“I have seen many demonstrations in the South but I have never seen anything so hostile and so hateful as I’ve seen here today.” That’s what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said about Chicago. Today, we stand at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Living Memorial Sculpture in Marquette Park. It commemorates King’s challenging time in Chicago.
Dr. King’s connection to Chicago deepened in the summer of 1965. He responded to requests from local civil rights advocates. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference joined the fight. Their goal was to combat segregated public schools. Benjamin Willis was the school superintendent at the time. By fall, the SCLC allied with the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations. Together, they launched the Chicago Freedom Movement. This movement aimed to eradicate slums.
In January 1966, Dr. King captured national attention. He moved his family into a West Side ghetto apartment. This act highlighted the issues. Under pressure to achieve results, King focused on Chicago’s movement in June. During the summer of 1966, he participated in two marches. These marches went into all-white neighborhoods. This was part of an open-housing campaign. These fair-housing protests brought leaders together. Real estate, political, business, and religious figures met for negotiations. These were called “summit” negotiations.
An agreement was announced in late August. King and Mayor Richard J. Daley stated the marches would stop. City leaders promised to promote fair housing. King hoped the “summit” accord would make Chicago an open city. Black militants criticized the settlement. They felt the Daley administration never fulfilled its promises.
The Chicago Campaign officially began on January 7, 1966. King and the SCLC announced their plans. This campaign expanded their civil rights activities. It moved from the South to northern cities. King believed the SCLC’s nonviolent philosophy was essential. It could eradicate a system that further colonized thousands of African Americans. This colonization occurred within a slum environment.
Groundwork for the Chicago Campaign began in the summer of 1965. Chicago civil rights groups invited King to lead a demonstration. This was against de facto segregation in education, housing, and employment. The CCCO specifically asked SCLC to join them. They wanted a major nonviolent campaign. It would focus on achieving fair housing practices. King believed turning SCLC’s attention to the North made sense.
Chicago politics made the city a good choice for a northern campaign. Mayor Richard Daley had great personal power. He could directly mandate changes to racist practices. Besides housing discrimination, SCLC launched Operation Breadbasket. Jesse Jackson led this project. It aimed to abolish racist hiring practices. These practices affected companies working in African American neighborhoods.
Demonstrations and marches gained momentum. Race riots erupted on Chicago’s West Side in July 1966. During a march through an all-white neighborhood on August 5, black demonstrators faced hostility. People threw bottles and bricks at them. King was struck by a rock.
Throughout that summer, King faced organizational challenges. He worked to mobilize Chicago’s diverse African American community. He cautioned against violence. He countered resistance from working-class whites. They feared open housing’s impact on their neighborhoods. King observed that many whites who opposed open housing would deny they were racist.
By late August, Mayor Daley wanted to end the demonstrations. After negotiations, a summit agreement was announced. The Chicago Housing Authority promised to build public housing. It would have limited height requirements. The Mortgage Bankers Association agreed to make mortgages available regardless of race. King called the agreement the most significant program ever conceived to make open housing a reality. But he recognized it was just the first step in a 1,000-mile journey.
After the summit agreement, some SCLC staff stayed to assist in housing programs and voter registration. King stayed in Chicago. In a 1967 press conference, King said public agencies had reneged on the agreement. He felt they gave credence to those who called the housing agreement a sham. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Living Memorial Sculpture stands as a reminder. It honors his efforts to fight for equality in Chicago. It also reminds us of the challenges he faced here.