment discrimination which were pervasive in northern cities of the country. Chicago had long suffered from the indignity of racism and discrimination which got worse during and after the Great Black Migration. It is notable that a large white migration from the South to the North followed the Black migration. There was tension in south and west Chicago. In June 1965, the primary Chicago civil rights organization known as Coordinating Coalition of Community Organizations (CCCO), led by Albert Raby, peacefully demonstrated against housing discrimination and school segregation in Chicago’s South Side. Members of CCCO were beaten up, arrested and mistreated. Mr. Raby wanted a major civil rights intervention. CCCO invited Dr. King to come to Chicago and help the community solve their entrenched problems in these areas. In fact, Dr. King was invited to Chicago to help the people “make real the promises of American Democracy.” In July 1965, Dr. King and other representatives of SCLC went to Chicago to investigate the issues and see if their organization could help. They spent about three days of community mobilization in Chicago and debriefed about their findings. It was reported by some Chicago news outlets that Dr. King worked closely with Albert Raby from 1965 to 1967. King and members of SCLC returned to Chicago in January 1966 for a civil rights demonstration. One “Ebony Magazine” reporter asked King why he had chosen to come to Chicago. His answer was that he came to the city “mainly because of Al Raby. I had been watching for some time and I must have become enormously impressed WILL SHAKESPEARE Groundcover vendor No. 258 JANUARY 23, 2026 with his work and the sincerity of his commitment.” Chicago Freedom Movement Dr. King and his SCLC associates moved into Chicago on January 7, 1966. On January 26 of that year, King and his wife, Mrs. Corretta Scott King, rented an apartment in a West Side Chicago building which had substandard conditions. It was described by the residents as a slum building. After King settled down in Chicago, he and Albert Raby were named co-chairs of a new organization known as “The Chicago Freedom Movement.” According to Stanford University’s King Research and Education Institute, the Chicago Freedom Movement was a coalition of CCCO, SCLC and other Chicago civil rights organizations. For the whole year, 1966, “King and Raby collaborated on countless demonstrations, community gatherings and meetings with city officials while attempting to end racist education, housing and employment practices.” Some historians have noted that Raby was with King in the demonstration at Chicago’s Lawn and Gage Park when violent counter-demonstrators who were described by neighborhood residents as “segregationists” threw rocks at the peaceful civil rights marchers. Some of the rocks hit Dr. King’s face, causing blood to drip from his forehead. Online journal casamariatucson.org reported that after Dr. King was hit by a rock and knocked to the ground during a demonstration in Marquette Park on the Southwest side, he said, “I have never seen, even in Mississippi and Alabama, mobs as hateful as I’ve seen here in Chicago.” After about one year of demonstrations and perseverance, the Chicago Freedom Movement coalition had some of their key demands met by Left: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. civil rights leader and co-chair of the Chicago Freedom Movement. He is pictured above delivering his speech at Solider Field. Right: Co-founder of Chicago's Coordinating Coalition for Community Organizations and co-chair of the Chicago Freedom Movement, Albert Raby. Mayor Richard Daley Sr. and the real estate businessmen. The summit between movement leaders and the city leaders led to the Chicago Housing Authority building public housing in white middle-class neighborhoods. The Mortgage Bankers Association agreed to end the unfair lending practices and stop the scourge of redlining and disinvestment patterns in Black neighborhoods. The Chicago Freedom Movement led to additional civil rights legislation after Dr. King’s assassination — the Non-Discriminatory Fair Housing Act of 1968. Less than a decade later, Congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 making it easier for neglected poor neighborhoods in Chicago and across the nation which had suffered redlining and disinvestment to have access to home improvement loans and affordable mortgages. Today, houses with slum conditions are fewer in Chicago, and South Shore Bank is a major local community lender. Lessons, legacy and consequences Journalist Tanya Nunez wrote in casamariatuscon.org of January 12, 2022, that a key lesson from Dr. King’s civil rights movement, including the Chicago Freedom Movement, is that a lot of the issues of the 1960s exist today. Those issues include “poor housing conditions, slumlords, unfair lending practices and lack of affordable housing.” However, substantial progress was made in the city of Chicago. Stanford University’s King Research and Education Institute reported that the August 1966 summit agreement between the Chicago Freedom Movement and Mayor Daley, along with the real estate businessmen, led to several concessions in the area of housing. However, “the agreement fell short of achieving city-wide desegregation.” Dr. King and Raby continued to work collaboratively until 1967, when SCLC “shifted their priorities away from Chicago, leaving behind its Operation Breadbasket program under the leadership of Jesse Jackson.” Today, there is a large modern apartment building complex known as “Dr. King’s Legacy Building.” It is located on Chicago’s South Side, not too far away is the location of Barack Obama’s Presidential Center and Library. It is noteworthy that before Barack Obama attended Harvard Law School in 1988, he came to South Side Chicago in order to learn about grassroots community organizing and mobilization. He was also inspired by former Democratic Presidential Candidate Rev. Jesse Jackson’s concept of a “Rainbow Coalition” and the above-mentioned Al Raby’s Coordinating Coalition for Community Organizations. The Chicago Freedom Movement created a strong political coalition which helped Harold Washington from Chicago’s see MLK next page
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